Which is better Professional dry cleaning carpets or steam cleaning carpets?

There are many methods to clean carpet. Steam and a bunch of dry methods. Visit my site if you like and go to "Best Methods" I go into detail about the differences. Bottom line is if you can find someone to properly dry clean the carpet with a product that works, it's much better for your carpet than steam.

Steam cleaning relies on injecting hot water into the carpet and exctracting it back out, taking the dirt and grime with the water. Carpet dry cleaning relies onthe use of a "dry cleaning" product to break down the oliy residue that hold the dirt to the carpet fibre. The carpets are then cleaned with a tick pad that rotates at high speed under a rotary machine (similar to a floor polisher) and the dirt and stains are absorbed onto the pads.

There's many advantages to having your carpet dry cleaned including speed of drying and stain removal properties, and there can be disadvantages to having it steam cleaned. It's a crap shoot that comes down to the integrity of the operator and the products they use. If you have the best of both worlds, I'd choose dry over steam. When shopping for a dry cleaner, just ask how long it will take to dry. If it's done right, it should take between 1-2 hours. You don't want to go with a totally dry method like powders and solvents. They don't work.