Carpet Cleaning – The Best Way to Deep Clean Your Carpets

Are your carpets really dirty? Do you question what color they used to be or use furniture to cover stains? If your carpets have seen better days, or you intend to keep your carpets as fresh as possible, we are here to share our tips on the best ways to shampoo carpet.

One of our chemists, Mike Foote, likes to use the analogy that you don’t wash your clothes just by brushing them off, you clean them with soap and water in a machine. Well, carpets need the same treatment to stay fresh and clean. While vacuuming does get rid of loose debris, like dirt, dust and hair, there are other types of dirt that vacuuming cannot reach. Deep down in the fibers of the carpet is where more dirt likes to hide. That’s why the carpet cleaner was invented. If you can’t get down deep enough into your carpet, you aren’t getting a true clean.

We get a lot of questions on the best way to clean carpet. Here is our expert recommendation for cleaning the really dirty, or even not-so-dirty, carpet in your home.

Step 1: Remove Debris with Vacuum

If you are serious about shampooing your whole carpet, you’re going to have to move furniture out of the way first, after all you may be hiding spots under there and we want to get this carpet clean! Vacuum the entire area to get any loose dirt or hair out of your way.

Step 2: Pretreat to Loosen Stains

Like how you would pre-treat laundry, you also need to pre-treat your carpet. This extra step works to start loosening up stains. Make our formula work for you! Before you get out your carpet cleaner, use a stain removing spray formula on the stains. Give it time to work its magic while you are getting the carpet cleaner ready. Look around the carpet and saturate any stains that you see. Pro tip: Lightly spraying the entire carpet with pretreat will get you a better clean than cleaning only with the machine, especially if you let it sit for a few minutes. Don’t spray too much, though. You can over-do it. If you don't remove all the soap when you clean your carpet, it will attract dirt.

Step 3: Setup Your Carpet Cleaner

After you get out your carpet cleaner, fill the clean tank to the line with hot (not boiling) tap water. Hot water does a better job cleaning than cold but, if you boil it, you run the risk of melting parts of your carpet cleaner. Add formula to the tank according to the bottle directions. It is important to use the carpet cleaner solution that is specially designed to go with your machine. It will deliver great cleaning results and prevent damage that can occur with homemade concoctions. Pro tip: If you are carrying a water tank that has a gasket on the bottom, be sure not to press it or water will leak out.

Step 4: Clean Your Carpets

Start cleaning your carpet in the opposite corner from the door so you leave yourself an escape route and avoid having to walk across wet carpet. We recommend cleaning the same area once with the trigger pressed down, and once with your hand off the trigger. This way, you are spraying the solution into the carpet and then allowing extra suction to pull it up. The brush rolls are scrubbing out the dirt and stains the entire time. Pro tip: How fast should you go? Count to two for each step you take.

Step 5: Rinse Your Carpets (Optional)

An optional step that we recommend if you have time is to go back over the cleaned carpet again with only hot tap water in the tank (no formula this time). This will remove any leftover formula and give your carpets an extra clean.

All you need to do now is let the carpet fully dry and be amazed at the difference you see. We are always here to help if you have questions about any of our cleaning tips or our products. And to see an in-depth video demonstration, click here. Stay tuned for quick and simple cleaning tips from BISSELL. Happy cleaning!