Consumer Reports said professional carpet cleaning is a $3 billion dollar a year industry. That's pretty exciting news for those in the business. The thought that Pros are getting rich, must have prompted them to test eight DIY carpet cleaning machines that are available for rent or purchase. They did a report on equipment, vacuum cleaners, cleaning solutions and spot removers.
For the cleaning tests, they spread top soil, wet it down and then used a heavy roller to mash it in. When dry, the carpet was vacuumed and then cleaned with 20 passes by each machine. They even hired a professional service for comparison and, happily for all of us, reported that none of the small machines did as good as the Pro. They concluded that it's a dirty, tiring job. Anyone in the cleaning business could have verified all of the above and not charged them a dime.
But, this is the part that really puzzles me. Instead of going to all that expense and trouble, why didn't Consumer Reports just call the CRI? CRI has tested hundreds of machines and cleaning agents. Could it be that Consumer Reports knew that the fake dirt used in CRI tests just doesn't measure up to the real soil we find in the carpets we clean for a living every day?
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