Simple Email Question

Its interesting how a simple question is fraught with so many complexities:

1. Let's start with the first part of your question: "Can you add a deodorizer to your prespray or rinse water...."

The answer is a qualified "Yes".
Many deodorizing products work well as additives, and are compatible with presprays, cleaning detergents, and acidic rinse agents. Some products are not compatible as additives, though, so you should consult label directions of any product that you'd like to use in this fashion.

If I'm going to add a deodorizer to a cleaning product, I prefer to add it to prespray. This will help deodorize not just the carpet, but the prespray which may have an offensive odor. It also prevents the possibility of leaving behind a soil attracting residue or lingering fragrance that may not remain pleasant days after the cleaning job.

2. The second part of your question was: ".........and then say you deodorized the carpet?"
You can say you applied or added a deodorizer, but whether or not you actually deodorized the carpet is a matter of inspection after the job. If the source of the odor was confined to the face yarns of the carpet, the act of applying a deodorizer with your prespray, then rinsing away soil as well as the residue that caused the offensive odor might effectively deodorize the carpet.

If, however, the odor has penetrated through the carpet and perhaps the cushion, then odor causing residues (such as urine or vomit) would remain after cleaning, and odor would still exist. In such a case you could not fairly say that you "deodorized the carpet".

Subsurface treatments, either through injection or the use of the Spot Lifter Water Claw (tm) would be required to deodorize the carpet. In cases of severe contamination you might not be able to deodorize the carpet at all, and replacement of the carpet and cushion, as well as sealing of the floor and baseboard, would be necessary.