We found the pre-treatment wand useful too, as it allowed us to target deep stains, while the 4.6-metre hose meant cleaning the stairs was a breeze. A hard floor cleaning tool is also included, which fits easily onto the base of the carpet cleaner and left our hard floor clean and dry. The upholstery attachment also made light work of cleaning sofas and car interiors.

Best Buy On Carpet Cleaners

One of the most compact designs on test, the Bissell Hydrowave is a great choice for heavily carpeted homes. We tested it using both its Express Clean and Deep Clean settings. The former fully removed mud and tea stains in two sweeps and the majority of our wine stain, while the later fully removed all stains in one sweep.

Leaving our carpet pile well restored and with zero matting this is another Vax that impressed on test. Although we noted a little moisture left in the carpet immediately after use, once dry the colour was unaffected and there were no water marks to be seen.

The affordable cleaner was notably user-friendly, thanks to easily accessible controls and thorough instructions, and its crevice tool would make it a great choice for tackling car interiors. Cleaning up mud required some scrubbing, but the results were worth the elbow grease; this machine left our carpets pristine and stain-free.

We saw brilliant results on carpet with around 80% of stains removed after a few sweeps. Deeper stains needed slightly more work but the carpet was left damp rather than wet, while the machine also lifted the carpet pile, making it look as good as new.

Standing out for its excellent water pickup, this lightweight cleaner left all surfaces fairly dry after use. It was good at cleaning carpet, with limited dirt remaining, and did an outstanding job on upholstery too.

Doubling up as a dry vacuum, this is a great multi-purpose machine. Its robust design (with a substantial dirty water tank) proved reliable on hard flooring, with only small areas of trodden-in mud remaining after carpet cleaning. Carpets weren't left too damp either.

Hannah is our senior homes writer, specialising in reviewing the latest kitchen appliances, cleaning products, mattresses and bedding, and crafting equipment. Hannah has written about hundreds of products, from air fryers to smoothie makers to pillows, and is committed to finding the most reliable and best value for money buys.

Our top pick for a carpet cleaner is the Bissell Jetscrub 25299 Upright Pet Carpet Cleaner. It's easy to use, and it comes with clever features, such as a collapsible handle and floor head LED light. It's also compact and incredibly effective at removing stains and spills from carpets or rugs, as seen in our testing. One budget-friendly option is the Hoover PowerDash Pet Compact Carpet Cleaner. It's lightweight, easy to maneuver, and effective at removing stains and pet hair.

A carpet cleaner dispenses a liquid cleaning solution, and then a brush or agitator tool gently scrubs carpet fibers to extract as much dirt as possible. Once this process is complete, the machine is tasked with suctioning up the loosened dirt, grime, and moisture into an onboard reservoir.

Many people maintain the appearance and cleanliness of their carpets and rugs by using a carpet cleaner on a regular basis. While carpet manufacturers often recommend professional carpet cleaning on an annual basis, having a home carpet-cleaning machine means that you can take advantage of a deeper clean more often.

Some people use a carpet cleaner on a monthly or even weekly basis, but your specific needs will vary based on the type of carpet you have in your home, the volume of foot traffic, and whether you have children, pets, or habits that contribute to more rapid dirt buildup.

Stains from dirt, mud, food and drink, grease, oil, and bodily fluids can often be greatly reduced or even eliminated with the help of a carpet cleaner. Some stains may disappear with a single treatment, while others may require repeated cleaning sessions. To take stain-fighting power up a notch, you might consider using a specialty carpet-cleaning solution, like one formulated for pet stains.

The short answer is sometimes. Whether a carpet-cleaning machine will remove pet stains and odors largely depends on whether the padding underneath the carpet has been contaminated. If urine has saturated the carpet padding, cleaning the fibers on top is unlikely to remove the odor completely. However, if you use a carpet cleaner in combination with an enzymatic cleaner, you are more likely to be successful in neutralizing the odor.

One important thing to note is that you should not use hot water to deep clean carpets with pet odors. The heat can bond the proteins in urine to carpet fibers, resulting in a hard-to-remove stain and lingering odor.

Carpets in your home should be deep cleaned about once every 12 to 18 months. Carpet cleaners, like our recommendations, use hot water extraction to clean, spraying the carpet with hot water and then sucking it back into the machine with any captured dirt. Professional steam cleaning uses higher temperatures to more directly inject hot water into your carpet, and it will typically perform better than home carpet cleaners. While cleaning your own carpets is entirely viable, you might still want a professional service occasionally. Where a carpet cleaner really shines is in tackling high-traffic areas, spot cleaning, and specific stains.

