Pre-Vacuum For Fantastic Results With Rug Doctor

To obtain the best results from using a Rug Doctor it is important to pay heed to the basic essential elements of a sound carpet cleaning strategy. One of the most important of these elements takes place before any other part can be successfully implemented, and that essential element is pre-vacuuming.

Regular vacuuming is already a widely accepted practice to remove periodic accumulation of debris and most every homeowner already recognizes the importance of doing this chore rather frequently, but pre-vacuuming is rather more involved.

(Dyson's DC25...an example of a good quality vacuum with high performance)

When I speak of pre-vacuuming, I mean a very thorough process of cleaning from multiple angles and making several passes to try to remove as much debris as possible before going on to the next step in carpet cleaning. In addition the use of nozzles to fully clean edges (along baseboards and door jams, and various nooks and crannies).

Increase Rug Doctor Cleaning Effectiveness By Utilizing Pre-Spray's

Disclaimer: There are many things to consider when it is time to clean a carpet with the Rug Doctor. Having the proper information will greatly aid in getting the desired results from using the Rug Doctor to clean your carpets. It is important to read the instructions that came with your machine, and familiarize yourself with the controls and adjustments ( I have other articles which explain proper handle adjustment etc) to get prepared properly before undertaking the cleaning job at hand. I will address proper pre-vacuuming in an upcoming article, but at this time I want to focus on the chemicals used to clean, and their best employment. In all instances, carpet cleaning chemicals should be used with careful consideration to the instructions printed on the label, the proper dilution ratio when applicable, and after testing in an inconspicuous place (such as a closet carpet) for color fastness to ensure the chemical used won't harm the carpet or ruin it's appearance. Keep in mind that carpet material can vary, so a chemical used safely on a contractor grade synthetic carpet, may ruin a wool rug. Use great care as damage can be expensive and most often irreversible. That out of the way I will get to the real point of this article.

Rug Doctor carpet extractors, utilize a clean water reservoir for hot water and cleaning solution which is applied to carpet when the red button on the top handle is pressed. This mixture is sprayed onto the carpet through the nozzles and scrubbed by the brush system (also activated when pressing the red button), and then vacuumed up by the front nozzle.

It is important to emphasize from the beginning that the only detergents that should be used in the solution tank, are Rug Doctor brand extractor shampoo's and detergents, as they are the only recommended cleaning agents that are guaranteed safe for the pump and injectors (protecting your 5 year warranty), and will be more than sufficient in most cases (at the recommended dilution ratios printed on the containers).

These approved cleaning agents are formulated specifically to work safely in the Rug Doctor, and not cause premature wear, and are safe for use on the carpet types recommended on the instructions printed on the bottle (which give proper dilution and other information). It is important to heed the warnings and use these solutions as instructed.


(Rug Doctor Oxy-Steam Carpet Cleaner...CRI Platinum Level rated when combined in solution tank as directed with Rug Doctor extractors)

But under special circumstances, such as when exceptionally dirty carpets are encountered, the effectiveness of the detergents can often be increased by upping the mix ratio of detergent to water, or with other products which act as heavy grease cutters or specialty spotters (pet stains for instance) which are not Rug Doctor products.

The problem with simply adding more detergent (or some specialty chemical) is that this is not very good for the pump and injectors on the Rug Doctor (early pump failure and/or plugged injectors for example).

Also, there may be instances when you have a spill or what have you, and you don't have any approved detergents on hand.

Is It Worth Saving An Old Carpet With A Rug Doctor?

(video showing a carpet that has been damaged by long term neglect being cleaned)


Is it worth the time and effort required to clean a carpet that has been neglected for so long that much of the damage is irreversible?

This video shows a carpet that was neglected for years. The resident has friends over much of the time, and they drink alcohol and smoke heavily. They're nice people, but drinks get spilled, and cigarette ash falls still burning onto the carpet, and is ignored at the time (and often for several days).

Every once in awhile, someone will vacuum up the worst of it and the party continues. Common situation right?

Well, now this resident needs to get the carpet looking nice or she'll possibly be faced with the very expensive proposition of being financially responsible for replacing it.

So, in this case, the time and effort required to try and clean this carpet is definitely preferable to the expense of replacement.

Why Do People Complain That The Rug Doctor Leaves Their Carpets Wet?

I wanted to tackle a common negative complaint about Rug Doctor extractors; which is that they don't pick up enough of the water they put down.

This is such a wide spread issue, that I wanted to mention this as one of my helpful setup tips for using the Rug Doctor.

Lets use my brother for an example here.

My brother Jay is 6'3" tall.

The Rug Doctor handle can be adjusted for different heights of operator with a lever. So you'd assume the topmost setting would be the best for a tall person right? Wrong.

