Hoover Shampooer

You may hear of different terms when you're shopping for a machine to clean your carpets, and it's a bit confusing. Mostly you'll hear of a carpet shampooer and a steam vacuum. They sound so different, but in reality, they're the same kind of machine. It's more or less that steam vacuum sounds better than carpet shampooer to a lot of people.

The interesting part is that a steam vacuum for carpets really doesn't use steam. Just like a carpet shampoo machine, it uses warm to hot water and carpet shampoo or detergent to clean the carpets. It sprays them onto the carpet, scrubs and pulls the dirty water back out.

It surprises a lot of people that not all steam vacuums even heat the water. Some require you to put warm or hot water in them, and that's all you're using. They don't heat the water any further. This is why some people take a bit of extra time to use boiling water. There's a bit of a risk of spilling it on yourself, but you get hotter water for cleaning, and it takes a bit longer for it to cool completely down. If the machine isn't heating the water, after all, eventually you'll just be using room temperature water if you don't work fast enough.

Some models allow you to switch how much detergent is added to the water as you clean. This is to help with stain fighting, as you can increase the detergent flow when cleaning especially dirty areas of the carpet.

Others don't offer this feature, or have you add the detergent directly to the clean water tank, but this doesn't mean you can't add a little something to fight the particularly dirty areas of your carpet. You can mix some of that same detergent with water in a spray bottle, and spray that part of the carpet just as you begin using your steam vacuum. This will allow you to get a little extra detergent on those stubborn areas that need extra help without paying for the feature that does it for you.

For basic cleaning, you don't necessarily even need carpet shampoo or detergent. You may be surprised by how much dirt plain hot water gets out of the carpet. The advantage to sometimes just using water is that it doesn't attract dirt later, as any soap left in the carpet after shampooing will do. This is why some people do two rounds of cleaning on their carpets, one with the detergent or shampoo, one with plain water. It gives the carpet a really good rinse.

One of the most important features your steam vacuum or carpet shampoo machine will have it its ability to extract the water from your carpet. If it does a poor job of this, your carpets will remain wet longer, and this means you can't use the room for longer as the carpet dries. If the carpet is left too wet, you may even risk the growth of mold or mildew in your carpet, or damage to the flooring beneath.

A good shampooing is a major part of keeping your carpets looking their best as long as possible. Vacuuming alone won't do it. Use your steam vacuum about once or twice a year and your carpets will look their best.