Hello,
Any one having trouble with berber carpet traffic lanes or stairs? People had runner on stairs that was removed before cleaning. If people walk down the middle of the stairs on the runner then how and the heck do the the rest of the steps get so dirty and stained? I could not get the areas along side were the runner was to come clean at all. Same with traffic pattern at bottom of stairs. Any one have any secrets on heavy traffic patterns on berber carpet they would like to share?

As an improvement over using small cotton pads on my
6" orbiter/polisher on particularly difficult staits,
I first scrub my cleaner in with one side of one of the green-stripe hand pads. They are like the large ones, but are designed for the hand. They come with an opening to put your hand into when using them manually, such as on upholstery. I cut them into 2
sides, and just use a single side as a pre-scrubber.
Kind of like fitting a small orbital with a scrub
brush. Sometimes I have to get really soiled or spotted stairs wetter than I'd like in order to be able to break up the mess. I think Jon Don sells these.

I had a similar challenge recently.
Removed the runner, Pre-sprayed the entire stairs with Excellent DS encap (50% mix) and let dwell for a good 15 minutes.
Then lightly re-sprayed (reg encap mix) as I went down the steps with my porter-cable orbital polisher. I use the 6" disc with velcro attached to drive FP pads.

Same technique used at base of steps leading to front door which was pretty bad. Only used my challenger with FP pad at that location.
Remainder of house, I (OP) used Punch with standard pads
Customer loved the results-so did I
In fact, customer didn't replace the runner since they liked the "new" look.

another possibility :

i've found my Host machine to work well at agitating in my Encap on steps. this is with the less aggressive white/cream brushes...i should buy some more aggressive brushes for better results. if you have a Host machine (or better yet a GLS...same idea but heavier), give it a shot.

thanx --- Derek.