Rent Or Buy?

For the last several years, I've been renting out a commercial carpet cleaner from Home Depot for cleaning our carpets. Every 2 to 3 months, I go to Home Depot, usually on a Friday evening and rent out the cleaner for the minimum duration, 4 hours. Because they close at 9 pm, they let me keep the cleaner overnight till 9 am the following day.

When we first bought our house, the plan was to replace all the carpet with either laminate flooring or ceramic tiles. The people previously living in the house had carpeted the entire house with the exception of the kitchen and the adjoining breakfast area. With kids in the house, it is no joke trying to clean 2,000 square feet of carpet.

Over time we have replaced the carpet in the bathrooms, family, dining and the living rooms, all which were the most trafficked areas in the house. With the exception of the stairs leading to the basement and upstairs, the bedrooms and the play area in the basement are okay with the carpet.

Back then, I thought we will replace all the carpet but this has not been the case 5 years later and it doesn't look like we will replace any more carpet.

When I first rented out the commercial cleaner, I considered buying one from Home Depot but I put off the idea. Instead, I have been paying around $20 for the 4 hour minimum rental. Multiply this amount by the 4 to 6 times I have rented it out per year and it works out to around $100 for year. The commercial carpet cleaners that I usually rent, retails for around $800 but Home Depot sells used ones for around $400. Instead of buying one, we bought a small carpet cleaner for handling minor spills and relied on the rental for major carpet cleaning.

The last time I rented one in March this year, I decided to reconsider buying a carpet cleaner once and for all. And when the time came for cleaning the carpet this month I started researching online on the various carpet cleaners. My quest for a carpet cleaner took me to Sears and with the help of the associate I was able to identify a suitable one going for $239 plus tax. Rather than buy it immediately, I decided to compare its price in the other stores.

The carpet cleaner was not available in Wal-Mart but I found it at Best Buy retailing for $199 plus tax. And when I went to check its reviews online, I found that it was on sale for $175. With a printout of the internet price, I went to Best Buy and bought the cleaner for the lower price.

I have since used the carpet cleaner and I must say that I regret not buying one earlier because I have spent more than $500 since I first started renting a carpet cleaner. Unlike with the rental unit that forces me to do all the carpet cleaning at once, with the new unit I can do one area at a time.

I was fearing that it will not be as good as the commercial carpet cleaners but it has done a good job so far. My fear is that the carpet cleaner has too many plastic parts which makes it prone to breakages. And from reading the complaints online, the parts don't come cheap. I could have paid another $50 for the extended warranty but I am hoping that by the time it conks out it will have paid for itself and there will be better models.