If you have heavily soiled carpets, regular vacuuming is not enough to get them clean. A steam cleaner will give much better results. It uses water to penetrate the carpet fibers, removing dirt that vacuum cleaners cannot reach. The result is a clean-looking freash-smelling carpet that can look like it’s just come out of the showroom.

So how does it work? It can seem quite complicated but it’s not.
First you need to fill up the water container. Some machines require you to use hot water but others contain a built-in heater. Check with the enclosed leaflet.

Water by itself will clean less dirty carpets but in most cases you should add a cleaning product to the water. Don’t use any old product – use a special product designed for carpet steam cleaning.

Before you begin, vacuum the carpet and remove as much loose dirt as you can

Now treat any stains with a carpet stain remover product. Spray it on and wipe it in. (You may want to test this out on a small hidden part of the carpet first as some stainers can damage some carpets.)

Now apply the carpet steamer. Use a two stroke movement. On the forward stroke, press the lever to release steam into the carpet. On the reverse stroke, allow the brush to ’scrub’ the carpet, dislodging dirt loosened by the steam. On difficult spots, go over them several times.

Once you have finished, empty the excess water from the steamer and put it away.

The carpet will take some time to dry. Until that point, avoid walking on it as much as possible.

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3. Allow the carpet to dry fully before allowing any foot traffic. Leave the windows in the room open if weather permits, to speed the drying process. Fans can also be placed in the doorways, pointed at the carpet, to speed drying.
4. Step 6

   Empty any remaining water out of the steam cleaner’s water container. If water is left in the machine for a long length of time, it will become stagnant.