My wife and I have had a Hoover carpet cleaner for the past few years and it worked ok, but always left the carpet wet, had a hard time with some stains and the bristle pads rotated in a circular motion all the time and seemed like it was harsh on the carpet, especially if left in one spot for too long. I decided to run a test on our formal family room carpet so I cleaned the carpet with the Hoover and let it dry for a day and cleaned it again with the Rug Doctor. As you can see by the attached picture, there was a lot of dirt left behind that this machine was able to pick up! So what are some things I like about this machine? Well, for starters there was no assembly required and it was ready to go right out of the box. The machine is large but the handle folds in half to help with storage. When turned on, the machine isn’t really any louder than any other carpet cleaner I have owned but it really sucks! When you transition from carpet to wood you can really hear the suction! The carpet is left damp, but it’s not wet, and it dries quickly. I really like how the brush only works while holding the trigger down as this helps you decide how aggressive you want to be with the brush. The same button for the brush is also connected to the cleaning solution/water but more on that later. The Machine is easy to handle for its size and I found it easy to maneuver around the house, although you will not be able to get under tables and will have to move them out of the way. The dirty and clean water containers are easy to remove but the clean water container can be tricky. Just remember to pull back and up instead of up and it comes out easy. If you just pull up, hinges for the folding handle can get in the way and make the task difficult. The opening for the dirty water container has a large mouth, which makes it easy to empty and clean the inside of the container. There is no disassembly needed to clean out the dirty water container like some other machines. All you have to do is pour in some clean water and swish and rinse. The cord could be a few feet longer but it’s still long enough to give you a good cleaning radius before having to switch outlets. While I really do like this machine there are a few things that keep me from giving it five stars. First there is the clean water container. You will need to mix the cleaning solution with the clean water and while there is a measuring cup with the cap to measure the cleaning solution, there aren’t any marks on the side of the container to see what ratio your actually mixing. There is only a mark to show 1.5 gallons. It would be nice to have extra marks for different solution ratios in the event you only want to clean one or two rooms and want to make a smaller batch of cleaning solution. Also, be careful swishing the water and solution together because the cap has a breather hole. Try shaking the container and you could find yourself sprayed with a water/solution mixture. I like the handle and the button layout but wish the handle came with a lever or button to release it as you currently just have to pull hard on the handle to lower it as it is held in the upright position by friction. I also wish there were two separate buttons on the handle, one for the brush head and another for clean water. I wish the cleaning solution was separate from the clean water so I could rinse the carpet of the cleaning solution. So far my dislikes are all minor things to me but the one that really hurts is the fact this machine doesn’t come with any accessories. For the price, this machine should at least come with a hose and upholstery tool! Even though I have some dislikes, the machine still works very, very well for what it does. If you can get it on sale or if Rug Doctor ever adds an accessory to the box I highly recommend it.

The Rug Doctor Pro Deep carpet cleaner is a great home carpet cleaner. The suction is very strong, and it pulls out nearly all of the water that you put down. The carpet is left clean and just a little damp. I have found that it dries in about an hour or two, at least in this hot weather. The clean tank holds 1.5 gallons and you mix in the solution in with hot water. This unit is very similar to the ones that you can rent at your local grocery store, but you don’t have to worry about it having someone else’s germs on it. It’s a fairly heavy unit but moves back and forth pretty easily, but turning it is a little cumbersome. It’s very wide and I was able to do a few rooms in my house that are 20x20 each and I was done in about 30 minutes. The handle folds down for storage also. Emptying the dirty water tank is easy, but you will make a little mess when you drain it…. dirty water will drip out of the intake tube if you empty it right away, at least that was my experience with it. Perhaps if I had waited a while, it would have dried out and not dripped so much. It has a solution empty indicator and a brush jam indicator as well to alert you of trouble. I do think the power cord is a little short and I would have liked it to be about 5 feet longer than it is. You get a small bottle of cleaning solution that will be good for 3 gallons, but I went out and purchased the Pet solution bottle. Buying this carpet cleaner is a great value, it works great and if it’s built like the rental units, it will last you a long time.

As soon as I took this out of the box I knew it was a well-designed product. I was impressed with the compactness of the unit and how easy it was to set up and get started. The included instruction manual was very easy to read and full of pictures. Even without the manual, the device is pretty intuitive. The clean water tank and the dirty water tank are very easy to remove and insert. A front hose access is available if you get the additional hose and wand, which I recommend for tight spots. Emptying the dirty water tank was very easy. There are handles all over this thing, which provides many different ways of carrying it around. Within 30 minutes of unboxing, reading through the manual, and filling the clean water tank with hot water & the supplied cleaning solution - I was already tackling the carpet in our master bedroom. 2 passes with the soap, a couple passes of scrubbing, and then 4 passes of suction, was enough to provide a well-needed carpet cleaning. We placed a fan in the room and within several hours the carpet was dry enough to walk on, which tells me that the dispensing of the solution and the retrieval of the dirty mix was perfect. Having spent many nights pulling industrial carpet cleaning hoses and wands around, I was a bit skeptical at first. However, I am very pleased with this unit. I wouldn't recommend it for huge spaces, but it is the perfect rug cleaner for apartments and smaller homes. When done, the unit folds up neatly for compact storage. While I didn't get the extension hoses and wand, I would highly recommend it for tighter spaces and edging.

