Residential

[Kenny1]

What or which is the best machine to use with residential carpet cleaning?

[encapman]

Hot water extraction is still the most common and effective method for serious residential work. A good portable can be used... http://www.excellent-supply.com/TruckPor...p_345.html Or you could get into a truck mount unit.

That being said, there are a number of guys cleaning residential with Low Moisture equipment. There's a company in our town that is very successful, and all they use are CRB machines along with Releasit. The BrushEncap is an excellent CRB... http://www.excellent-supply.com/BrushEnc...p_101.html

There are other cleaners who use bonnet or OP equipment. And if you use a good encap detergent like Releasit, you'll actually be combining 2 methods (bonnet absorption, and encapsulation). The Vario would be a nice choice for that... http://www.excellent-supply.com/VARIO-Or...p_563.html

So there you have 3 options. I din't give you ONE BEST CHOICE, because frankly there is no ONE BEST CHOICE. There are many variables and decisions that influence the choices made. And I encourage other folks here to chime in and share their views too. If you have additional questions let me know, and I can try to answer them for you.

[Blue Ridge Floor Care]

If you don't want to fool with hot water extraction, Rick's chemicals, a CRB, and an OP or rotary machine makes a killer system for cleaning residential. There's not much you won't be able to clean. Keep your prices up and you can avoid cleaning most of the filthy, trashed carpet that you see in the low end market.

[Kenny1]

Rick,

Thank you for the response. Also which of the 3 options would work best also for stairs ie the machine.

[encapman]

For stairs you could use the TruckPort extractor with an upholstery or stair tool - if you decide to go with a portable.
(By the way, the TruckPort is a seriously nice machine for the price - plenty of bang for the buck)

Or if you decide to go with a low moisture machine you could do really well with the Gecko spotting extractor. ..
http://www.excellent-supply.com/Gecko-Sp...p_249.html

I like to always have a small porty like the Gecko on hand, regardless of which path you take, because it gives you a lot of flexibility. You can do spotting, upholstery, stairs. The Gecko covers a lot of ground.

A Drill Driver is also a handy tool for scrubbing or bonnet cleaning stairs...
http://www.excellent-supply.com/8-inch-D..._p_10.html

[CleanItGreen]

I use the cimex for residential and I've only had one unhappy customer (they really wanted extraction). I have a procaps CRB machine as well but I didn't get it with a tank so I prefer the cimex because otherwise I have to do the extra step of spraying solution. For stairs I either spray and use the zebra brush or use a cimex pad or cotton bonnet with green stripe on the drill driver.

[Act One Cleaning]

Just to chime in on the chemicals, today the elf and I cleaned a thick shag residential carpet that hadn't been done in seven years.  It had well defined traffic zones and the stairs were pretty awful.  The customer listened to the choices offered and chose encap, so we did the usual deck clearing, slow vacuuming, prespray and CRB cleaning using HydrOx.  On the stairs I used a car polisher as a mini OP, with microfiber towels as pads.  Washing and wringing out the towels,  they gave up very dark liquid.

Looked lots better, but I could still see the traffic  stain on the stairs.  So I used Punch and re-did them like before, but when I wrung them out, there was very little dirt!  So I broke out the portable HWE and extracted the stairs.  The waste water certainly had dirt, but mostly the water was gray from the Encap products.  I'd say  it was a little improvement over the encap and "bonnet" clean, but not much.  

Finally I told the homeowner to let it all just dry (the stairs, not the rest, which was already nearly dry) and see how it all looks to her then.  

The point is that the encapping worked at least as well as if I'd done a normal hot water extraction.  I put enough to do the shag, let it dwell and gave it a real good scrub, then a recovery pass (with the Duplex 420).  It worked pretty well, "apparent dirt" notwithstanding.  

However, just to be sure, if she calls and isn't happy I'll go back in with a strong detergent and HWE, to see if that does anything new.  If it doesn't change, then I wasted time but kept my word.  No one technique works for every situation, Right?  The takeaway is to confidently use Releasit products, have a plan B and you are going to give great service.