10 Best

Carpet Cleaning Shampoos

of June 2023

A luxurious rug or carpet lends a warm, cozy feel to your home. But, you’ll have to clean it regularly, and sometimes even vacuuming isn’t enough. You can use a professional rug cleaning service, but that’s only a realistic solution once or twice a year. When accidents occur, either due to spilling food or drink or from your pets, it’s best to have a carpet cleaning shampoo to help you get to the root of the problem. And the faster you attend to it, the easier it will be to get out the stain.

But, we’ll see that there are different types of carpet cleaning shampoos. Some are intended to be used with a carpet cleaning machine or steam cleaner. Other carpet cleaning solutions require nothing more than a vacuum cleaner to get out the mess. And there are special shampoos for organic messes, whether it’s food stains or an accident caused by your cat or dog.

We’ll go through some of the products in the Best Reviews Guide top 10 carpet cleaning shampoos. You’re bound to find something that’ll keep your carpet looking and smelling fresh!

Looking at the Best Reviews Guide list of carpet cleaning shampoos, we see that they come in two forms:

• Powdered carpet cleaner: With this type, you sprinkle the powdered product onto the area of the stain. The powder seeps into the stain and breaks it down. You can then vacuum up any remaining residue. The powder and the stain should disappear. One such product is the Capture Carpet & Rug Dry Cleaner. They recommend using another product, their Capture Pre-Mist, to moisten the area first and help activate the cleaning powder.

Capture Carpet & Rug Dry Cleaner

• Liquid and foam carpet cleaner: There are also liquid carpet cleaning shampoos, which you use in a carpet cleaning machine or portable sprayer. You add a designated amount of water to the machine, and then the liquid shampoo. The Kirby Professional Strength Carpet Shampoo for Pets is an example.

Kirby Professional Strength Carpet Shampoo for Pets

Some of them create foam when you mix it with water in the carpet cleaning machine. An example is the Kirby Pet Owners Foaming Carpet Shampoo.

Kirby Pet Owners Foaming Carpet Shampoo

We can also distinguish between the different shampoos by their cleaning action and active ingredients:

• Enzymatic Cleaners: The last product we discussed by Kirby uses enzyme-producing bacteria. This fascinating patent uses cultures to eat away at the source of the stain, whether it’s food, or animal waste such as feces, urine, or vomit. The bacteria create enzymes that further work to break down the stain. Another enzymatic cleaner is the Hoover Paws & Claws Deep Cleaning Carpet Shampoo.

Hoover Paws & Claws Deep Cleaning Carpet Shampoo

• Shampoos with oxygen bleach: There are also carpet cleaners that use oxygen bleach, instead of the more familiar chlorine bleach. When it combines with water, oxygen bleach starts to release oxygen bubbles, which lift away stains. One such product is the Bissell Professional Pet Urine Eliminator + Oxy Carpet Cleaning Formula.

Bissell Professional Pet Urine Eliminator + Oxy Carpet Cleaning Formula

• With non-ionic surfactants: Many carpet shampoos advertise that they contain “non-ionic surfactants”. “Surfactant” is a contraction of “surface active agent”. They are compounds that reduce the tension between molecules in a liquid so that it’s easier to break them down into smaller-sized particles that are easy to remove. These chemicals are especially effective in breaking down fats and oils and removing organic stains. That makes them perfect for the kind of messes you’ll expect on your carpet! An example is the Bissell Deep Clean Pro Carpet Shampoo.

Bissell Deep Clean Pro Carpet Shampoo

Here are some reactions from the customers who tried out these carpet cleaning shampoos:

• Even enough for skunk: It’s not recommended that you try to have a skunk as a pet, of course. But some products, such as the Bissell Professional Pet Urine Eliminator + Oxy Carpet Cleaning Formula, is strong enough for even getting out skunk odor!

• Powdered solutions as a great alternative: People were especially fond of the powdered products, such as Capture Dry Cleaner or the Oreck Dry Carpet Shampoo. They save the effort of having to buy a carpet shampoo machine, and they are effective against the common accidents such as cat urine or soiling.

Here are some tips on how to maximize the effectiveness of a carpet cleaning shampoo:

• May have to pretreat the area for tough stains: If you own a pet, you’re probably familiar with how they urinate in order to mark their territory. So, if you don’t manage to remove the odor from any residue from their previous “attempt”, they’ll probably try again—in exactly the same spot! So, you may find it necessary to pretreat the area, to ensure removing any remaining urine so that even your cat or dog won’t be able to locate it!

• Diluting the product: Some products, such as the Sunny & Honey Carpet Miracle, recommend diluting the shampoo, depending on the workload. If you’re treating light stains, use a solution of 25% shampoo/75% water. For normal cleaning, use a 50%-50% mix of shampoo and water. If there is heavy soiling, use the product without diluting it at all.

• Spot testing: Many of these carpet shampoos are verified to be mild enough to use around children and pets. Nonetheless, it’s recommended to do a spot test with the product on an inconspicuous area of your carpet, to verify that it won’t damage the color in any way.

Final Verdict

We went through some of the most popular carpet cleaning shampoos, noting how they work and what kind of stains they can treat. Some work best in a carpet cleaning machine, and you’ll have to make sure that your product is compatible with your particular machine. Other shampoos allow you to perform spot cleaning of the most soiled areas. Check out the Best Reviews Guide top 10 carpet cleaning shampoos. You’re sure to find a product that’s perfect for you!