When I am called out to do a mold audit on a house and the issue is kids are always sick. One of the very first things I check is the carpet. Using a device called a "carpet check" I vacuum a small devoted section of the carpet. Looking under a microscope it looks like one of those old Godzilla movies. All sorts of critters and mold spores present. Even in the cleanest of homes. If you add moisture to the carpet more then once a year your elevating your chance to have mold develop in great numbers.

Have you ever seen them do a carpet drying when a flood occurs? They remove a small area off of the wall and place their fans under the padding and then use high pressure fans to push out the moisture. Simple vacuuming will not work. These fans cause the carpet to rise up like a balloon while high capacity air dryers are used to draw the humidity out when the fans run. Even using a high power shop vacuum that is designed to pick up water is not enough to remove the moisture fast enough to prevent mold from occurring.

But if you do use these machines do not soak the carpet only spritz it lightly. Many machines on the market put out way to much water in a single pass.

I would recommend the Hoover Platinum machine based on the 6 year warranty alone but it really does an excellent job of cleaning too. I love that it has not only a tank for soapy water but it also has one for clean water, which is great for rinsing. (Soap residue attracts dirt so the more you can rinse out, the better.) The machine also has fantastic suction so my carpets dry very quickly, even though I do a lot of rinsing. Typically, by the time I'm done cleaning a couple rooms, the first area I cleaned is already dry.

If your carpets aren't very dirty, or you don't need them cleaned often, you might decide hiring a carpet cleaning company, or renting a machine is the way to go for you. I've done both before. The carpet cleaning companies didn't really do that great of a job and most certainly didn't put much effort into getting the high traffic areas or tough spots clean. As far as renting goes...recently, when I was waiting for a replacement Platinum machine to be sent by Hoover, I rented a Rug Doctor machine and was NOT impressed. It was awkward and hard to manuver, it took twice the work because it cleaned only on the back stroke, and it had virtually no suction so my carpets were still wet the next day.

Personally, I like to keep a can of "Spot Shot" on hand for small spot cleaning, reserving the Hoover for the complete carpet cleaning. Keys to a thorough cleaning are: pretreating spots and thorough rinsing after cleaning the carpets, with as complete extraction as possible. I spend so much time extracting during the cleaning, it's nuts, but my carpets are dry within 1 hr. afterwards. My philosophy is, if there's water, then there's dirt w/that water in the carpet. While I feel all carpet cleaners leave some dirt in the carpet, at least I know I got a good portion of the dirt out and have killed/removed dust mites at the same time.

In any case it is no different then using a shop vacuum to clean the wood dust in the shop then using it to vacuum a carpet in the house. The dust will never see the carpet.

Just be sure to rent it from a reliable rental store. And check its operation out before leaving. They will turn it on and run it., So if smells are an issue you will see (smell) that right off. But it is highly unlikely that you will get a machine from a reliable rental center that will not have been properly rinsed out. They make money from those who do not bring back machines clean. And charge them a lot to clean them. At least that is the case with those that are around my area.