Rug Doctor Review

I have made a huge list of jobs to do once my daughter had started school and my son preschool and high up on that list was cleaning our bedroom carpet. Its the one floor covering left from the previous owners of our house and it has always looked a little worse for wear. Its a nylon carpet so as soon as I hoover the static sucks dirt out of the air making it look worse than when I started. So it was perfect timing when Rug Doctor offered me a machine to review just weeks after the kids started school.

Rug Doctor is available to hire for 24 or 48 hours from plenty of stockists (such as B&Q and the Co-op). My first piece of advice would be to get all the prep work done before hand - you don't want to be paying for a Rug Doctor to sit in the hallway whilst you hoover and move furniture. Also make sure you have a bucket that will hold 9 litres of water for mixing the carpet shampoo in - again it would be a waste of money if you had to nip to the shops before you start.

Slightly ashamed of this 'before' picture!

So, the first thing to do was move the bed, where, I was shocked* to discover, I had been running a successful dust storage facility. After piling all our furniture in my son's room and giving the room a good hoover I was able to get started.

It is a nice and easy machine to use, although I did back myself a little too far into an alcove and got a bit stuck. The machine is heavy and you need a bit of room to push the handle down to leaver the machine onto its back wheels so you can return to the other side of the room. After getting stuck I soon realised that although the temptation is to get as far across the room as possible in one go I really needed to do the room in sections working in different directions.

I really wanted to give you a 'before and after' shot of the carpet as I was working, but because the cream carpet darkened as it got wet the 'after' side actually looks worse in the pictures! Once it dried it was a great improvement. Its not worked miracles, some of the stains are still visible (I have since learnt there is a Rug Doctor stain pre-treatment, but I wasn't sent that to review), but one large stain by the doorway has all but gone and the dark patches in the high traffic area by the door (in the picture above) look almost new. Another plus is that the Rug Doctor has lifted the pile of the carpet, making it feel softer underfoot, so I am glad I did it.

It takes a while for the carpet to dry and this is a factor to consider when deciding how long to hire a machine. I only had the space to do one room at a time, so I couldn't move onto a second room before the first dried and I could put all the furniture back. I finished my bedroom at 11am and with the heating on all day in that room I was able to return the room back to normal just before my son went to bed (and a good job too as I don't know where he would have slept if I hadn't!).

Urgh!

I was astounded by how much gunk was in the sink after emptying the machine - and how much was dislodged that ended up in the hoover after the cleaning. My carpet was truly filthy!

The only real downside I could see with the use of the machine is that you have to mix 9 litres of water with the carpet shampoo, but the machine doesn't hold 9 litres. This means that filling the bucket and emptying the machine don't run in sync with each other, making the job a bit stop start. I do wish I'd been sent a hand tool for review as I would have liked to given a full review of all you can achieve - and my stairs could really do with a clean!!

All in all I'm very pleased with the results and would hire one again (only next time with stain remover and the hand tool).

*not in the slightest bit shocked, I knew it was there, I was just in denial

Disclaimer: I was sent a Rug Doctor for free for the purposes of this review. All opinions are, as always, my own.