Check out our Rug Doctor Carpet Cleaner review below - where we showcase its capabilities to keep your home clean. We put The Rug Doctor Spot Portable Cylinder Carpet Cleaner through its paces to see how it compares to other carpet and upholstery cleaners on the market. Though carpets are great for creating a cosy living space, they're also a minefield for trapping dirt, dust and bacteria, especially if you have furry friends. So, we've searched high and low for the best carpet cleaners for your home.
Deep cleaning the carpets may be your least favourite task, especially if you have an entirely carpeted home. However, you can get the job done pretty quickly with the right carpet cleaner. Nifty, right? For you animal lovers, you can get carpet cleaners for pets - to get rid of any unsightly stains that the new puppy is responsible for. Essentially, carpet cleaners look similar to vacuum cleaners and you operate them in a similar fashion. Typically, you fill them with water and a specially formulated cleaning solution. This will clean your carpet, leaving it looking fresh.
If you're looking for something pet-centric, check out our review of the Vax Dual Power Pet Cleaner.
Pros
- Suitable for carpets, upholstery and fabrics
- Sucks up spills with edge-to-edge cleaning
- Motorised hand brush and upholstery tool
Cons
- Noisier than other cleaners
- Not lightweight for all
- Would fare better with a flat base
| Dimensions | 41 x 28 x 40 cm |
| Suitability | Suitable for carpets, stairs and upholstery and IPX4 rated for outdoor use |
| Clean / Dirty Water Capacity | 1.9L |
| Weight | 7.45kg |
| Power | 1100W |
| Handle | Yes - perfect for carrying |
| Tools | Yes - for upholstery |
| Power Cord | 4.6m |
| Hose | 1.7m |
| Guarantee | Manufacturer's 2 year guarantee. |
- Quickly tackles stains deep on carpets, car interiors, upholstery and fabrics.
- Safety cut-out indicator when the tank is full.
- Edge-to-edge cleaning and sucks up spills.
- Powerful motorised hand brush and upholstery tool.
Key features
Versatility
The Rug Doctor Carpet Cleaner is versatile, as it can tackle most carpeted surfaces. As well as cleaner for upholstery, this piece of kit can tackle carpets and fabrics with ease. It can even be used outdoors.
Tools
This Rug Doctor model comes with a Dual-Action Motorised Brush and a large water tank. According to the brand, this is the only portable spot cleaner with a motorised brush to tackle your unique cleaning needs. Nifty, right?
Design
Lightweight and convenient, this Rug Doctor cleaner comes complete with wheels and a retractable handle for increased manoeuvrability around the household. It's never been easier to give your carpets the once-over.
Testing the Rug Doctor Carpet Cleaner
We’ve all had that stomach-dropping moment when a cup of tea goes flying, or the children walk mud through the house – there is certainly plenty of that going on in our household! So, we decided to test the limits of this cleaner on a range of stains. Overall, we were happy with the results:
Mud: Excellent, the mud was gone in a jiffy!
Make-up: This was a challenge – the make-up had been there for some time. We sprayed it several times and worked on it very firmly with the head. A light stain still remains on this one.
Red wine on a dark sofa: A couple of agitations with the head and the stain was just about gone. Totally gone after several minutes of moving the head over it.
Tea: Easy as the mud!
It’s simple to use - fill the tank with water, add the solution as instructed and away you go. Plus, there’s a sprayer under the motorised head to squirt out the solution, we left it for a couple of minutes to soak in each time for maximum effect. The head then sucks up the dirt into the dirty water tank while the brushes rotate to remove the stain.
Final Verdict
Yours would recommend the Rug Doctor, but it’s a heavyweight piece of kit.
So, it's best if you have strong arms or an assistant as it is quite cumbersome to move around the house and significantly up the stairs. Another issue we had: it comes on wheels but cannot be laid flat. As we discovered, if you do this the water leaks out! It behaves a little like a pull-along suitcase with a pull-out handle.
There was one tricky thing – when you remove the water tank to fill, it is not possible to stand this flat – here some people may need assistance to hold it when you then add the solution. As a machine, it’s also pretty noisy, but it’s not designed to clean your whole carpet – the head is too small to attempt that. If you can put up with the noise, by and large, it does the job and is perfect for day-to-day spillages that can be quickly removed.
Overall, I would recommend this product above others on the market. Rug Doctor is a reliable brand. It feels like good quality and is worth the money if you have a lot of little spills to contend with. As for improvements, this cleaner could be a little less noisy and lighter, with the ability to lie flat. Also, it would be much easier to fill the tank if this had a flat base.
Piper Huxley is a Homes, Garden and Wellness Product Writer for Yours, an all-rounder when it comes to home and wellness. When she’s not at her desk, she’s practising yoga, cooking up a storm or tending to her houseplants.
