Make your carpets look good as new (1001 Carpet Shampoo with Fibreshield)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	1001 Carpet Shampoo with Fibreshield
Date:	26/03/08 (426 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: leaves carpets beautifully clean, cheap

Disadvantages: took a while to dry

I have mainly hard flooring in my house apart from the bedroom and hallways. I originally bought a bottle of 1001 carpet and upholstery cleaner to remove a stain on my bedroom carpet, but I ended up re-arranging the furniture, so the stain was covered anyway- problem solved! I do have a rug in my living room though, and it was looking a little bit scruffy, so I decided to shampoo it with this stuff.

~About the product~

This is a shampoo for carpets and upholstery which it states is especially for large areas. It contains Fibre Shield protection, although it doesn't really explain anywhere on the bottle what that actually is, but I assume it means that it protects the fibres of your carpet as it cleans.

~Packaging~

This comes in a yellow bottle with a dark blue screw top cap. It is similar to the picture above, but the colours are in reverse.

~Using it~

To use, you must first thoroughly vacuum the carpet. I would stress that you do need to make sure you have thoroughly vacuumed it, as although I did go over it with the hoover, I realised as I applied the shampoo the sponge was picking up loose hair and fluff which the vacuum cleaner obviously hadn't picked up.

Once this is done you then need to mix one part shampoo with six parts warm water, and whisk to make a foam. On the diagram on the back of the bottle, they are actually using a balloon whisk to mix the cleaner, but I wasn't keen on using my kitchen utensils on a chemical cleaner, so I put on rubber gloves, and just stirred it with my hand. That seemed fine and made a good amount of foam.

You then need to apply the foam to the area you wish to clean using a colourfast sponge or cloth, massaging into the area, but making sure it doesn't get too wet. If nothing else, this gives your arms a good workout!

Once this is done, you need to use a damp colourfast cloth to soak up the dirt and foam from the treated area. I thought I would actually see dirt on the cloth, but I couldn't, it was still white, so I was a bit sceptical as to whether or not it was working.
Also, at this point in the process I took off my gloves, but I still must have managed to get some on my hands, and it did make them feel really dry, so if possible I would recommend using rubber gloves throughout the whole cleaning process.

The final step is to wait until the carpet is dry and then vacuum the area. I found that it took quite a while to dry - about fiver or six hours, and bear in mind I had the heating on for some of this time too.

~Results~

I could see a difference even when the rug was still wet. It looked brighter and just generally cleaner. Once it was dry it still looked good, but the real difference was apparent when I vacuumed it. I think it could have been because the vacuum brought the pile up and made the rug look fluffier, but there was a real difference in it's appearance. The rug looked a lot brighter and fresher, and apart from one little mark which I noticed was still there, it actually looked like it was brand new. I have to say, I was really impressed.

~Price~

This costs £1.95 for a 450ml bottle from Wilkinsons.

~Conclusion~

I thought that the process for using this looked quite long, as there are several steps you need to go through, but in reality mixing the shampoo and applying it didn't take very long, even though the rug I was cleaning was fairly big.
The results were amazing, the rug looked absolutely fantastic, and as good as new. If you want to get your carpets clean, and looking fresh, I would definitely recommend this.

Summary: Fabulous product!