Possible to get a good steamer on a budget?

So I've been contemplating getting a steamer or hot water extractor (Don't really know much about the latter) or whatever would be best for deep cleaning carpets and convertible tops. Any recommendations on a budget of $200? Or are the worth while units outside of that price range?

 

I have both and they were well above your budget, unfortunately.
But I use mine in my business and perhaps you are looking for tools just to keep your vehicles clean ?

An Extractor will be a very powerful vacuum and another pump to pressurize water, and possibly an in-line heater and a couple of tanks, on wheels. Mine is the Mytee HP60 Spyder. It is great at deep cleaning carpets, cloth seats, interiors, and totally cleaning Convertible Tops and extracting all the gunk that sticks to the fabric, You would be amazed at the color of the water in my Extractor tank after steaming, cleaning, and extracting carpets and mats in a vehicle that doesnt look all the dirty to begin with.. It is stunning how much dirt is down there rolling around even after you have vacuumed the begeezus out of the same areas !

There are some combination units that use steam and extraction all in one machine, but I dont know how powerful they are when it comes to things like water lift in inches, etc... And these combination machines are well above a lot of budgets out there too.

I have heard of some using little steam machines something called Green Machine or something, perhaps someone will chime in on the smaller units.

Good luck with your research !
Dan F

 

Awhile back someone recommended the Bissell Little Green ProHeat, and I ended up getting one recently and was very pleasantly surprised at the great job it did. Just \used some Folex to pre-treat, let dwell, then agitate, and then used the cleaning solution they supplied. I looked around quite a bit, and this is the best deal that I found: TaraKit.com - Little Green ProHeat It didn't come with the Turbo Brush that it said it did (I was ready to buy one on eBay), but I found that I didn't need it after all. If you envision having really tough stains it might be worth buying one of them, though.

 

Haha, yes! Forgot to mention that you can also find what appears to be virtually the same thing in a black version called Auto Care instead of Little Green.

 

This will be mostly for personal use, but I do some detailing for customers as well. I'll look into the Bissel Pro Heat. I know my Mom used to have the non heat version for cleaning the carpet in her house after dog stains and she was pretty happy with it. How hot does the ProHeat get the water?

 

Don't know actual temp, but it was pretty warm for sure.

 

I'm also looking at this steamer

Amazon.com: McCulloch MC-1275 Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner: Home & Garden

 

This is closer to your buget and a little more durable than those cheaper units. I myself have a VX5000 that I just recently aquired from KenB . I love it In conjunction with my my Aztec Hot Rod I can Tackle just about anything. I use these for maintaing my 3 vehicles and I have a little weekend Biz I do . So these pay for them selves quite quickly.

[video=youtube;CIhdCIE1GRg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIhdCIE1GRg&feature=player_detailpage[/video]

 

Is there a link missing from that post?

 

No I did not include one. Out of respect to Phil I don't link to competitors sites. The cost. Is 299.00 . Just do a search as its available from a few places

Sent from My Photon 4G

 

thanks!

 

Oh, my phone didn't include the Youtube video. I'll look into it.

 

I have this unit and have had it for about 2 years and for what i do (personal cars and small weekend details) it works great!! Still works as good as it did on day one no leaks or anything harbor fright is a really good place to get it considering they always have a 20 percent off coupon.

 

Good to hear, I think I probably will pick up the cheaper one because I'm also looking to pick up a Metro Vac N Blo, and don't want to break the bank right before Christmas :

 

Does anyone on here have experience with Shop Vacs and their ability to lift water out of carpets? There are 5-6hp shop vacs all over the place for under $100

 

My Kobalt kvm508 does pretty well,however I normally just use my bissell. You want to look at the cfm's and water lift numbers I believe, somebody correct me if I am wrong.