the horror that lurks beneath

[rmd]

the last time the cats horked on the entryway carpet, i flipped a bit and decided i could not continue to live here without cleaning my carpets. so i bought a hoover upright consumer-grade carpet cleaner (it claims to be a steamvac but it doesn't do any heating). i found a place that would ship it for cheaper than sears would let me pick it up, so i ordered it. it arrived yesterday and i assembled it but didn't have enough deal to actually give it a test run.

that was this evening. i vacuumed the entryway in my apartment, then put very hot water and detergent in the "clean" fluid tank and started running it around on the carpet. then i turned it off and viewed the results.

the run is still too damp to be sure whether it's visibly cleaner or not. i suspect it will be (although it is various shades of crappy brown, so there's not a lot you can do there.)

the "used" tank, however, is now full of concentrated evil.

i'm definitely impressed.

Comments

[fich.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a lot more trouble than just moving.

[penk.livejournal.com]

Don't touch it! It's eeeevil!

Sorry, jumped right to that quote.

Steamcleaners / wetvacs like that always seem to slurp up enormous amounts of muck and mire from the netherworld, and may not necessarily have an effect on the subject. But it sure as heck can't hurt.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

nah, i have way too many books and boxes of cruft. the steamvac, on the other hand, freaks the cats, so that's a bonus.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

What does Consumer Reports say about that one?

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

Those units do a pretty damn good job, IME -- not quite as good as a full-on professional cleaning, but they get quite a lot of gunk out.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure. i asked around among some friends and looked at assorted reviews online, but i didn't have cr.

[smeehrrr.livejournal.com]

I have a suspicion that the special carpet cleaning fluid they make you put in there has no other function but to make the clean water turn brown.

[hariyos.livejournal.com]

step 1: clean your carpet
step 2: drink some twist-top-off alcoholic beverage (perhaps while cleaning carpet)
step 3: take fluid from used tank, place in empty beverage bottle
step 4: recap (very important)
step 5: bring to work, give to me for "special projects"

kthx&rgds

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i have ph33r.

[muffyjo]

Hell, I'm scared too, and I don't even work in your department! Or...maybe that's WHY I'm so scared.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think of the CrudPuppy from User Friendly taking up residence in your apartment.

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

Our place came with carpets and we've lived here almost 10 years without cleaning them other than with a vaccum (and cleaning each area by hand when the the cats have horked, and other expellings, on them). But periodically we have this discussion where I want to rent one of those cleaners or pay a service to do it and it never happens. You have inspired me to do so! Is it dry yet and does it look any different?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, previously i've just been using resolve or other spot-cleaners on cat events.

i have a paddle fan in the room (because the previous owners put paddle fans in *every room*, including the bathroom), and i turned it onto high. i also ran the cleaner over the rug a bunch of times in "suck" mode (rather than "spew liquid" mode), and it was pretty much dry to the touch within a few hours or so, which is when i tested it.

it hasn't quite changed color, but it's looking a lot less crufty. but it feels much better to the bare foot.

i expect an industrial grade cleaner would do a better job, but this is still pretty impressive. i'm thinking of doing that patch again after arisia to see if it's still full of lurking horror (the cleaner instructions suggest not doing more than 4 "spew liquid" passes over a given set of carpet and waiting till it fully dries to do again, which seems a sensible way to avoid flooding the subfloor). i'm also thinking 2D-furniture-tetris thoughts for how to clear the maximum amount of carpet in a given room with the minimum of furniture shuffling.

the consumer grade models have gotten pretty cheap. here's the pricescan entry for the one i got (http://pricescan.com/home/items/item721079.asp), which comes with attatchments to do upholstery and carpeted stairs.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

and, in fact, claudia just walked barefoot on it for the first time and declared that it felt like a whole different rug.

then we shuffled around on it for a few minutes in our bare feet saying "dude, the rug" a lot.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

and yet we aren't high or anything.

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

:-)
If we do it, we'd have to become one of those households that makes everyone take off their shoes when they walk in the door. But then they could walk on the cleaned carpet and have a similarly transcending experience.

[andybeals.livejournal.com]

I bought something similar at Targét after the first night I spent at my new place because my bitch had a diarrhea attack the previous night. I told her that she wasn't supposed to use up my security deposit on the first night and drove to the store half an hour before it opened. Works great!

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

What makes you think any new place would have cleaner carpets? (Maybe that's what the last people there did...)

(-: (-: (-:

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

Must...get...carpet...cleaner...soon! (sound of two exhausted people and one puppy who is just as happy to pee on the carpet as outside). Seriously, though, can we borrow your cleaner to try it out on our carpets? We do need to buy one, but would love to try first. Plus you could meet Windy if you want and we could even feed you dinner or something in the process.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

sure! that sounds great. how's next weekend some time? (i'm on call the first part of this week and tentatively booked most evenings after that till the weekend.)

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

Any time next weekend would be fine. What do you think of late Saturday morning with lunch at Bartley's Burgers after?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

whups. i thought that would be great, but it turns out i have to head to the cape saturday morning for emergency tech support for my folks. something involving adobe acrobat reader.

would saturday late afternoon or early evening work?

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

Saturday late afternoon or early evening would be fine, as would any time on Sunday (though the pup and I will be in puppy kindergarten Sunday 10-11:20 AM). Just let me know what works best for you.