A carpet shampooer uses soap and agitation, while a carpet cleaner uses hot water and suction. A shampooer uses a rotating brush to press soap into your carpet fibers. That's great for specific stain fighting, but it often won't get as deep in the carpet fibers as a professional steam cleaner or comparable carpet cleaner. In practice, many of the carpet cleaners we recommend are almost hybrids, incorporating carpet-cleaning solutions to treat or pretreat carpets in addition to the hot water extraction.

Unless your carpets are subjected to marathon-levels of foot traffic, you likely don't need to buy an upright carpet cleaner. Aside from spot-cleaning major stains, one wash per year is plenty for most people, so it makes more sense to rent a machine or hire a pro. But if you want fresh-looking rugs at all times, get the Bissell DeepClean Lift-Off 66E1. We tested eight models, and this was the only one that completely cleaned up our mess.

An upright carpet cleaner can keep your rugs and carpets looking pretty fresh. Most people are happy to clean their rugs just once a year, in which case it probably makes more sense to rent a Rug Doctor from the supermarket or to call a professional cleaning service. But if you want to keep your rugs looking tip-top all year long, you could buy a carpet cleaner of your own.

Renting one could make sense instead. While it usually costs about $250 to buy our favorite upright carpet cleaner, you can rent one (typically a Rug Doctor model) from Home Depot, Walmart, or even your local supermarket for around $40 per day. The downside is that a rental cleaner is bigger and heavier than most uprights, and getting it into a small car could be a minor challenge.

Or you could hire a professional. They can get your carpets much cleaner than any store-bought (or -rented) machine can, and in hiring one you sidestep any risk of accidentally ruining your rug. Most services charge around $80 to $130 for 200 to 400 square feet of carpet, but check out this guide from HomeAdvisor for a better breakdown of how much a professional cleaning might cost you.

Cleaning performance: The best carpet cleaners can completely remove dirt, soil, and other stains, without smearing sediment or residue, in just a handful of back-and-forth passes. They also have a strong suction that removes excess moisture, allowing the carpet to dry pretty quickly, without soap residue.

Hose-tool performance: For an upright cleaner to be really valuable, it should have an extendable hose, plus attachable tools, that can completely remove tough stains from both carpet and upholstery (including stairs, cushions, and auto interiors). Most models with hoses come with a scrubbing brush attachment. Ideally, they also have a crevice tool for reaching tight corners.

The Bissell DeepClean Lift-Off lacks a few features that make using an upright carpet cleaner a bit easier. It has no heated-dry function, which as far as we can tell is missing in all Bissell cleaners, so you should expect a major carpet clean to take four to six hours to dry. By comparison, the Hoover units with heated dry usually leave a carpet safe to walk on within a couple of hours.

To avoid having to break out your carpet cleaner too often, make sure to vacuum your carpet or furniture once a week. Dust and dirt collect with surprising frequency, and a routine vacuuming can make the difference between cleaning something yourself and having to hire a pro.

Though there are no major shopping holidays in March, there are plenty of sales to help you get ready for the coming months. Think spring cleaning and summer travel, which translate to big sales on vacuum cleaners and air purifiers along with luggage and digital cameras. March is also one of the best times to buy fine jewelry, so be sure to treat yourself!

End-of-season clearance sales coupled with back-to-school sales make August one of the best times to buy Apple products, including iMacs and AirPods, office supplies, arts and crafts materials, and summer wardrobe staples. And if your backyard is looking a bit shabby, August is also the best time to buy new patio furniture.

We'll be specifically targeting powered carpet cleaners in this article, but if you're looking for carpet cleaning products, then have a read of our guide to the best carpet shampoo. If, on the other hand, you're looking for cleaning products that are more suitable for furniture and soft furnishings, then make sure to have a read of our guide to the best upholstery cleaners.

To avoid over-wetting the carpet, never use more than four shampooing strokes on a single section and, as a precaution, be sure to test-clean a small hidden patch of carpet first just in case the detergent causes discolouration. When it's dry, slide your foot over the carpet to ensure all areas of the pile are facing in the same direction or it may look a little odd.

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