Unfortunately, many cordless shop vacuum owners only use them to clean up water or debris off a floor surface. The fact of the matter is they have so many more uses than that. One of them is they are versatile enough to even clean your carpet with. Maybe you are skeptical about trying this? That is exactly why we have written this article in it. It contains information that will tell you how to use your cordless wet/dry vacuum as a handy carpet cleaning tool.
Why Use A Wet Dry Vacuum To Clean Carpets?
Have you ever looked closely at a carpet cleaning machine? They basically have three functions. They spray detergent solution on your carpet, agitate that solution to loosen up dirt and then they soak up the dirty water so the carpet is mostly dry. So that basically means they are part carpet agitator and part wet dry vacuum. You see where we are going here.
So if you don’t mind spending a little extra time using a spray bottle to apply detergent to your carpet and scrubbing your heavily stained spots by hand, then you pretty much have it all covered as far as using your cordless shop vacuum to clean your carpets with.
You may cost yourself a little time and put a little more effort into cleaning your carpets with a cordless shop vacuum, but you will also save the money you would have spent renting an expensive carpet cleaning machine.
Step By Step Carpet Cleaning with a Cordless Shop Vacuum
Here are the steps you need to do in order to get your carpets spotlessly clean using your cordless wet dry vacuum.
- Step 1: It takes a lot of battery power to soak up water out of carpets with your cordless shop vacuum. That means you need to plug in your battery and charge it several hours before you start your carpet cleaning project. This will help you avoid having to stop and charge up your battery when you are only half way through cleaning your carpets.
- Step 2: It’s much easier to clean your carpet if you do not have to constantly move the furniture around that is on it. That is why we recommended moving some or all of the furniture from the room that contains the carpet you are about to clean.
- Step 3: Next you will need to mix up your carpet cleaning solution. You can mix up a store bought carpet cleaning solution or make your own natural carpet cleaning solution using vinegar, baking soda and water. Simply mix 3 tablespoons of vinegar with 3 teaspoons of baking soda in a small pail full of warm water. Don’t worry once this solution dries the strong vinegar smell will completely disappear.
- Step 4: Soak your carpet liberally with the cleaning solution and you may even apply the solution by using a small battery operated paint sprayer if you want.
- Step 5: You don’t have to do anything special to clean up a carpet that is not soiled badly. Just soaking it good with the solution and vacuuming it up with your cordless wet dry vacuum will do. However, we do recommend gently scrubbing any spots with a scrub brush that appear heavily soiled or stained.
- Step 6: If you have a hose for your cordless vacuum put it on along with the water sucking attachment. Start sucking up the cleaning solution at the furthest point away from the exit from the room. It’s best to suck up the water by moving the attachment in a straight forward and back motion. Don’t go side to side or in a circular motion. It’s ok to go over severely wet areas more than once.
- Step 7: Clean both the filter and the dirty water tank on your cordless shop vacuum as soon as you are done soaking up the excess carpet cleaning solution. If you wait to clean your filter it will be much more difficult to clean later.
- Step 8: To speed up the carpet drying process you can set up an electric fan. If you set the fan to oscillate it will dry the whole carpet in a room much faster.
A Great Cordless Wet Dry for Cleaning Carpets
Here is one of our favorite cordless wet dry vacuums to use for cleaning carpets:
PROTEAM PROGUARD LI 3 CORDLESS WET-DRY VACUUM
Not every cordless shop vacuum is good to use for cleaning up your carpets but this model from ProTeam sure is. It has very good suction and unique hose that make quick work of soaking up the dirty water after you have cleaned your carpets. It has such good suction that it will take very little time for your newly cleaned carpets to dry after you use this nice cordless shop vacuum on them.
You can twist and turn its suction hose all you want and it won’t kink up or not. That’s very rare in the world of shop vacuums. Its fine particle filter will also separate the debris from the dirty water it picks up. That makes it much easier to dump and clean. It will hold 3-gallons of water before you need to empty it too.
It weighs less than 11 pounds and it is one of the few cordless shop vacuum models that actually INCLUDE the battery and charger it needs to operate.
Pros:
- Tool-less fine particle filter changes
- 2-foot to 7-foot stretch hose
- Holds up to 3 gallons of water
- Weighs less than 11 pounds
- 18-volt Lithium Ion battery and charger included
- Many accessories included
Cons:
- No HEPA filtration
- Heavy when its filled with 3 gallons of water