# Carpet cleaning: how long to dry?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carpet-cleaning-how-long-to-dry/408278>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 16, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carpet-cleaning-how-long-to-dry/408278 "2007-06-16T19:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carpet-cleaning-how-long-to-dry/408278/1 "2007-06-16T19:15:36Z")

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I’m moving at the end of the month and plan to clean the carpets myself with one of those rental carpet cleaners. How long should I plan to leave the carpet to dry?

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**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carpet-cleaning-how-long-to-dry/408278/2 "2007-06-16T20:00:13Z")

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Here in 15% humidity, about 6 hours to dry. There in 80-90% humidity usually (at least that’s what I remember from living there years ago), I’d say 2 days.

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**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carpet-cleaning-how-long-to-dry/408278/3 "2007-06-16T22:30:45Z")

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I cleaned our carpets last Saturday evening, with an industrial cleaner from Home Depot, and they were completely dry by Monday morning. If you used a machine from the supermarket, I suspect it’d have much less suction power, and take longer for the carpet to dry. I recommend you get a machine from HD, if there’s one in your area. The main drawback is that you have to drag it backwards all over your house, but it does a good job.

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carpet-cleaning-how-long-to-dry/408278/4 "2007-06-18T00:48:56Z")

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The rental cleaners will take 2-3 days to dry, depending on your humidity and how worn-out the machine is.

If you can find a friend who owns one of the Bissel or Hoover carpet cleaners, thise things pull out the water a lot better, and the carpets will be dry within a day.