Rug Doctor...Real Review's...Real Video's

Do a search on the internet for Rug Doctor and what do you find? Hundreds of results right? But how many of those results lead you to real and valid information about Rug Doctor machines from actual users of the product? Not that many actually.

Most of the results lead you to pages put up by people who only want to sell the products (and that's okay to a point), but really have no actual hands on experience with using Rug Doctor, or maybe used one for an hour or so and wrote a quick review.

It's true that I also sell Rug Doctor on this blog. But although I market the product as a item to make a little money on, I also use the Rug Doctor a lot. I mean a whole lot.

I have been using Rug Doctor products to professionally clean rental properties heavily for some time now. I know the in and outs of using one at this level (daily use under harsh conditions) and have seen whether or not Rug Doctor machines can do the job at the level my customers demand. They can.

Key Features Of The Rug Doctor Versus Competitors

(Video clip demonstrating cleaning effectively along edges of walls...no gap)

I want to point out some of the truly great features Rug Doctor machines all share that competitors lack.

First, the brush design on the Rug Doctor allows the full width of the machine to be utilized when cleaning.

On competitors machines, a belt is used to power a brush roll. What this means is that one side of the machine lacks brushing action in the narrow gap required to run its belt drive system. Since Rug Doctor is the only one on the market with the full-width brush and its unique back and forth drive motor, it doesn't have the gap a belt drive would require.

When a belt driven brush roll is used along walls there is a gap on one side, sometimes of more than an inch which may get sprayed with water and solution, and vacuumed up by the machine, but that narrow area will NOT be agitated with the brush. This leaves much of the carpet in hallways and along walls of rooms where no scrubbing of the carpet can be accomplished...at least not with the machine.

By contrast, Rug Doctor's unique action allows the brush to be full width, eliminating any gaps along the sides of the machine, offering the only true edge to edge cleaning of any self contained carpet extractor.

Check out the design of most of the competitors machines and you'll see that the area where the belt rides is a spot where no agitation at all is possible. Then look at the Rug Doctor again and see the difference.

The second key benefit to Rug Doctor's brush design. It is both gentle on the carpet fibers, and also completely able to get at both the front and back of the fiber in one pass. Because it is not overly aggressive like some brush rolls can be, it won't tend to cause the fibers to unravel or cause the "blooming" effect that overly aggressive brushing can easily cause when those other machines are pushed and pulled back and forth during operation.

This means that the Rug Doctor takes better care of your carpets than other designs which may clean the carpet, but will shorten the life span of the fibers due to the aggressive nature of the one direction brush roll (which is very aggressive when those machines are pushed and pulled back and forth during use).

Remember, in many cases the Rug Doctor will do in one backward pass what other brands require both a forward and backward pass to achieve.

While the "cleaning in both the forward and backward direction" concept may sound good at first, it is actually saying that duplicating the one backward pass of the Rug Doctor is not enough with the competitors design, they require you to push the machine all the way forward and then pull it all the way back to consider yourself to have made a pass.

This is partially because the spinning brush roll on their design doesn't fully clean both sides of the fiber in one direction. To duplicate the one pass cleaning of the Rug Doctor actually takes two passes with the competitor...one forward pass and one backward pass.  That's TWO passes, not one! That's two times more work and time, and remember the brush roll design is harder on the carpet fibers as well.

To sum up, Rug Doctor makes a time tested and proven carpet extractor that was on the market years ahead of it's primary competitor in the market. The design has changed little since the self contained implementation was introduced because it was effective right out of the gate.

Consider the rental market that Rug Doctor has been a long term participant in. Those years of experience with harsh treatment from rental use have made the design of the current Mighty Pro, Mighty Pro Wide Track, and Mighty Pro X-3 to be the best on the market.

The materials used in the construction of all the Mighty Pro models is of durable plastic, not the brittle plastics you see on most of the competitors designs. And replacement parts if needed are readily available from Rug Doctor. Will the other brands be backed up by their manufacturers years from now when a repair part is needed?

Use my link below and check out the Rug Doctor models and deals. But also look at the replacement parts and accessories. You will see that the Rug Doctor is a well made and backed up machine. Sure, it's a little more expensive in some cases than the lower end machines out there (but for the equipment it really compares to, it's a unbelievable bargain), but the quality and durability means that your investment in a machine to clean your carpets, or maybe even the carpets of your relatives, friends, and neighbors, will come back to you in the future by avoiding repair bills and replacement costs associated with less well made brands.

CRI Platinum Rating...What Is That?

Rug Doctor is given a Platinum Level rating with the Carpet and Rug Institute. They also have a Gold Level rating. Of course the Platinum Level is the highest level a carpet extractor (or other type of carpet cleaning equipment or system can achieve), but what does that mean?

