Will this rug ever be clean?? Using a SteamVac.

[CathyA]

I thought of putting this in the Housing forum, but wasn't sure it belonged there. Maybe it would be nice to have a Housekeeping forum?

I bought my son an 8x10 dark blue carpet for college. He used it for 4 years. He kept it vacuumed. He brought it home recently because he didn't need it anymore. It looked to be in great shape. Its a pretty thin rug. I think I got it at Menards for something like $15!

I had considered letting DD have it without steam cleaning it, because it looked so good. Well, I'm glad I didn't. I have a Hoover steam vac that I absolutely LOVE.
But I steam cleaned this carpet 4 times and the water is still dark gray!! I have to stop because the fibers are getting worn out. I run it with soap and then I run it in the rinse mode.

Sometimes I wonder if they put something funky into that soap so it always turns gray.....thinking people will think the machine is really doing its job!

But after the 4th cleaning, I'm still getting dark sediment at the bottom of the dirty water tank and the water is dark gray. Well, I'm done. I will let it dry and then vacuum it one last time.
But why can't I get this water to clear up?? The carpet isn't thick enough to have held all this dirt! haha

Anyone else use a Steam Vac where the water never gets clear??

[chord_ata]

Any chance you are pulling out the dye into the water?

[CathyA]

I wondered that too, but it doesn't have any blue in the discharge. Its the color that most carpets put out when they're dirty. I should have known there was lots of dirt in there.....used for 4 years by college guys! Although for 3 of those years, DS was pretty clean. I set this rug on top of my wall-to-wall carpet to clean it. Maybe its pulling up dirt from my carpet, through DS's. haha
I clean their rugs this way, and then I steam clean my carpet. We'll see............