Best Rental Carpet Cleaners

Renting a carpet cleaner

If you need a carpet cleaner for larger jobs, but don't have the funds or the storage space to store one, renting a carpet cleaner is a relatively cost-effective option. However, rental cleaners come with a few caveats. The editors of Good Housekeeping warn that rental machines are not usually new and may not be in the best condition. The difficulty of getting the rental machine home and returning it to the store afterwards is also a consideration. Finally, the editors caution renters not to overlook the cost of cleaning solution when calculating rental costs. The cleaning fluid generally is not included with the machine and must be bought separately.

The Rug Doctor, which offers machines for both home and commercial use, is probably the best-known brand of rental cleaner. Rug Doctor units (*Est. $20 per day and up) are available at more than 33,000 outlets nationwide, including a number of supermarket chains. A store locator on the company's website helps customers find a rental in their area. A wide-track model, which covers a 12.4-inch cleaning path (as compared to the smaller model's 10.4-inch path), may be available at some locations. Good Housekeeping has reviewed the Rug Doctor machines as part of its report on carpet cleaners. "It may take a few passes to learn how to maneuver," the editors report, "but its cleaning performance makes up for that." They say it does a good job of removing dirt and extracting water, and the controls are easy to understand. However, the machine is heavy. Also, the cleaner solution must be mixed with water in a bucket and transferred to the tank, a potentially messy process.

Rug Doctor also sells these machines, including the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro (*Est. $500) and Rug Doctor Wide Track (*Est. $690). The machines for home use are sold in blue to distinguish them from the rentals, which come in red. ConsumerReports.org evaluates the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro (the smaller of the two machines) in its latest test of carpet cleaners. Its findings were a bit different from Good Housekeeping's. In the portion of the report that can be viewed without a subscription, the editors say that while the Rug Doctor "cleaned as well as some of our top-rated machines," it also left a lot of water in the carpet. They recommend using a dehumidifier to speed up drying. The Rug Doctor Mighty Pro is also reviewed at ConsumerGuide.com, which says this machine yields truly professional results but also listed a few negatives. At 2.6 gallons, the Mighty Pro's tank is more than twice the size of other carpet cleaners, and it is very, very noisy (ConsumerGuide.com recommends earplugs) and heavy (36 pounds). Also, while its handle folds down, it's still a bulky machine that's a challenge to store. The Mighty Pro is available on Amazon.com and Target.com, where it receives a handful of mostly positive user reviews.

Another rental cleaner covered in Good Housekeeping is the Carpet Express, available for $25 a day from Home Depot. This machine did not perform as well as the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro, according to editors. Although its large solution tank allows you to clean several rooms before refilling it, its cleaning performance is only average, and testers found it hard to use. In addition to being bulky and heavy (traits it shares with the Rug Doctor rentals), its controls are not always intuitive. Although Good Housekeeping still recommends the Carpet Express, it seems clear that the Rug Doctor is a better choice if it is available in your area.