Carpet Wars

So a few weeks ago I posted about my Project Iron the Carpet where I literally ironed my carpet. I spent a total of 7 hours over 3 nights ironing my carpet and after awhile while those spots were cleaner, the rest of the carpet was just bad and continued to get worse, seeing as I let the carpet go for a week or two longer than I would have while I tried to figure out something else... While doing research on it I discovered that my problem was probably stemming from my over zealousness to get my carpet clean and I was therefore using too much soap and as I wasn't doing a water rinse. So there was quite the build up of what's called detergent residue. So I decided to go back to basics and keep things simple. So tonight I spent 2.5 hours cleaning my carpets, again. I first did a water rinse to try to get up some of the detergent residue and the recent dirty stuff up. I followed up with a vinegar wash. I used a half water half vinegar mix. Then followed with a second water rinse. I am confident that the carpet is the cleanest I am going to get it. I need to figure out a good carpet spot stain remover. Once I figure that out I think I'll have the carpet situation until complete control but for now I've got it under control...

Some things to note about this process. You can tell how clean I was getting the carpets by simply watching the water I was dumping. During the first water rinse it was a thick almost chalky soapy but not sudsy water, then during the vinegar wash it was just dirty, but then the second water rinse wasn't clear but it was certainly cleaner and more "dirty waterish" than the first water rinse. Also the carpet fibers had the same dirty to clean to them. The chunks of fibers that clump up kinda of like lint, went from black to a greyish to white like new fresh fiber was being pulled up. There was also a definite reduction in the amount of fiber pulled up too. Like I said I am confident that the carpet is as clean as I am going to get it. I just need to find a good set stain carpet remover and I'll have my carpet cleaning system down pat!

The Before

The After

The Before

The After