I can go down to my local Weis (or other store/vendor) and rent a carpet
cleaner.. or I can get a professional to come in. What are people's
experisnces with using these rental units? Do they clean well enough?
I'm not looking for a 100% spick and span clean.. just want to get junk
out of the carpets fromt he previous house owner.

They are crap! Don't waste your time or money.
We use a Bissel Proheat steam cleaner and never have called in a
professional. We clean the carpets every six months, they look as good as
the day we bought our new house.
If can afford a Bissel now it will save you tons of money in the long run.
But if you are just interested in a one time cleaning than go for the
professional.

"Matt" wrote in message
...
I can go down to my local Weis (or other store/vendor) and rent a carpet
cleaner.. or I can get a professional to come in. What are people's
experisnces with using these rental units? Do they clean well enough? I'm
not looking for a 100% spick and span clean.. just want to get junk out of
the carpets fromt he previous house owner.

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 19:38:02 GMT, someone wrote:

They are crap! Don't waste your time or money.

That part I agree with. We hired a pro, and always will. In a day,
with no sweat from me, they came with major heavy duty truck mounted
equipement and did the entire house. The carpets looked great
afterwards.

We use a Bissel Proheat steam cleaner and never have called in a
professional. We clean the carpets every six months,

Wow. We've had them cleaned once in 6 years, after the dog went to
another family (that had kids and other dogs for him to play with).
We vacuum every week or two (or at least the cleaning lady does).
When the dog was here, it was more, a lot more! I hear there are
some people who vac every day. When I was a teen, a buddy's Mom was
famous for burning thru vac after vac - she was a stay home Mom whose
kids had gotten big (though not gone yet) and I guess she was kinda a
"desparate housewife" - only she reacted to it by fanatically vac'ing
all day, every day. But I'm wandering OT...

If can afford a Bissel now it will save you tons of money in the long run.
But if you are just interested in a one time cleaning than go for the
professional.

OK yeah. Buying a Bissell wouldn't save squat for me, I'd not use it
enough, probably not at all. Don't feel like devoting my "leisure"
time to carpet cleaning!

-v.

Matt wrote:
I can go down to my local Weis (or other store/vendor) and rent a carpet
cleaner.. or I can get a professional to come in. What are people's
experisnces with using these rental units? Do they clean well enough?
I'm not looking for a 100% spick and span clean.. just want to get junk
out of the carpets fromt he previous house owner.

I've steam cleaned carpets myself, had them steam cleaned, and had them dry cleaned.

IMHO, steam cleaning of any kind is a waste of time, professional or not. It
just doesn't get the fibers clean or get down to the backing.

Dry cleaning is another story, however. I was absolutely *amazed* at its
effectiveness. It not only brought up the fibers across the entire room (some
of which had been pressed flat or slightly matted), it removed a phenomenal
amount of crud. As I recall, dry cleaning a 15x25 room cost about $60 about 10
years ago. But for any well trampled carpet, I wouldn't clean it any other way.

Randy