If you have kids, pets, or a messy spouse, you know how easily your brand new carpet can start to look dirty and dingy. When it comes to cleaning your carpet there are tons of options, which can get kind of confusing. A great and fairly effective option is steam cleaning. You can hire someone to steam clean your carpet, but this can be expensive and inconvenient for repeated cleanings. Sometimes it's much easier to do it yourself by renting or buying a steam cleaner. But before you invest in steam cleaning, here's some information to help you learn about the different steam cleaning options and hopefully make your carpet sparkling clean.

What most people consider a steam cleaner actually only uses hot water to clean the carpet, a cleaner that only uses steam is caller a vapor steam cleaner. Contrary to popular belief, this device doesn't actually clean your carpet, at least not on its own. A vapor steam cleaner uses a very dry steam to go deep into your carpet, loosen dirt, and bring it to the surface. The dirt can then be vacuumed up revealing a clean carpet. The biggest plus of vapor steam cleaners, besides that they deep clean and deodorize carpet, is that they can be used to clean tons of other things including upholstery, fabrics, sinks, mirrors, and even bathroom tile (you know this if you've watch those late night infomercials). These machines are very good for allergy sufferers because they kill mites, mold and mildew. Plus, they leave the carpet drier than other steam cleaners, so it's less likely to grow anything after the cleaning. And they don't require any chemicals so they're safe for kids and pets. The downside of vapor steam cleaners is that it only works as well as your vacuum. If you pull up all that dirt and the vacuum doesn't pick it up, it will just get pushed back into the carpet. It also is generally only used for spot cleaning and cannot be used on all types of carpets, so if you're considering getting one, be sure to research what kind of carpet you have and it if will work on it.

If you want to get a more versatile machine to clean all your carpets, you should consider getting a hot water “steam cleaner”. Hot water, usually with chemicals, is put into the carpet and then agitated with brushes. The dirty water is then sucked back up into the machine and put into a separate water bin for disposal. These machines are generally safe on most carpets depending on the type of chemicals used. However, they do soak the carpet and leave the area wet. This means you have to wait until the carpet dries to put everything back on the carpet. Wet carpet can also grow mold and mildew if left wet for too long. If you're worried about chemicals on your carpets, because of animals or children, you can skip the chemicals and clean you carpets with just water. This may not get out the toughest stains, but treating only portions of your carpet with chemicals is better than treating all of it when it doesn't really need it.

Remember, if you don't want to make an investment in buying a steam cleaner, you can always rent one. These are generally the hot water kind of steam cleaners and can be found at many different kinds of stores. However, if you need a cleaner for repeated use, you probably want to just buy one yourself.