I have seen these Rug Doctor machines for hire in a lot of places lately. Are they any good? I have never cleaned a carpet before so I have no idea what to expect or how difficult it might be. Any info or hints and tips welcomed. Ta.

I did this a couple of years ago, was very easy but took a while to dry even with the heating on in August

They work quite well.

You can avoid the rip off cleaning solution by using automatic bio washing powder and some oxy clean.

Depends on the carpet really.

If it’s only a year or so old, no bother. If it’s several years old, good luck. Our living room carpet was still producing black water on the third clean, I gave up at that point and put it on the “kill it with fire” list.

Oh, and give it at least 24h to dry with the heating on full blast (and windows cracked open!)

They do a great job. Seen quite a few carpets that look week past it come up looking like new. The fluid is a bit overpriced but there are alternatives.

They will brighten it up a bit and dig out loads of pet hair, but if it’s generally grimy due to being near an external door, or stained, I don’t think they are a miracle cure.

We did several passes with a different brand machine, ended up just replacing the carpet.

Rather than a rug doctor get one like this as its easier to use than the all in one unit that rug doctor have.

We did a living room carpet that had a massive track across it from the front door to the kitchen and a whole variety of blobs and grubby stains; I don’t know what colour the carpet was originally but when we’d finished it was even across the whole room, a vast improvement. We’ve still got quite a lot of the liquid left for next time, too…

Consider buying one. We have a Vax one bought direct in one of their online sales for just over £100 (that was 7 years ago, might be a bit more now). Having used it and a rug doctor one I think it’s just as good. We drag it around once a year to do the whole place and a couple of times a year extra to do the high traffic areas. I suspect it’s paid for itself a number of times over by now.

my mrs bought one! the only carpets in our house are on the stairs 😆

We’ve hired these before. Now have a share in a family owned Vax. The problem with all detergent based carpet cleaners is that they leave residue. The more you use them, the more sticky residue accumulates and makes your carpets get dirty again faster – vicious circle. IME, the professional type of hot water extraction machines are loads better. I “think” they can be hired, not sure where from though. Although there are loads of outfits that’ll come and do it for you for under 50 a room.

A karcher type carpet cleaner from a tool hire centre is a fair bit cheaper to hire. The rug doctor thing strikes me as a clever marketing strategy with the supermarket placement.

What Plums said.
Rinse then rinse again.

I’ve used them moving out of rental places and they are pretty good. We also used then when we moved into our house as the previous owners had cats and we were only replacing some of the carpets.

They do take a while to dry. You could probably speed up the process with some fans or a dehumidifier. You also need to move furniture to make it easy to clean which can be hard if you’ve got no spare room.

We had some building work done and our builders used a professional company. Seemed to be a much better idea although probably expensive. Parked his van outside and then ran in vey long hoses. Carpet cam up clean, they moved everything and when they left the carpet was dry. Would probably go down this route next time – especially as I could do something else with my time while they were cleaning.