Carpet cleaning w/pets

[Optimist]

I really do not like wall to wall carpet. It ends up stinking after a while and hides dirt, while collecting every kind of animal hair and water drip out there. I also hate carpet, because my dogs see it as an appropriate place to pee. Back at my old place I had no carpet, just plain wood floors. After that, I had cement floors. Now, I have carpet, and I hate it. (Not to mention it is that brown splotched 70's "basement" carpet. Never allow a man to choose carpet, they will buy the mossy oak cammo carpet, and you'll be stuck with it).

My 2 dogs are quite bad with "going outside." I suppose i won't sit here and place blame. For a long time, I did not have any kind of yard, and the 2 dogs were trained to do their business in a litter tray (a large washing machine drip pan with newspaper on the bottom).

Last month I accidentally broke my extractor "Bissell" type carpet cleaner. There are 2 beater bars, and they will not turn any more. It still puts down the water liquid and sucks it up though.

It is almost, no matter how much I clean the carpet, the stains never come out!

I bought this carpet cleaner that the "cat whisperer" said was the best type he had ever used, and so he reccommends it. "Fizzion" which comes in pills that go into the water like old fashioned alka selzers.

I then started to watch some You tube videos about cleaning stains from carpet, and decided that I would get a steamer. These are the ones who get way hotter than the boiling point of water. They loosen dirt, but you have to tamp it down with a microfiber cloth in bit by bit manner. PITA.

So yesterday the steamer came, and I tried my first experiment. I used the steamer on a section of carpet that was really built up with stains. It was okay, but I did not feel it was totally lifting up the stains (it was, but very slowly, layer by layer.)

I sat down to think about it, and decided that I would put hot water, with the Fizzion in the carpet extractor, and follow the steaming with the extractor, thus sucking up the loose dirt the steamer loosened.

So I used the steamer, then made several passes with the extractor, and in minutes, the carpet looked new! Seriously, this worked.

It is a pain in the butt, because a steamer can only clean small areas at a time, but this method can get rid of "pee" stains, as well as the bacteria that causes the smell.

So, I thought I would share this on the pet forum!