Don't Risk Damage To Your Carpets With Homemade Cleaners

While I LOVE all the homemade recipes and ideas here on Thrifty Fun, this one I have to chime in on. I have been in the floor covering industry for 18 years now. In my honest opinion, there is no such thing as a homemade carpet shampoo recipe that will actually work.

Homemade solutions have too much soap in them and our home machines are not strong enough to remove that from the carpet fibers without leaving residue. Residue will cause the dirt to come back with a vengance, therefore making you clean your carpet way too much. You'll need new carpet in 2-3 years.

EVERY carpet yarn manufacturer recommends hot water extraction (steam) cleaning by a professional, with equipment strong enough to get the carpets clean and DRY.

Plus, if you ever have a problem with your carpet, the manufacturer will NOT warranty any carpet that has been improperly cleaned. Be careful!

By Concerned from Springfield, MO

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By 03/16/2013

I have been cleaning carpet for a long time 20 plus years. How do you think carpet shampoo is made? It all started somewhere and no you dont want residue but you need to use the right amount of soap. I could name some good ones but you think only a big company can make them, lol. Like I said just know how to add your chemicals and and don't try to steam too much for sure. You should scrub them not kill them with steam.

By 11/05/2011

Concerned, I commend you for taking a stand that may not be so popular here on TF. We tried and failed to clean our carpet effectively using our (rather expensive) home carpet cleaning machine. It wasn't the soap - it was the fact that, hard as we tried, we just couldn't get the "catch-basin" back into place once we emptied it. The cleaning solution went into the carpet, but we couldn't get it sucked back up into the machine.

Thank goodness for a grant from the Area Agency on Aging's Passport program! Part of the "deep-cleaning" they funded last December was a thorough (professional) carpet cleaning.

One last thing: pros have access to a dry-cleaning method that just isn't available any other way. There are places to pinch pennies until they scream. I just have to agree with you that carpet cleaning isn't one of them.

By 10/27/2011

Not to dispute you but if you have ever had a reputable carpet cleaning service clean your carpet in the South most of them leave too much moisture in the carpet when they leave and the mold forms under the carpet on the pad and you are sick before you realize what has happened. I will stick to my method of cleaning and enjoy the lack of worry about the expense and the new carpet that it would cost again.