How To Use a Carpet Cleaner at Home

Start the carpet-cleaning process by emptying the room of any furniture and other obstructive items on the floor. Don’t overexert yourself—you can always hire movers to relocate heavy items inside your house if needed. If you need to leave anything in place, wrap the furniture legs in aluminum foil so the steam doesn’t damage them.

Next, thoroughly vacuum the carpet area you’re about to clean. Complete two to three passes with the vacuum to pick up as much dirt as possible, as anything leftover may get worked deep into the carpet fibers during the cleaning process. Use the crevice tool to tackle the tight spaces where your carpeting meets your baseboards.

Carpet cleaners may not completely lift deep dirt or stains, so it’s helpful to pretreat stains or soiled areas. Purchase a commercial carpet shampoo or a carpet stain remover to give stains a deep clean beforehand. If you need to get pet urine smells out of the carpet, treat it first with an enzymatic cleaner or a mixture of equal parts of water and vinegar to help neutralize the smell.

To get your carpet cleaner ready, detach the water tank and fill it up with hot water. Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for how to use that specific carpet cleaner. Fill the tank to the fill line—typically about ¾ of the way up.

Next, fill your carpet cleaner with the carpet-cleaning formula. Don’t use the regular products for cleaning your carpet: You’ll want to select a cleaner that’s specifically meant for a carpet cleaner. 

Some machines have separate tanks for hot water and cleaning formula, while some will have you mix them in the same tank. Again, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific machine.

Your machine will likely have dials to select regular versus deep cleaning, deep cleaning versus floor cleaning, and the like. You may need to refer to the manufacturer’s instructions on how to use a carpet cleaner to determine which settings are the best ones. Once you’ve adjusted the settings, plug it in and flip on the power and heater switches.

Once the carpet cleaner is up and running, start moving it back and forth while pulling the trigger to release some of the water and detergent. Start at the far end of the room and work your way out, ensuring that you’re not oversaturating the carpet. 

Work in small sections, pushing the machine forward as far as you can reach without walking over the now-clean areas. Once you’ve cleaned the carpet area with detergent, give it an additional pass without any detergent to rinse it clean. Making a “dry pass” as you go will allow you to rinse the carpet without stepping on the areas recently cleaner.

Continue cleaning until your carpet cleaner’s dirty water tank is filled. There should be a fill line that shows when it’s reached maximum capacity. Once it reaches the line, empty the dirty tank out in the sink. While you’re at it, refill the clean water tank with more hot water, and continue cleaning as necessary.

Once you’ve cleaned and rinsed each carpet section, it’s time to step back and admire your work. However, seeing your fresh, clean carpet may make you feel ready to re-situate the room so you can enjoy the space. But it’s important to let the carpet dry fully before it experiences any furniture or foot traffic. 

Most carpets need 6 to 10 hours to dry completely, but timelines vary depending on the temperature and air circulation in the room.