I finally picked between power stretcher and knee kicker, my knees regret it

Last Tuesday in Phoenix I had a 12x14 living room with stubborn old berber. I stood there with my power stretcher in one hand and my knee kicker in the other, thinking I'd save time with the kicker. After 3 hours of crawling and banging my knee on every damn tack strip, I switched to the power stretcher and finished the whole room in 45 minutes flat. My knee still aches 5 days later. Has anyone else tried to skip the big stretcher for a small room and ended up paying for it the next morning?

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karent751mo ago

The power stretcher for a 12x14 room is overkill, honestly. I get the knee pain, but thats on the tack strip setup, not the tool choice. Ive done plenty of small rooms with just a knee kicker and never had a problem, you just gotta keep the carpet relaxed and work in the right pattern. Sounds like you were fighting the berber instead of working with it. Berber is stiff and hates being pulled tight, so yeah, the power stretcher wins there. But for normal plush carpet in a small space, the kicker is faster and you dont gotta haul that big rig in and out.