I have placed a link to the page on the CRI site which shows ratings of several brands of carpet cleaning equipment. It also shows details with each brand of equipment how they achieved that rating.

Some of the equipment you would think should do really well on carpet cleaning test didn't perform all that well, while other surprise entrees did much better than you'd expect.

Using The Rug Doctor On Dark Spots And Stains...Especially Old Stains!

This video shows a carpet with lots of dark spots throughout. The customer has children who spill food on the carpet, which often gets stepped on and matted into the fibers. They also spill lots of drinks and don't get them blotted up quickly enough. In addition they don't vacuum very often (gave up on it because of the age of the children who continually make messes). Due to a complaint from the manager about the bad condition of their carpets, they hired us to clean up the mess. This carpet hadn't been cleaned in a couple of years so the stains etc. represent what a Rug Doctor can do with well set stains.

Why Choose Rug Doctor?

Let's be clear. Cleaning carpet is a necessary part of most home and property owners existence. Whether one chooses to hire out this task, or do it themselves, it still has to be accomplished on some basis if one is to maintain the investment they've made in their carpeting.

It's usually easy to pick up the phone and hire a service, but that option is also a very expensive way to go. It costs a lot less to find some way to do it yourself. But until fairly recently the only way to do that was to rent a portable unit and that in itself can be quite a hassle.

Now there are several good carpet cleaning extractors available for purchase. We see them at all the big-box stores, but how do we know if they really are any good? Sure the manufacturers all claim to offer the best, for the least, but they have a vested interest in telling the real truth don't they?

This blog, and the YouTube channel it is linked with offer something that I believe anyone with an interest in choosing one of these machines should be happy to see. Video made in real world situations without studio conditions, and without carpets purposely set up to exaggerate the cleaning effectiveness of the machine being demonstrated.

The video proof is in the pudding as it were, and those who want to know if Rug Doctor lives up to it's claims, need only look at these video's to see how well they really work when put to the test.

Rug Doctor X-3 Carpet Cleaning Assortment Of Jobs

This video is a compilation of many jobs performed in 2013. The complete videos showing individual jobs from before initial vacuuming to final raking are available separately on my channel joerwheelervideo as well as many other videos from other channels that I have added into various playlists.
This particular video shows partial segments of many different jobs, and by it's nature will not usually show the completed results, so bear that in mind as you watch...

Rug Doctor X-3 Carpet Cleaning Extractor...Can It Clean Carpet?

So you've seen all the infomercials from the various manufacturers of carpet cleaning extractor's/shampooer's on TV and the internet before. Yet you always wonder if the machines really work as well as they claim right? I have been using the Rug Doctor X-3 to clean carpets primarily for an apartment complex for over two years, and to clean about two hundred carpets. Does it work? In this video showing an assortment of jobs I made videos of in 2013, I show the real world conditions that a machine like the Rug Doctor will be used in. This video shows the good as well as the bad of cleaning rental carpets, as the old saying about carpet cleaning so accurately says "not every stain can be removed", is shown in this video. I'd love to say that this machine is magic, but it isn't. Truthfully it is pretty amazing though. Some of the carpets this X-3 has cleaned were so bad that nobody thought they could be cleaned, but the X-3 pulled it off. As always, you can see many more videos of the Rug Doctor being used at my channel joerwheelervideo if you want to...

Rug Doctor X-3 Cleans Apartment 314-1 (Full Version 3-19-2013)

When I first shot this video in early 2013, I put it on my channel as three separate videos (part 1,2,and 3). It got quite a few hits and after a while I had gotten a few requests to try and assemble it into one full length video. This is the result. This carpet was not even close to being the dirtiest carpet I cleaned this last year, but it was shot in great light and conditions, and really shows the Rug Doctor doing it's thing. There was so much moisture in the air that day that we had to make LOTS of extra dry passes to control the carpets not getting over-saturated, so most of the passes you see here are not to remove stains, but excess water. On a better day (humidity wise) this carpet would have been done a lot faster, but that is the ideal, not always possible situation. If you want to see even dirtier carpets being cleaned. go to my channel joerwheelervideo and check out some of my other (over 300) videos...

Rug Doctor Mighty Pro Cleans An Apartment...Same Apartment As X-3 Cleaned To Show Comparison

This video was made to show the difference between the X-3 and the Mighty Pro. The X-3 is the newer of the two (although it also uses the Mighty Pro moniker in it's name) models most widely seen in the wild. There is a third model (Wide Track) as well as special models (Quick Dry etc).
But for most people interested in purchasing it will come down to these two models (standard Mighty Pro or the Mighty Pro X-3). The opinion of most experts between the two models is that the Mighty Pro is a little more robust than the X-3, a little better overall cleaner, and somewhat better made. However, the X-3 has advantages in being a little wider, has more capacity (holds more water) and is a little less expensive. I have both models and, while I can see that the Mighty Pro is perhaps a little better in cleaning ability at times, most of the time they are essentially equal. The reason I use the X-3 though is because it really does do a larger area without re-filling. Below is the original video to compare if you wish, and as always go to my channel joerwheelervideo to see many more videos...

