Is buying a carpet shampooer worth it or should you just hire a professional and have them cleaning carpets for you? A lot of people would just say hire the professional because they can’t be bothered to go through the bother of buying and using a carpet cleaning machine.
That can be seen as a fair argument as a lot of people between work, kids and other aspects of life can’t find time or will be too tired to give the carpets a good clean.

However your carpets should only need cleaning once every 6-12 months meaning you don’t have to set aside much time throughout the year to get the job done. It also won't be necessary to do all the carpets in your house. The most used carpets will need a good shampoo but to save time and avoid too much hassle of moving furniture, rooms like the bedroom you will probably get away with regular vacuuming.  

Most people will say a professional has better equipment and will get the carpets cleaner, than you could using home carpet cleaners. There are many carpet shampooers out there available to the public at a very good price. You could probably buy a carpet shampoo machine that would be similar to professional carpet cleaning prices. That means instead of paying once or twice a year to hire someone you can buy your own and clean your carpet whenever you want.

So you decide the benefits of buying your own carpet shampooer outweigh hiring a professional, here are a few things to consider:

· Remove stains and odour - One of the benefits of owning your own carpet shampooing machine is that if you accidently spill something and create a stain you can get straight to cleaning it up, so this is a very important feature. Also a bad odour smell that can develop over time on your carpet from pets, foods, dirt etc and this will freshen up your carpet.

· Water tank size – Having a big tank could cause problems when it comes to emptying it by yourself. Having a small tank and you will find yourself emptying and refilling your cleaning on a frequent basis.

· Needs to be hooked up to water – This will severely limit and potentially cause problems if you need your carpet shampooer connected to water outlet when using it.

· Fixed or rotating brush – Both have their benefits; the rotating brush will provide a deeper clean and will get tougher stains out better but it will be hard wearing on your carpet. The fixed brush does an efficient job without hard wearing on the carpet.

· Cleaning stairs – Your stairs will be one of the most used sections in your house, meaning it will be one of the dirtiest. You want a carpet cleaning machine capable of providing a thorough clean of this area.

Your carpets are a very important part of your home and need to be looked after by you on a daily basis. A few carpet cleaning tips I use to help keep my carpet in good shape include:

· Good quality mats at the entrances of your home, I highly recommend Waterhog Mats. They will help clean your shoes before walking on your carpets.

· Deal with a stain asap, try water to start with but don’t rub hard or you could make the stain worse and damage the carpet. If water doesn’t work you will find some great homemade solutions online doing a quick search.

· Don’t wear shoes indoors – Personally I take my shoes off in the porch, this will prevent a lot of dirt getting onto the carpets. However on occasion I will venture into the house with shoes on, which is the reason I have waterhog mats at the entrances. They will do a good job cleaning my shoes before I enter the house.

Even using certain measures it is highly recommended as I said at the start to clean your carpets at least once a year.

My recommendation is to buy your own carpet shampooer and you can do the job yourself whenever convenient and hopefully save yourself some money.