When it comes to cleaning the house, there are few things that can’t be done easily except ‘real’ carpet cleaning. You can vacuum and steam as much as you want, but when it comes to deep cleaning, there is only one product that can get the job done — Rug Doctor. In the past I’ve used the carpet shampooing machines to spot clean as well as sweep and entire room, but I’ve always had to use a rented machine from a grocery or hardware store. I’ve never invested in owning one, but given the numerous times I’ve had to spot clean carpets in our house by hand, it makes sense for me to own my own Rug Doctor. I chose the Pro Deep Canister Vacuum rather than one of Rug Doctor’s other models since I wanted to have the same type of cleaning experience as I did from the store rented units. The Rug Doctor arrived in a very large box. It was heavy and awkward to move around. This made me concerned that the vacuum inside was going to be heavy and awkward as well. Since I’d never attempted to purchase one of these units before, I didn’t know what type of set-up was going to be required. I was very surprised to find that NO set-up or assembly was required. When I opened the box, the first thing I saw was the user manual and small bottle of shampoo, that Rug Doctor included. I lifted the cardboard carton to find the vacuum sitting atop another cardboard carton completely ready to go. Even though I was concerned about the weight, I attempted to lift the unit out of the box without assistance and without tipping the box onto one side. Again, I was surprised at the weight. The unit still weighs around 35 pounds, but it’s not as heavy as I thought it would be given my previous experience with the rentals and how heavy the box seemed to be. The Rug Doctor arrives in its “storage mode” with the main handle folded down. There is a carrying handle in the center of the unit that makes it easy to pick up and move without rolling it around. The main handle fold up and into a locked position with no problems. It actually locks into place without making a sound at all. I had to release it and make sure it was actually locked in place before continuing with the set-up process. The next step is to release the lock on the clean water tank and fill it (to its fill line) with warm/hot water. The tank holds 1.5 gallons of water and the ratio of cleaning solution to water is supposed to be 3 ounces of solution to 1 gallon of water. For my first round of cleaning, I chose to fill the tank up three-quarters of the way to the fill line so that it would be the correct ratio with a full cap of solution. The lid to the clean water tank is actually a measuring cup for the solution. This was a very convenient option for measuring in my opinion. After you have the water/solution in the clean water tank, you are ready to plug into power and start cleaning. The manual recommends using a 2-pass cleaning method (2 wet passes and 2 dry passes) to get started. So, that’s what I did. Now, aside from the weight of the rental units of the past, the other thing I remembered clearly about them was how loud they were. I was surprised again to find out that while the vacuum still makes a decent amount of noise, it’s not a deafening as the rental units. I spent a few minutes cleaning a section of our living room (about 5x5) carpet. This particular section had two distinct spots left on it from daily use. One of them appeared to be a grease spot of some sort and the other was of unknown origins. The spots are the reason I focused on this particular area of our house for testing. After a few passes of the Rug Doctor, the spots were gone and the carpet appeared to be much cleaner. After about 1.5 hours, the carpet was still a bit damp. This is probably the most heavily trafficked area of our home and for many years, it’s where our dogs spent most of their time. With that in mind, the carpet has a unique odor to it. After the first cleaning, I would say that the standard cleaning solution (Rug Doctor offers different options of cleaners) removed about 40% of that odor. I’m hoping that with subsequent cleanings and by switching to the cleaner that is specifically for pet cleaning, the odor will be completely removed. I simply adore this carpet cleaning machine and I’m thrilled to have it in my house. I love that I no longer have to go through the hassle of renting one of these deep cleaning monsters from the store and that anytime I need to really clean my carpets, I have a Rug Doctor within my grasp.

Anyone who has carpet flooring knows that it’s inevitable that the carpet(s) will get dirty one way or another. I previously owned a decent carpet cleaner that I thought did a “good enough” job. But then I got the Rug Doctor Pro Deep cleaner and my idea of a clean carpet was redefined thanks to the Rug Doctor. Right before the 4th of July, I did a rug cleaning with my previous rug cleaning machine and as I said before, it did a decent job. I had guests over which created a lot of foot traffic across the carpets and by the next day, the carpets were in need of another cleaning. I got the Rug Doctor Pro and I was impressed by how EASY it was to set up the vacuum right out of the box. No tools needed. I had expectations of this Rug Doctor but I had never imagined that it would clean the carpets to near new clean! The dirt of the high traffic areas of the carpet was lifted and removed without having to go over them over and over like had done with the previous machine. Upon seeing how clean the immediate carpet was, I decided to move onto the rest of the rooms. I have to mention that the cleaning tank on the Rug Doctor Pro is large which reduces the need to empty and refill often. I did three medium-sized rooms on one tank whereas, with my previous machine, I would have to empty it at least three times. What was even more amazing was that the Rug Doctor erased a longstanding problem area on the carpet that occurred when a friend’s dog had an ‘accident’ months prior. In the past, no matter how often I used my other rug machine or the type of super cleaner liquid I used, there was always a ‘ghost’ outline of where the accident occurred. The Rug Doctor tackled that area with ease and now the carpet looks clean and blends with the rest of the floor. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see it like that ever again. I also have to mention the fact that there’s hardly any wetness after you clean the carpet whereas my previous machine had me opening doors and windows in order to expedite the drying process. The Rug Doctor Pro has some reasonable weight to it and basically requires the user to use both hands when pushing and pulling it. There are no attachment hoses that come with the Rug Doctor but you can purchase the cleaning hose separately if you should desire. And a nice little bonus is that the Rug Doctor handle folds down to allow you to store it in a closet etc. Whether you are looking to maintain your new carpets or if you’re looking to give new life to your existing ones, the Rug Doctor Pro is the answer.