What is he difference between hiring a carpet cleaner and getting in a professional to do the job? Professional v carpet cleaner hire lets look at some of the facts.
The carpet cleaning hire v professional carpet cleaning debate has gone on for years. Walking into your local dry cleaners or supermarket basic carpet cleaning machines are up for hire.
Detergents and spotters are available for you to purchase that you use in the machine. Often there will be a picture of a smiling person using the advertised cleaning machine.
It seems so easy. So what are the pitfalls when hiring a carpet & upholstery cleaning machine?
Efficiency
A compact machine designed for domestic use will have a small solution tank (around 10 litres) This is filled with water and then detergent is added.
Domestic spotters are sprayed onto heavily used / stained areas. The machine is then turned on, water is sprayed into the carpet fibres with a small pump
(28-35 psi) there is a light roller brush system that is employed to brush in the solution.
Its an all in one motion. Dirty water is then recovered into a small recovery tank. It all sounds like an easy process.
Problems
In our professional opinion introducing detergents into your carpet of sofa fibres isn’t a great idea. When the fibres dry, sticky detergent residues left behind coat the fibres and attract more dirt and dust.
Its known as rapid re soiling in our industry. With very low psi, rinsing fibres can be difficult with a basic domestic machine.
Time factor
Cleaning your own carpet with a basic domestic machine can be extremely time consuming. We have known clients that have invested a whole weekend cleaning carpet in their house.
Several complaining that on the Monday, carpets were still wet. With any industry, there is usually a big difference between domestic & professional equipment.
Professional v carpet cleaner hire
The average cost of a carpet cleaning machine that is available for hire is between £400 & £500. This seems like a reasonable amount and people may generally think that professional v carpet cleaner hire would be falling down on the side of hire.
A high end carpet cleaning machine will cost between £3000 & £5000. There are very good reasons for this.
The image above shows a professional carpet cleaning machine (extractor) It has high CFM ( Vacuum power) this means that carpet fibres can be rinsed through at a much higher rate.
High levels of rinsing means a considerably cleaner carpet, rug or sofa. Removing far higher levels of sand, soil, skin, hair and much more from your carpet.
We will usually run our cleaning system at around 175 psi, a much higher rate than a 30 psi machine.
The rental carpet cleaning machine has a small beater bar to agitate the product / water mix into carpet fibres.
We use a professional agitation machine to do this. It is step two of our carpet cleaning process.
The machine that we use is called a TM4. Our TM 4 machines cost around £3000 incl vat.
The image above shows a ball of hair / debris removed from the carpet in one average room in a domestic property.
Rental machine drying times simply can’t compete with professional cleaning methods.. This is particularly important during the winter months.
The drier the fibre after cleaning indicates maximum soil removal.
Its so important to regularly clean items in your home, particularly with ever increasing living costs. Regular professional cleaning makes superb economic sense.
Professional v carpet cleaner hire – our conclusion
Life today for most people is busy. Saving a few pounds by hiring a carpet cleaning machine seems like an attractive proposition.
We believe that most people would rather keep their time (over a weekend for example) and pay someone qualified and experienced to do a considerably better job with professional equipment.
Its a job we have been doing for years. And we promise you that it is hard work. Even using sophisticated products and equipment.
Here’s an interesting fact, cleaning carpets regularly using detergent based products can actually shorten the life expectancy of your carpet.
Long term, looking after your carpets with professional equipment and non detergent based cleaning products can increase the life of your carpet by 7x.
Did you know that there are trade qualifications to gain in our industry?
Finding a fully qualified technician is easy – visit the National carpet cleaners association website to find out more.
Carpets, rugs and upholstered items cost a lot of money.
Anyone can go out and hire a carpet / sofa cleaning machine. Did you realise that some carpet and upholstered items will be damaged by water exposure?
