On Aug 27, 1:38*pm, nestork wrote:[color=blue][i]
notbob;2917452 Wrote:

On 2012-08-25, geo pearl wrote: * I
can purchase a $200 Hoover carpet cleaning
machine good enough to remove bloody dog stool stains.

People thinking of buying one of those mini-shampoo'ers should consider
buying a small wet/dry "Shop-Vac" style vaccuum cleaner instead. *That's
because:

a) the carpet cleaning chemicals that the manufacturer recommends be
used in it's mini-shampoo'er is a general purpose detergent like Mr.
Clean or Fantastik, it just costs more. *I've been cleaning carpets in
my own building for near about 20 years now, and I find that Mr. Clean
works as well as any of the carpet soaps that professionals in my area
use, and I've used most of them at one time or another.

b) anyone can buy the stain removers that professional carpet cleaning
contractors use at many of the places listed under "Janitorial Equipment
& Supplies in your yellow pages phone directory, and those are meant for
specific types of stains, like coffee, ink, vomit, blood, etc. and will
invariably work better than a general purpose detergent will.

c) to remove stains from carpets, you need to put the correct kind of
stain remover on the affected area, agitate to mix the stain remover
into the stained area of the carpet, and then suck the soiled stain
remover out of the carpet. *You can pull the soiled stain remover out of
the carpet more effectively with a wet/dry vaccuum cleaner than you can
with a mini-carpet shampoo-er. *That's because wet/dry vaccuum cleaners
and rental carpet shampoo'ers will typically have a TWO stage vaccuum
motor, whereas vaccuum cleaners and mini-shampoo'ers will typically only
have a single stage vaccuum motor. *(And, my carpet shampoo'er has two
three stage vaccuum motors piped in parallel.)

So, by buying a $60 wet/dry vaccuum cleaner from Sears or Home Depot, a
$1 spray bottle at the Dollarama, and getting to know the nice man at
your local janitorial supply store, you can do as good or better a job
removing stains from a carpet than you can with a $300 mini-shampoo'er.

You can't clean a whole carpet that way, but you can certainly remove
stains.

PS: *Don't let anyone tell you that a carpet shampoo'er gets a carpet
cleaner than a vaccuum cleaner. *They are two tools meant for different
uses. *Vaccuum cleaners are best at removing solid dirt from a carpet,
like sand, spilled powders and the like. *Carpet shampooers are best at
removing wet and dried liquids from carpets. *You should always vaccuum
your carpet before shampoo'ing it. *That's because as soon as you get
the carpet wet, the surface tension of water will hold all the solid
dirt in the carpet pile so that it's much harder to remove. *Next time
you're at the beach, try cleaning sand off wet feet and dry feet and see
which one is easier. *You get the best results by using the vaccuum
cleaner to remove solid soils first, and then using the shampoo'er to
remove wet or dried up liquids.

--
nestork

So when I'm all dusty from working in the yard or doing some woodwork,
I should vacuum myself off before taking a shower? ;-)