Video Tutorial- Great Method To Clean Carpet With A Rug Doctor

Rug Doctor makes a really great carpet extractor. For the money, you really can't find any comparable units from any other manufacturer (Bissell makes the Big Green Cleaning Machine which is the only comparable one out there, and I haven't seen much regarding the durability as yet, and it is usually priced higher than the Rug Doctor units). The point of this video is to show that, while Rug Doctor's prescribed method for using their machine works really well, it may be necessary at times to deviate from that method for special circumstances. The method I use with my cleaning business is in fact different than Rug Doctor's recommendation because by necessity I had to change it. Keep in mind, that as a commercial user, my warranty is not the same as a regular household user will have. Also remember that Rug Doctor's own brand of detergents etc are fine for 99% of conditions most people ever encounter, and using their products will protect your warranty. I use special mixes at times, and even products not designed to be used in a Rug Doctor. But I don't endanger my Rug Doctor pumps or injectors because I never put any detergent (Rug Doctor brand or otherwise) inside my fresh water compartment. I always apply detergents with a pump up sprayer (a hand spray bottle would work as well) and allow the detergent a few minutes to "dwell". This allows the chemicals to react with even the most set in difficult stains and break them down. When chemicals are used IN the Rug Doctor they only have a split second or so to break down stains. This doesn't work as well for me in my situation. Additionally, I have to make sure and remove all residue of the detergents I use, or else rapid re-soiling will be likely, and even after re-filling a machine with straight tap water, there is still some residue of the detergent used in the previous passes. This make flushing out remaining chemicals in the carpet even more difficult, as you are still applying additional detergent (albeit much at much higher dilution). For those who have really nice carpets, the Rug Doctor prescribed method works fine. But if re-soiling is an issue (or stiff feeling carpet when dry) try applying the detergent before using water only to clean. It works pretty good as well. Go to my channel joerwheelervideo for many more videos and tips for using the Rug Doctor effectively and also see how really dirty carpets can be cleaned with the Rug Doctor...they really work!

Saving a Ruined Carpet with a Rug Doctor X-3

This is one of my biggest disappointments recorded on video. Why? It isn't because the Rug Doctor didn't clean this carpet...it did. It isn't even that it took a while, though it did. No my disappointment is because I didn't get to show all of this job. This video show some great shots of really bad stains coming out, stains that shouldn't have come out with any machine. But I couldn't get the whole thing on video. You have to trust me when I tell you that this carpet looked amazing after we had finished it. A few months later, we went back to clean up some water spilled from a bad hot water tank and saw it. It still looked great. No re-occurring stains, no wick back, no stiffness to the feel, just nice soft clean carpet. When you watch the first few minutes of this video and see the before footage, you'll see that the Rug Doctor really can clean the worst carpets. I hope you'll watch some of my other videos that do show finished results. You can see those videos at my channel joerwheelervideo where I have over three hundred examples of carpet cleaning with Rug Doctor...

Using a Rug Doctor Mighty Pro X-3...The Video That Started It All

When I bought my first Rug Doctor Mighty Pro, I liked it so much I bought another one for a back up in case the first one ever broke down. Then I saw the Mighty Pro X-3. I had to get one. My first reaction to it was that is wasn't made out of the same type of material as the Mighty Pro. It appeared to be of less durable plastic for the main body (that hasn't turned out to be an issue). It had a upper cover assembly which raises with a small latch (unlike the Mighty Pro which has a metal clip which is pushed over the clear chute to secure the assembly). It had larger capacity fresh water and waste water tanks (this has turned out to be a huge advantage for me). It also was slightly wider and the handle somewhat taller (which are both beneficial in my opinion). This video shows how much area the X-3 can clean in one fill-up. The smaller Mighty Pro does significantly less area on a fill, but may be slightly more efficient, but this is subjective. Now that I have used this unit for a couple of years, and cleaned more than two-hundred apartments etc with it, I can safely recommend it as a very durable and easy to use carpet extractor. Initially one may find it a little difficult to use in some circumstances, but with practice even the most stained carpets can be cleaned with this machine. Starting with this video, I have amassed over 300 videos showing this X-3 cleaning really badly stained carpets with no breakdowns or serious issues. It just works! Go to my channel joerwheelervideo to see this same Rug Doctor X-3 as it does many more jobs...