Steam Cleaning your Carpets
This has become the most popular type of carpet cleaning. It is also known as Steam cleaning.
The most common method of HWE is to prespray the carpet with a cleaning solution then agitate the solution into the carpet. If the carpet is not very dirty often the agitation step is skipped. The cleaning solution is often allowed to dwell (5 to 20 minutes) on the carpet. Then the carpet is rinsed with water or with a water and a neutralizing chemical. Carpet Pre spray is usually done with a powerful cleaner. It is mixed into a sprayer and then sprayed lightly in the cleaner areas and heavier on traffic lanes and dirty areas of the carpet.
What is VLM Carpet Cleaning?
Very Low Moisture cleaning normally refers to cleaning a carpet with a 175 rpm floor buffer, a Counter Rotating Brush machine (CRB), a Cimex, or an OP (Oscillating Pad) machine.
Bonnet Cleaning
Bonnet Cleaning normally refers to using a 175 rpm Floor buffer. The Cotton pad that is often used with these is where Bonnet Cleaning gets it’s name.
There is a large national chain of carpet cleaners (Chem Dry) that has based their system on Bonnet cleaning with a 175 rpm floor machine.
Oscillating Pad Machines
The OP machine looks a lot like the 175 floor buffer but has a totally different action. The base of the unit vibrates and rapidly rotates in little small circles and rotates in a large circle also. It is very deceptive as to how much work it is doing. It works very well on some carpets like Sculpted Berbers and Berbers in general.
Wick Backs
Wick backs are a problem with most carpets, more so with carpets that are not installed over a pad. Especially with HWE you can sometimes clean a carpet and the spot will be gone. As the carpet dries the spot will come back. What is happening is the dampness in the carpet is wicking up the carpet fiber and bringing the stain back up the fiber and into view. Both Bonnet Cleaning methods and OP methods have very few wickback issues.
Encapsulated Cleaning
There are new cleaning agents available that are called Encapsulating. What these chemicals do is break the dirt’s bond with the carpet and dry to a flake. This flake is then easy to separate from the carpet with normal vacuuming. These chemicals were developed for the VLM cleaners but usually work well with HWE also.
Rental Carpet Cleaning Machines
Most rental machines have very little vacuum power compared to most commercial units. Another problem is the operator does not understand how to use them. The Rug Doctor is one of the most popular rental systems. The Rug Doctor method has a couple of major flaws for dirty carpet. [Not enough Dwell time and not enough Agitation|The way they instruct you to use them does not allow for any cleaning agent dwell time on the carpet. The agitation offered by this method is minimal]. Also the cleaning solution is never rinsed out of the carpet. The Rug Doctor in experienced hands could do an OK job. You would want to prespray and agitate your carpet before using the Rug Doctor. Then the solution in the Rug Doctor would only be Hot water and used to rinse the carpet. Most Rug Doctor users put down way too much water and detergent on the dirty areas and do not get enough of it back up. The more water/chemical/dirty solution you get out of the carpet the better.
What is most important factor in your Carpet Cleaning?
5 parts of cleaning a carpet. Chemicals, dwell time, agitation, heat, The Technician. In my opinion if the equipment if functioning properly and the technician is knowledgeable on how to work his equipment the most important factor in getting your carpet clean is having a good Technician. Untrained or improperly Technicians have messed up a lot of carpets.
20% of dirt is Sticky
Several studies have shown that around 20% of the dirt in most carpets is sticky and will attach to the carpet making it look dirty. The other 80% is dry and will easily come up by vacuuming if it is still on top of the carpet. If the dry dirt has dropped to the bottom of the carpet you will not get it out of the carpet without removing the carpet and using a Rug Badger or similar tool. You cannot get enough airflow and suck to get dirt from the bottom of the carpet back up through the top layer. What carpet cleaners are cleaning is the 20% of the sticky dirt that sticks to the fibers and changes the color of the carpet.
Vacuum more often
80% of the dirt brought into your house is dry and can be picked up with regular vacuuming. More Regular vacuuming will help extend the life of your carpet and improve the quality of the air you breathe.