Oh, Yetch!

A few days ago, we managed to snag a carpet scrubber on FreeCycle. The woman who posted it said it “wasn’t working quite right” but The Squire is handy, and it was free – and a brand I liked – so what the heck.

When we got it home, I made a pass or two at our dining room carpet to see exactly how it “wasn’t working quite right”. It left a trail of black yuck across the rug. Fortunately this was dry, so I just picked up the bits with my fingers, and we took it into the back room to see what we could see. The first hint we got was that the screws holding the suction scoop to the base had to be loosened with a shot of 3-in1 oil. I do not think this lady had ever cleaned the machine! We had to use a dry brush on the mechanical part, and then soaked all of the removable parts – suction scoop, waste water bucket, and even the tub where you put the clean water and rug shampoo – overnight in hot water with Mr. Clean. There is a filter inside that has to be cleaned off frequently, and I had to use a putty knife on it. This morning The Squire and I went over all of the pieces with a scrub brush, and half a packet of pipe cleaners.

I will say, this – it is a darned good machine! We have light blue carpets on the downstairs floors – not a wise move, I’ll grant you – and it did a fine job on cleaning them. I will have to go ever the rugs a second time, but they look a darned sight better than they did. Tremendous amount of suction, which is good. We vacuum every other day with dry carpet cleaner, mostly to counteract the delicate aroma of Dog. The rug scrubber drew up a bunch of that powder along with ground-in pet hair; every once in a while it would cough up a wad of hair and I could feel the powder in it when I picked them up. Even the best suction is no match for wet, gritty dog hair!

And before you ask, this is a Bissell Lift-Off steam cleaner. Not only is it quite powerful, but the “Lift-Off” refers to a smaller unit with a long hose, light enough to be carried up the steps as you clean the carpet treads.