Myth Busters
The things nobody explains to you.
Most carpet cleaning advice online is written to fill a page. These are written to bust one myth each — the things people actually ask us on the phone, answered by the person holding the wand.
Every one ends with the questions to ask before you book — so you can judge any cleaner, including us. See all of them in one place →
Comparing quotes and the numbers don't add up? Every figure a carpet cleaner quotes — PSI, °C, vacuum, dry time — explained with honest ranges and sources →
Wet carpet, or something gone wrong right now? The step-by-step guides are here →
015 August 2026
Does a higher PSI truck mount clean carpet better?
No. Carpet is cleaned between roughly 200 and 500 PSI depending on fibre and soil. Past about 500 you stop lifting water out and start pushing it into the backing, which causes slow drying, returning stains and delamination. High-PSI figures are hard-floor figures.
025 August 2026
Why is my carpet still wet two days after cleaning?
Because water got below the pile and nothing pulled it back out. Weather changes drying by hours; water sitting in the backing and underlay changes it by days. It is an extraction problem, not a climate one.
035 August 2026
Why did my carpet stain come back after cleaning?
It is called wicking. The mark was never only on the surface — it had soaked into the backing years ago. Water left behind after cleaning re-dissolves it, and as that moisture evaporates upward it carries the soil back to the surface.
045 August 2026
Why is vacuum the most important number in carpet cleaning?
Because cleaning is finished by what comes back out, not by what goes in. Vacuum is what removes the water and the suspended soil. Weak extraction leaves both behind, which is what causes slow drying, returning stains and fast resoiling.
055 August 2026
Does hotter water clean carpet better?
Yes, and not gradually — chemical action roughly doubles for every 10°C rise, so the gap between a warm machine and a hot one is multiples rather than percentages. More heat also means less detergent, and less detergent means less residue left behind to attract the next lot of soil.
065 August 2026
Does the carpet cleaning machine matter more than the technician?
No. The machine sets a ceiling; the operator decides how much of that ceiling you actually get. Dwell time, dry passes, fibre identification and hose management are all free, all decided at the job, and all invisible to you afterwards.
075 August 2026
Is cheap carpet cleaning worth it?
Sometimes. A low price with the steps still in it is not the same as a low price with the steps taken out, and low overheads are not the same as cutting corners. What a very cheap quote discounts is minutes — dry vacuuming, dwell time, dry passes — and sometimes what the person knows.
085 August 2026
Are all truck mount carpet cleaning machines the same?
No. The biggest difference is where the heat comes from. Most truck mounts recover heat as a by-product of the engine already driving the vacuum and the pump, so those three jobs compete. A separately fired heater does not compete, so the temperature holds when the trigger stays down.
095 August 2026
What is the difference between steam cleaning and hot water extraction?
They are the same method. 'Steam cleaning' is the everyday name for hot water extraction, and the word is useful because it separates high-heat cleaning from the warm and cold-water methods. What matters is not the word — it is whether the operator has the heat to back it up.
1013 August 2026
Is Rug Doctor as good as a professional carpet clean?
For a spot or two, done carefully, it is fine. For a couple of rooms, heavy soiling or delicate carpet it usually is not — a hire machine sits closer to a professional's spotting tool than to a cleaning system, and its two common faults, over-wetting and unflushed detergent, are both expensive.
115 August 2026
Does hose length matter in carpet cleaning?
Yes, more than most people realise. Vacuum and heat are both lost over the length of the hose, and the loss increases the harder the machine is working — so a long run gives up performance exactly when the job needs it most. Nothing about it looks different while it is happening.
125 August 2026
Why does my carpet get dirty again so quickly after cleaning?
Most often because detergent was left in the pile. Cleaning products are designed to grab soil, and any that isn't rinsed out keeps doing exactly that — so the fibres attract and hold dirt faster than they did before the clean.
135 August 2026
Does carpet cleaning remove allergens and dust mites?
It removes a great deal of both, by heat and extraction rather than by disinfecting. The allergen that affects people is mostly dust-mite droppings and skin debris, and those are physically flushed out and vacuumed away. It is a substantial reduction, not sterilisation, and it does not last forever.
145 August 2026
Which carpet stains cannot be removed?
The ones that are not stains. A stain is something added to the fibre and can often be removed. Bleach marks, sun fade, burns and wear are the fibre or its dye being damaged or removed — there is nothing left to lift out, so cleaning cannot reverse them.
155 August 2026
Why does my carpet smell worse after it has been cleaned?
Because cleaning re-wet something that was dormant. Old pet accidents, spilled milk and bacteria in the backing are odourless when dry and active again when damp. A carpet that dries fast usually stops smelling; one that stays damp for days does not.
165 August 2026
Does pre-spraying carpet before cleaning actually make a difference?
Yes — a large one, and it is measured. Detergent used only in the machine's tank cleans just 4.6% better than plain hot water. The same chemistry sprayed onto the carpet first and given time to work cleans 3.54 times better than in-tank use, according to laboratory testing for the Carpet and Rug Institute.
175 August 2026
How long should carpet take to dry after cleaning?
A few hours for walk-on dry, and fully dry well inside a day. The biggest factor by far is how much water was left in the carpet, not the weather — then airflow, indoor humidity and room temperature, in that order.
185 August 2026
Does experience matter more than equipment in carpet cleaning?
Experience decides more of the outcome than equipment does, because most of what determines a result is judgement — fibre identification, dwell time, dry passes, knowing when to stop. But experience cannot produce heat or suction a machine does not have. Both have hard limits.
195 August 2026
Can carpet be over-wet during cleaning?
Yes. Once water passes through the pile into the backing and underlay, nothing can extract it and it has to evaporate out over days. That can delaminate the carpet, saturate the underlay and allow mould. Over-wetting is the most common avoidable fault in carpet cleaning.
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