Karcher SC1122 Steam Cleaner

...of his own, called a Karcher SC1122 and he was really raving about what a great job it had done on his own carpets. So, dad thought it would be a good idea to ask Joe if we could borrow his "to try it out", before we buy one of our own. On Friday of last week dad came home from work and lugged a bright yellow contraption into the house. He dumped it on the kitchen floor and announced that this was going to save us loads of money on new ...
...into the bargain!

Dad ate his tea then got to work. He took the cleaner out of it's box, said there was no need to read the instruction booklet it came with as Joe had explained how easy it was to use, and set to work. He decided to use it to clean the armchair first of all, which surprised us, as he hadn't mentioned cleaning chairs previously, only the carpets. We moved nan onto the sofa, and she had a moan as the armchair is her ... more

Our house is very overcrowded at the moment. Nan has been living with us since her stroke towards the back end of last year. As we have no spare room, she's been bedding down in my brother's room, and now my brother has been forced to sleep in the living room as I can't stand sharing a room with him any longer and I've turfed him out!

Nan's had a constant stream of visitors coming into see her on a regular basis and mum's getting all stressed out about the state of our carpets as she "doesn't like" to ask people to remove their outdoor shoes, and has been saying that they're a mess and we need new ones fitted! Dad, understandably, is panicking at the thought of how much new carpets will cost him and so the other night he came up with one of his bright ideas. Don't replace them - just clean the ones we already have! Great, we thought, but with what?

Dad has a mate at work in the showroom, called Joe who's recently bought a new steam cleaner of his own, called a Karcher SC1122 and he was really raving about what a great job it had done on his own carpets. So, dad thought it would be a good idea to ask Joe if we could borrow his "to try it out", before we buy one of our own. On Friday of last week dad came home from work and lugged a bright yellow contraption into the house. He dumped it on the kitchen floor and announced that this was going to save us loads of money on new carpets, give us nice clean upholstery and keep mum happy into the bargain!

Dad ate his tea then got to work. He took the cleaner out of it's box, said there was no need to read the instruction booklet it came with as Joe had explained how easy it was to use, and set to work. He decided to use it to clean the armchair first of all, which surprised us, as he hadn't mentioned cleaning chairs previously, only the carpets. We moved nan onto the sofa, and she had a moan as the armchair is her favourite place to sit, but we explained that once cleaned and dried, she'd be able to go back to her favourite chair very soon.

Dad put in about a litre of water and waited for it to heat up. It seemed to take forever and it made quite a loud noise like a very large kettle beginning to boil. It was really difficult to tell when the water was hot enough to use as there is no timer or buzzer to let you know when it's up to temperature. Dad said that Joe had told him to wait about ten minutes, so dad waited for fifteen, to be on the safe side.

He attached the upholstery nozzle and pressed the little trigger on the hose and out shot a huge jet of scalding hot steam. Dad was taken a bit by surprise, I think, as he wasn't aiming the hose in the right place and it sprayed over the coffee table and up the fireplace. The cat arched his back, hissed and then shot out of the room at top speed. Nan shouted at dad to "mind what you're doing man". Dad just muttered (and swore) and pressed the trigger again, this time taking care to aim it at the chair. He cleaned that chair for ages and ages. In fact, he seemed to clean it for so long that we kind of lost interest in what he was doing. Mum had to leave for her night job and dad continued until he was pleased with the finished result.

Afterwards, the chair was very wet and although it looked cleaner, you could sort of tell it was drenched and was going to take some time to dry out. Nan kept asking how long it was going to be before she could go back to 'her chair' and dad suggested I get the hairdryer to hurry up the drying process! I tried to dry it for about half an hour until my arm started to ache and I realised it wasn't really making much of a difference. Dad then left the chair and started to clean the stair carpets, which are a bit shabby and dirty as we've had them for so long.

About two hours later, dad was completely knackered. He was sweating hot very red in the face and swearing like you wouldn't believe! He shouted from the top of the stairs for me to make him a cold drink. Nan kept going on and on about moving back to her chair. To get some peace, dad suggested we push nan's chair into the kitchen, open the back door to let some air blow it dry, and then push nan and the sofa into the place where her chair usually rests. It was a struggle, but we managed between the two of us. Nan stopped moaning as she had a good view of the telly again, and we hoped the wind would do its work and blow-dry the armchair!

It didn't! Al that happened was that the house got colder and colder and the chair refused to get any dryer. The stair carpets, on the other hand, took considerably less time to dry out. In fact, I was quite impressed by the overall look of our newly cleaned stair carpets. I think dad just wasn't used to using the machine when he cleaned the chair and overdid the trigger which spurts out the steam.

The stair carpets were dry by the following day and mum was well impressed by the final result. It's Monday now and we've moved the armchair back into the living room but it's still not completely dry and mum's now fretting that it's going to start to smell if it takes any longer. Joe told dad to put Bounce tumble dryer sheets all over it to make it smell nice and so dad's done this. So, in our living room, we still have one damp armchair covered in about fifteen Bounce sheets and nan is still sitting on the sofa complaining that she can't see the telly properly!

Dad was going to use the machine to clean the curtains too but mum says that it's probably going to be easier to just take them down and put them in the washing machine. We've found the name of someone in our local paper who comes round to your house to professionally clean carpets and mum's just decided to use him instead, as she feels it'll probably be easier.

Dad's given the cleaner back to Joe and thanked him but said that we probably won't be buying one of our own, as they're just too much trouble. The lady who comes round with the Bettaware catalogues dropped one off at our house this weekend and as I was flicking through I saw one of these cleaners advertised in there for £130!! I told dad, but he said they could keep it, and that he'd rather pay some bloke to do it for him!! I reckon if you've got the time (not to mention the money and patience) then it might be worth you buying one of these, but I think it always pays to read the instruction booklet properly first and don't test it out for the first time on your favourite chair!! 

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