Vacuum Steamers

Maintaining the various carpet and rugs in your home is important and particularly so if you have spent a great deal of money on various types of area rugs. Depending on what type of rugs you have, you’ll certainly want to consider investing in a steam cleaner, which you can use for regular maintenance, stain cleaning, and more. Consider the types of rugs on which steam cleaners can be useful and how to go about making the cleaning process as painless as possible.

A vacuum steamer, for example, is great on a wool area rug but must be used with a little precaution to preserve the rug from damage. Wool holds a great deal of heat because of a high lanolin content, and therefore, you don’t want to regularly use vacuum steamers on wool rugs. Instead, use a carpet steamer to clean resistant stains that other cleaners have failed to remove. Be aware that, with the lanolin content and the hemp backing of the rug hold a great deal of moisture and could fester mold growth.

Make sure you dry the rug safely and carefully, not allowing standing water to remain in the rug for any length of time so that your rug is not ruined. Raising the rug off the floor is essential to the drying process. Also, if using a detergent with your vacuum steam cleaner, you’ll want to choose a very gentle one, then make sure to remove all traces of detergent with the vacuum steamer. Residue left behind will make wool sticky, causing it to get dirtier faster.

Another type of rug to consider cleaning with a vacuum steamer is a natural fiber rug. This is a little trickier, since extreme moisture can actually harm the rug. Instead of using the steam function of the steam cleaner, try using the vacuum portion, blotting stains on the rug by hand with a mixture of 1 teaspoon detergent, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and two quarts of warm water, then absorbing the moisture through the vacuum steamer. This should help to lift the stains safely from your rug. As with wool rugs, if there is any moisture left behind after using the vacuum steam cleaner, you’ll need to elevate the rug to allow it to finish drying.

Oriental rugs are often treated with vacuum steam cleaners, but because of the high value of most of these rugs, you may want to consider a professional cleaning in most cases. However, using extreme caution, you can use vacuum steamers in an emergency situation to prevent a stain from setting in.

Don’t steam the entire rug, and don’t use heavy amounts of water. Instead, lightly steam only the area to be treated, using the same mixture as suggested for fiber rugs so as not to have a great deal of detergent lodged inot the carpet fibers, and be sure to vacuum thoroughly, lifting all the moisture possible from the rug and removing all traces of detergent. The stain should be lifted with this treatment, and you will need to raise the rug from the floor, as with any rug, to prevent molding. Once complete, you may want to schedule a professional cleaning to assure that your vacuum steamer removed all stain materials from your precious rug.

Using vacuum steam cleaners on various types of rugs is a great way to maintain their quality, as long as you handle the process with care. Be sure to never use too much moisture to clean a rug and to thorough vacuum to remove any lingering detergent from the rug when finished. This will assure you a long lived beautiful carpet or rug.