Carpet protectant is really important to your carpet, however, if talking to most people, I’ve found out they don’t know what it really is or what it does. Within my numerous years of cleaning, I’ve met people with almost brand-new carpet ask to get carpet protectant applied, and i have also met people who need their carpets cleaned every six months (*raises his hand*) that do not think they have a requirement for carpet protectant. Both cases were wrong.Carpet protectant has numerous names, many of which are brands that you could or may not have heard of. 3M’s Scotchgard, DuPont’s Teflon, or no matter what other name used, ordinarily have the term “protectant” in the name by other manufactures. Each of them do pretty much exactly the same thing, repel water and resist soiling. Protectant has some great benefits when used as it really is designed.Let’s start out with what it does. In simplistic terms, it creates a short-term water resistance, giving you more time to completely clean up a thing that has spilled about the carpet. Additionally, it has a long-term effect. It can help to keep daily dirt from settling as hard into your carpet and makes the dirt easier to remove at the next steam cleaning. Protectant isn’t an cure-all, however it does give you more time to wash up spots. Normal traffic dirt also vacuums up better.Now, let me be clear about what carpet protectant doesn’t do. It does not stop stains from umm… staining. Blue Koolaid, for instance, will dye your carpet blue. Yellow mustard dyes your carpet yellow, and green permanent marker will… well, you get the idea. A general rule of thumb is always that things that have color are typically from your dye that will actually affect the color of your carpet, not merely get it dirty. Protectant doesn’t keep things from soaking in to the carpet if left alone or keep dirt from getting ground in if it’s not cleaned out in a timely manner.Just about all new carpet has some form of carpet protection about it. That’s where the concept of a stain warranty is needed for first time carpets. These warranties normally concern the length of time the carpet protectant can last, not really that your carpet won’t become stained in that time.Enough said. The following is my personal recommendation based on both manufactures recommendations and most importantly, on field experience with real world applications. Its not necessary carpet protectant for new carpet through the first 4-5 years. It already has some sort of carpet protectant. From 4-5 years on, it’s good to possess carpet protectant applied every 24 months approximately. It isn’t that the carpet protectant stops working at some point, but merely like a Teflon pan. it will fade away with use. Take a look at a classic, used Teflon pan — it’ll, at some time, start to wear thin, and scratches will start to surface the metal. Exactly the same thing happens together with your carpet. The less you walk about it, the more the protectant can last. The harder traffic it’s got, the more often you will need to reapply.Why every 2 years when new carpet can last as much as 5 years or beyond? Consider it as a booster, not the entire treatment. The carpet manufacturer is capable of doing treating the fibers specifically, but carpet cleaning specialists can only topically treat the complete carpet.