Questions from a newbie

[Aussie Geoff]

I'm new to the carpet cleaning business and could use some advice from you experienced guys.

A little background: I decided to use encap as my bread and butter carpet cleaning technique, and I initially opted to go with a Procaps cylindrical brush machine for agitation. My supply guy here in town sold me on how a cimex would be better so I went with that. All fine and good, until I realized getting 125 pounds of unbalanced machine up and down residential stairs was a pain. So I went back and got the procaps machine. using bio encap (fits with my "green" theme) carpets looked great...except for the fact that stains and spills didn't really respond. so I picked up a spotting kit, and figured that would do the trick but I'm spending a lot of time dealing with spots and spills. A chance conversation with Rick, and he let me know that while encap and cimex were great for commercial, encap in general is not the best for residential. So after weighing getting a 175 or OP machine vs extractor, I ordered an extractor due to hearing from people who have had their carpets cleaned via someone with a 175 that spots simply reappeared soon after the cleaning and that the bonnets only clean the top part of the carpet.

Here is where I could use some feedback from you guys. Someone else told me that a 175 is great if used correctly, so now i'm again trying to decide whether to go get one and send the extractor back, get one and keep the extractor, or simply go the extraction route. my main issue is that I want to cut down on the time spent getting spots and stains out of carpet. encap hydrox seems to work better than bio encap, but again, i still end up getting stuff up by hand. Also, is there a general purpose spot remover that tends to work best on spots in carpets? fyi, I do have a hot water spot extractor.

thanks for the responses. i will sit back and learn.

If you ask a dealer what's best, they'll sell you what they sell.
It's better to do your research before you go shopping.
The more people you ask, the more opinions you'll get.
Though what suit one person may not suit the next guy.
The first question you have to decide on is what is your target market going to be?