Putting Rug Doctor to the test

Putting Rug Doctor to the test

Putting Rug Doctor to the test

I’ve heard of Rug Doctor, and I’ve heard good things about them, but hiring a carpet cleaner sounded like a bit of a faff and I’ve never bothered.  I’ve recently learned that this was a big mistake!  I’d been invited to a demonstration event with Rug Doctor recently, but I wasn’t able to go – you can read all about Mummy Endeavours trip here though. When Rug Doctor heard how old my carpets were, they kindly agreed to send me a cleaner so try out.  So I’ve been putting Rug Doctor to the test.

Putting Rug Doctor to the testI received a Rug Doctor cleaner and a 1 litre bottle of carpet detergent suitable for cleaning two rooms.  Unfortunately the cleaner we received didn’t come with any attachments, so we’ve not been putting Rug Doctor to the test on our stairs and in the nooks and crannies.

The detergent is pet safe, always a worry with having our cat Brewster about.

Super Concentrated Carpet Detergent cleans, deodorises, rejuvenates and protects.  Contains SpotBlok stain repellent to protect your carpet against future stains and spills.

Time to put those claims to the test!  Our carpets are embarrassingly old.  Daddy P has owned the house from new, and has not changed much over the years.  The plan was to move when we got together, Monkey came along much quicker than expected, I gave up work – we are still here!  So having old aged carpets that have seen three cats since I arrived and a Monkey, there have been all sorts of spills over the years.  If ever some carpets were in need of some TLC, our carpets were.

My machine didn’t come with an instruction leaflet, I don’t know whether they do when you hire them out?  There are some instructions on the top and handle of the machine and I had a quick look on the Rug Doctor website for full instructions.

Then I was ready to go – putting Rug Doctor to the test.

The first thing I have to say is that the Rug Doctor machine is quite heavy but once I’d got the hang of the cleaner I was away. The photos I’ve taken really don’t do the results justice.  The difference in the carpets throughout the house is immense in our opinion. A very sceptical Daddy P watched on as I was putting Rug Doctor to the test, and even he was impressed with the results.  You could see the difference immediately.  The colour of the water was terrifying actually.  It was so dirty, but as I’ve already said, these carpets are old!

The biggest difference we’ve noticed is that the cleaning has raised the pile of the carpets. There are some stains that haven’t come out and I’m going to buy some Rug Doctor Spot and Stain Remover to see if that will help.  They are old stains, and the Rug Doctor really did have a tough challenge coming to this house.

I love the idea that the carpets have been deodorised; especially with having a pet in the house.

I was so impressed with the results downstairs that I really wanted to clean the whole house.  I dashed off to Homebase and bought another bottle of Carpet Detergent for £11.99.  I did notice that they also sold a larger bottle which would be suitable for 4 rooms.  We live in a very small 3 bedroomed house, and I found 2 x 1 litre bottles did the job here.  Again, I struggled a bit to get the unit and down the stairs, I’m a bit a weakling!

I had a chat with the lady in Homebase, you can hire the Rug Doctor for 24 or 48 hours (depends on how organised you are with clearing the clutter!) for under £30.00 for the machine and then you buy the cleaning fluid on top.  They do include the tools to clean the stairs etc, but they wouldn’t hire those out separately to me.  So my stairs are letting the side down at the moment.

The Rug Doctor units can be hired from a number of other retailers including Tesco and B&Q.  If you have the money you can even buy a unit outright for £499.00.  I don’t have that sort of money, but I’ll definitely be hiring a Rug Doctor cleaner again; whether it’s for these sad old carpets or new ones, when we finally got to upgrade.

disclaimer:  we were sent this unit in exchange for an honest review

 

8 thoughts on “Putting Rug Doctor to the test

  1. We used a Rug Doctor to clean our next door when the last lodgers moved out. We didn’t have it for long enough to do our house as well but ours really needs a good going over too…really I think we just need new carpets (and sofas), but we’re waiting until N’s a bit older.
    The weight (and having to clean beforehand) is what puts me off hiring it again. Although if I ordered it at the right time, the OH would be on hand and would want to do it!

  2. That look good. I really need to get my carpet sort out. We have the renter at TESCO. Need to pop by soon.

  3. We really need to use this. Our carpets are a mess! Dog hair everywhere and stains from before we moved in. Thanks for a great review. I wondered what they were like.

  4. We used a rug doctor in the past and loved it although it did require quite a lot of muscle! x

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