Whether you have just a few area rugs or a whole house full of carpeted rooms to clean, you’re facing the same question: Should you rent a carpet cleaner, buy one, or hire someone to do the job?
The answer depends on your budget and how much work you want to do—and in some cases, exactly how much carpet you have to clean.
MORE ON CARPET CLEANERS
5 Best Carpet Cleaners of 2024, Lab-Tested and Reviewed
Best Portable Carpet Cleaners of 2024
5 Things to Know Before Buying a Carpet Cleaner
Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaners vs. Resolve Sprays
When you rent a carpet cleaner once, you pay less than you would to buy one outright, and you also don’t have a large appliance to store in your home. You’ll still have to buy the cleaning solution, though, the same as you would if you owned the carpet cleaner. And if you clean your carpets more than a handful of times, it’s more economical to own a carpet cleaner.
Hiring a service is almost always going to be more expensive than renting a cleaner or even buying one. But one big perk of hiring a service is, of course, not having to do the (possibly grueling) work yourself—and professionals will know the best way to handle different types of carpets and get them thoroughly clean. Many cleaning services will also do the work of moving your furniture off the carpets beforehand, not to mention lugging the equipment in and out of your house or apartment.
With all of the above in mind, we priced the options for a home with three fully carpeted rooms (with a maximum of 300 square feet each) and three large area rugs (8x10 feet each). That means a total of 1,140 square feet of carpet to clean. To give you a sense of how costs can vary regionally, we priced the cleaning of this amount of carpet for theoretical homes in Kansas City, Mo., and New York City.
We factored in a standard price for cleaning solution, too. If you use carpet cleaning solution from Resolve—a brand that’s compatible with carpet cleaners from Rug Doctor, Bissell, and Hoover—you can clean up to 1,600 square feet per 60-ounce bottle. So you can clean that 1,140 square feet of carpet on a single bottle that costs $18.95.
Here’s what it would cost to clean that amount of carpet when you rent a carpet cleaner, buy one, or hire a service in Kansas City and New York.
Renting a Carpet Cleaner
Rug Doctor is a big name in carpet cleaner rentals, and Home Depot offers its machines for about $40 per day. That price applies to both Kansas City and New York City. Add in our bottle of Resolve carpet cleaning solution ($18.95) and you can clean your carpets for less than $60.
Total: $58.95 per cleaning
Hiring a Carpet-Cleaning Service
Hiring a service is where cost can differ greatly depending on where you live. We got price quotes from Stanley Steemer, a company that comes to your home with its own equipment to clean your carpets (and it can also clean other parts of your home, like upholstery, hardwood, and bathroom tile). It charges by the room for wall-to-wall carpet (with a set price for carpeted rooms up to 300 square feet each), but it has a separate pricing system for area rugs, which may require more specialized care. The minimum charge to hire its service varies from place to place: In Kansas City, the minimum is $125; in New York City, it’s $500.
That means you wouldn’t hire this service to clean a single carpet in your home—but because we’re looking at 1,140 square feet of carpet, including some area rugs, the quote for each location clears the minimum.
Total for Kansas City: $403 per cleaning
Total for New York City: $701 per cleaning
Buying a Carpet Cleaner
Although buying a carpet cleaner will cost you more up front than renting one, it will almost certainly be cheaper than hiring a service, especially since you’ll be able to use the appliance as often as you need. Our top-rated carpet cleaner, theBissell ProHeat 2x Revolution Pet Pro Plus, costs about $240, and theHoover PowerDash Pet Advanced—also a strong performer and our fifth-highest-rated model—costs just $140. Both come with CR’s Recommended seal. Below are the totals you’ll spend for the initial cleaning session, including the cost of one bottle of cleaning solution. Of course, the per-cleaning price will drop each time you use the carpet cleaner.
Total for the Bissell ProHeat 2x Revolution Pet Pro Plus: $258.95 for the initial cleaning
Total for the Hoover PowerDash Pet Advanced: $158.95 for the initial cleaning
Best Carpet Cleaners
If you decide to buy a carpet cleaner, the good news is that there are excellent models at a range of prices. They come with a variety of extra tools to help clean specific things like furniture upholstery, pet messes, and hard-to-reach spaces.
The models below are some of the top performers in our lab tests, but you can see more options in our carpet cleaner ratings—and consult our buying guide for more information about how to choose the right carpet cleaner for your home.
Molly Bradley
Molly Bradley is a home and appliance writer at Consumer Reports. Before joining CR in 2023, she managed the editorial team at Digg, and has devoted her career to helping readers navigate the world and make their lives a little easier, elucidating topics in technology and culture. Molly earned a master’s degree in writing from Bennington College and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her cat, Saltine. Follow her on X @mollyguinn.
