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The Rug Doctor gets deep into carpets, but some features might leave you wondering if you should buy this heavy-duty cleaner.
The Rug Doctor is a well-known carpet cleaner that gets deep into thick carpets. It is very efficient for removing tough stains. However, a few of its features might leave you wondering if you should buy it.
Well, with this in-depth review of the notorious Rug Doctor, you won’t be scratching your head any longer.
After reading this review, you’ll know the good and the bad of the Rug Doctor; and other powerful vacuums that are better cleaners with a lower price tag.
Since there aren’t many in-depth rug doctor reviews, we made one that’ll help you decide whether or not it’s right for you.
So, let’s dive right in!
How to Use a Rug Doctor
Using a rug doctor is fairly simple to use.
Here’s a short and detailed video that will show you how to use a rug doctor and get your carpets cleaned quickly:
Specs
Weight: 25 lbs
Tank Capacity: 1 gallon
Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 11.5 x 43.5 inches
Cleaning Path: 12 inches
Hose Length: 7.8 feet
Cord Length: 28 feet
Warranty: 2 years
What’s Included: Machine, small storage container, and upholstery tool
Setup: Simple and Surprising
The Rug Doctor is ready to go right out of the box-which is big. Simply plug it in, then fill the tank with a cleaning solution of your choice.
Read our review for a list of the best carpet solutions to use with your Rug Doctor. After this quick setup, start cleaning right away.
Despite the easy setup, we were surprised because of how often we had to refill the water tank.
Performance: Deeply Cleans Carpets
The Rug Doctor gets deep into carpets and removes embedded dirt and grime.
With stiff bristles that clean the rug from every angle, this heavy-duty cleaner takes out a lot of dirt from carpets filled with bacteria and particles.
Despite its powerful performance, we had to go over the carpet in our office three times to remove all of the dirt that was deeply embedded.
This carpet cleaner also has an optional “Super Boost” feature, which is built mainly for high-traffic areas. Using this feature is quite simple: flip the switch, press the normal trigger, and let the stream of fluid do its job.
This feature seems like it would deliver extra cleaning to the dirty area. However, it’s not designed well. Since you must pull the Rug Doctor backward to use it; combined with the liquid stream that’s located on the machine’s back, the Super Boost feature will not reach the front parts of the dirty rug.
You’ll have to awkwardly maneuver the Rug Doctor to get the Super Boost feature to actually work. We recommend just using the hand tool because it’s much easier and hassle-free. A common theme with the Rug Doctor is that it cleans well, but can be a big hassle to use, especially with the “Super Boost” feature.
Stain Removal: Removes Set-In Stains
To see if what the Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner claims to be is true, we stained a testing rug with everything we had available: mustard, ketchup, sauces, coffee, and even some dirt. After the stains had some time to dry, we used the Rug Doctor to try to get rid of them.
Going over each stain 2-3 times with the Rug Doctor hand tool, we wanted to see how many passes it would take to fully remove the stains.
The carpet cleaner did a fairly good job of removing the stains. The majority of the sauces, coffee, dirt, and condiments were removed. What was left would only be visible if someone was laying down on the carpet and looking at the faded stains.
Design: Simple With Odd Features
The Rug Doctor has some features that might leave you scratching your head-and your floor. The process of filling the water tank is fairly awkward.
Since the twist-off cap is built to be on the side of the tank, we had to hold it horizontally under the faucet to fill the tank up. We recommend to put the cap back on to carry it; since if you pick up the tank by its handle, it will tilt and spill resulting in lost effort and time.
We also noticed that the water port leaks enough to leave a trail of water on the floor as you get ready to clean with the machine. Despite this design error, we liked that the cap allowed us to measure the soap without a seperate measuring cup prepared.
Most important of all is that you can’t use the Rug Doctor like other carpet cleaners. We had to pull it backward, release the trigger, tilt the machine up in the front, and then do another pass on the carpet.
This process is very awkward and for people who don’t enjoy using bulky and hard to move vacuums, we don’t recommend the Rug Doctor for you.
However, there are a handful of alternatives that are lightweight, versatile, and much easier for your back and bank account.
