Product test
Watering with precision: "Aqua Precise" from Gardena tested
by Martin Jungfer
From grey to white – a clean carpet thanks to Kärcher’s SE 4001
12.6.2023
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Want to save money on professional carpet cleaning? Still want your carpet to be cleaner than with a vacuum cleaner? Then the SE 4001 could be just the thing for you. It sprays and sucks dirt out of your carpeting.
Recently, we wanted to have our living room carpet cleaned. After five years, all sorts of dirt is likely to have settled in it – despite regular vacuuming. My inquiry with a carpet cleaner went nowhere. They weren’t cleaning carpets at the moment. Strange business model for a carpet cleaner, I thought to myself. Still, a solution for the carpet had to be found.
If no professional wants to do it, I’ll have to handle it myself. And so a test device from Kärcher soon arrives at the door: the SE 4001.
CH version
EU version
A combination suction and spray hose
Still, the thing that turns the SE 4001 into a carpet cleaner is missing: the spray-ex floor nozzle. It reminds me of the wiping unit on a Kärcher window cleaner. And it also works in a similar way. It sprays detergent onto the carpet with a nozzle. It then sucks that right back in through a narrow gap and collects the dirty water in the unit.
What is the spray extraction process?
Spray extraction carpet cleaning is definitely more effective than vacuuming. No matter how powerful your machine is, it usually doesn’t get the dirt that’s deep down in the carpet. The higher the pile, the more serious the problem. Over the years, a veritable layer of dirt can form in the carpet.
How much detergent should be in the water?
Checking with Kärcher provides the answer. I should fill the fresh water tank completely. This apparently achieves the correct mixing ratio. Alright, I top up with just under four litres of fresh water. I use a PET bottle to grab it from the tap, the removable fresh water tank doesn’t fit in the sink.
Best results at a 45-degree angle
When it comes to carpet cleaning, teamwork is the name of the game. My wife helps – mainly so I can take photos for this test report. We decide not to go full out right away. On a cheap carpet from everyone’s favourite Swedish furniture store, any damage from misapplication would be tolerable. The carpet is flat weave, has collected a few stains over the years and has greyed undignified.
Before you start, take a look at the instructions again. We try to decipher the engineering lingo. We’re to close the secondary air slide, press the switch for spraying (position I), put the switch for suction in position I. Putting three switches in the right position – we just about manage that.
There’s a small lever on the spray handle. If you pull it, it sprays the cleaning agent onto the carpet. As that’s supposed to happen before vacuuming, I put the spray-ex floor nozzle on the carpet and pull it toward me. Thus, the carpet is first sprayed and then vacuumed. After a few lengths, I understood what was important. At an ideal 45-degree angle, the nozzle develops the strongest suction force.
Wet cleaning isn’t even that wet
The Ikea carpet measures six square metres. We wet clean it in about 20 minutes. The consumption of cleaning mixture is difficult to estimate, especially at the start. Are we spraying too much? Not enough?
In the end, we sprayed on about three litres and sucked most of it back up. The result is something to behold: the device’s water tank contains a grey-brown witch’s brew. Behold, what a normal vacuum cleaner can’t get out of a carpet.
The amount of water that wasn’t reabsorbed leaves the carpet slightly damp. It must dry outside. There must be a good litre and a half of water still in the carpet, as I only have about a litre and a half of dirty water in the tank. Consequently, there’s still considerably more residual moisture in the carpet than would theoretically be possible with spray extraction. Best avoid leaving the freshly cleaned carpet to dry on a wooden parquet floor.
The spray-ex nozzle fails in deep grooves
After the first carpet, we venture to the second, one from our daughter’s nursery. It’s a short-pile carpet. Woven-in images of animals ensure that it isn’t flat, but features small valleys where the colours of the carpet yarn change. Here, the SE 4001 reaches its limit. Although we now have a good handle on the 45-degree angle, spraying and vacuuming several times, lint and dirt remain in the carpet.
Theoretically, there are two ways to clean a carpet with the SE 4001. Either in one go, spraying and directly vacuuming again. Or you can just spray first, applying the cleaning liquid to the carpet. After an exposure time of at least five minutes, you then begin sucking.
In practice, we haven’t noticed any difference whether one or the other type gives a better result. However, none of the carpets had stains that I’d put in the «heavily soiled» category either.
Verdict: spraying and vacuuming over just a hoover
Some things are irritating in practice. When the detergent tank is empty, the pump simply runs dry and I’m supposed to take the noise as a sign to refill. The water tank is removable, but it’s just too bulky for some sinks to refill then and there.
The fact that the SE 4001 is also a pretty powerful vacuum cleaner is nice. Before you clean a carpet, you can free it from coarse dirt. Converting to a carpet cleaner is much faster than assembling the unit first.
In our household, it still won’t replace Dyson’s useful battery vacuum cleaner, however. However, it’s suitable for vacuuming in a car. Or for sucking up liquids. That’s where it’s an undisputed champion.
Header image: Martin Jungfer
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
