# Forum Home Renovation General Odds & Sods  Have You Hired One Of These Carpet Cleaners?

## Metal Head

Hi, 
At our local Bunnings store, they have a couple of carpet cleaners for hire. One is a Britex and the other is a Rug Doctor, has anyone here used either of these machines and if so did they clean the carpet ok? 
Did you find that the cleaning agent you used helped? 
Thanking those in advance of your reply. 
Cheers
MH

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## paddyjoy

I have used the britex one a couple of times, they have them at my local woolies. I was only doing a couple of rugs, seemed to work fine but not sure how it would go if you were doing a full house. 
Only advice I have is make sure you get the antifoam stuff, the first time I didn't bother getting this (I assumed it was a take) and foam leaked out of the machine and went everywhere lol

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## Uncle Bob

Yeah, they work OK. I prefer the one that has a wand, not the all in one unit as it's a bit more manoeuvrable. +1 to the anti-foam and carpet detergent.   
Even better paying someone with a proper deep steam setup (not the dry types, IMO they're crap).

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## Renopa

Carpets in this house were left in a disgraceful state by a previous tenant and due to packing/moving/etc decided to get someone in to clean them......BIG waste of money as he did a terrible job.  Even though the carpets weren't cleaned anywhere near 'clean' at least we felt more comfortable walking around in bare feet or socks and not suffering needle-stick injuries.   
Post reno and we checked out hire machines but were told that sometimes they haven't been cleaned correctly by the previous hirer and you have to spend the first hour or two, cleaning the machine before you can start cleaning your own carpets.  Not sure if this is true, but sounds feasible.   
Looked into buying a machine and found Bissell was having an ex-demo sale, the machine arrived in 1.5 days and has been an absolute lifesaver as it looked like the carpet would need replacing....now it's staying on the floor because after 9 cleans over 7 days, it looks like new.  
Have a look here Deep Cleaners for the current specials.  Special deals appear to change quite often and also includes weekend hire machines which might suit you as they are in Melbourne.   
NO affiliation with Bissell, just remembered their name and googled to find their website, but sooooo pleased to have a machine that can be used at any time and not have to rush and do the carpets within the allotted time.   
Hope this helps?  ;-)

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## Marc

I have used Britex and Rug Doctor several times and find that both do a decent job providing you use very hot water. Antifoam is good to use but I have run out of it a few times and all you do is empty the bucket more often. 
There is no substitute for a commercial "steam" carpet cleaner though and one operator doing a lousy job once does not mean much, only that that person is a dunce. 
As far as dry carpet cleaning, again, that depends on the operator like everything else. Dry carpet cleaning can be done properly providing you keep a large stock of rugs and keep on changing them. I have seen some using the same rug for the whole house. No comments.
As far as Bissell, I believe they are machine designed for tourists, but if it works for you, that's all it counts. I have one collecting dust somewhere ... used once.

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## Smurf

I've used the Britex machines in the past and done two houses in a weekend.  
As a general comment, the machine is less powerful than a van-mounted (petrol / diesel driven) professional unit but this can be offset in that a business necessarily works to a time in order to make a profit. If you're prepared to put some time in, that is move the wand over the carpet _slowly_ then the Britex can certainly do a good job. 
Anti-foam - yes, you need this and it's no gimmick. 
Water - use hot water straight from the tap. I found using a 10 litre watering can was the easiest way - fill the can then pour it into the machine. 
Detergent - my experience was that using less than recommended produced good results and avoided leaving much residue (which attracts dirt). 
The real key though is time. The more of the water you can extract from the carpet, the better. And that means doing it slowly not in a rush.

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