Carpet cleaner vs Carpet Extractor with Heat

[matrips]

Has anyone used the heated carpet extractor?  Thinking of renting one from Home Depot for my kids dorm apartments when they move into them.  My main concern with carpet cleaners is mold- we live in Florida. I’m not too sure how well the air circulates in those dorm apartments. The extractor says it dries faster and uses less moisture.  The carpets are the thin industrial type carpets. (Not the kind that you have in your home). 
Also- I’ve never used such a machine. 
 

can anyone speak about it? I can’t figure out how it works and I have tried googling.

[KungFuPanda]

I use a regular residential carpet steamer filled with hot tap water on normal household carpets all the time. I pretty much live in a swamp and the carpets dry in a few hours; less than half a day. You just have to take your time and get all the water you can with the machines. You can run a fan to speed things up. I’m guessing any commercial quality machine would be even faster. I’m just buying whatever Ollie’s has for around $100 and they lady me a 7-10 years. 
 

ETA: Our air conditioner settings make our home considerably drier than our climate. 

Edited June 18, 2023 by KungFuPanda

[matrips]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

I use a regular residential carpet steamer filled with hot tap water on normal household carpets all the time. I pretty much live in a swamp and the carpets dry in a few hours; less than half a day. You just have to take your time and get all the water you can with the machines. You can run a fan to speed things up. I’m guessing any commercial quality machine would be even faster. I’m just buying whatever Ollie’s has for around $100 and they lady me a 7-10 years. 
 

ETA: Our air conditioner settings make our home considerably drier than our climate. 

Thanks. That makes me feel better.  So can the cleaners suck up the extra water if you go back over them in a non-cleaning type mode?  Or would I need to look for a specific option to suck up extra water/dampness from the carpets after cleaning?

[Pawz4me]

36 minutes ago, matrips said:

So can the cleaners suck up the extra water if you go back over them in a non-cleaning type mode?

Yes. But with super short carpet I really don't think you'd have a problem getting the excess water out in a pass or two. Then if you can set a box fan or two around it should dry in a very short time.

[KungFuPanda]

3 hours ago, matrips said:

Thanks. That makes me feel better.  So can the cleaners suck up the extra water if you go back over them in a non-cleaning type mode?  Or would I need to look for a specific option to suck up extra water/dampness from the carpets after cleaning?

Usually they have suction if they’re on, or if they’re on and being pulled backwards. They expel cleaner when you hold down a trigger, so they can absolutely JUST vacuum the water and you can keep going over the space until you see that the machine isn’t extracting any more liquid from the carpet.  Generally, that nozzle is clear and you can see how much water is going into the machine.