Recent years have seen a massive step forward in carpet cleaning techniques and technology. It is now much more straightforward to get great results using carpet cleaning products that are environmentally safe and without getting the carpet unreasonably wet. In years gone by it was relatively commonplace forklift toyota to hear horror stories of carpets taking 2 to 3 days to dry and then within a couple of weeks the carpets would look dirty again. However, the really good news is that in recent years these problems from yesteryear are straightforward to avoid if the correct procedures are routinely followed.
Over 95% of carpet cleaners predominantly use a process called “hot water extraction” as it is considered throughout the industry to be the most effective process available for most domestic homes. If we are to get good results from this process ourselves it is important to consider how the hot water extraction system works. The hot water extraction process involves injecting hot water (combined with a cleaning solution) onto the carpet pile and allowing it some time to settle so it can loosen the dirt away from the carpet fibres. It is often helpful to loosen the dirt further by brushing the carpet with a grooming rake. A carpet cleaning machine is then used to extract the dirty water back out of the carpet. It is important to remember to always dry vacuum the carpet before moving on to the hot water extraction process. The Institute of Inspection Cleaning Restoration Certification have shown that over 80% of dry dirt can be extracted through vacuuming alone. If pre-vacuuming is not carried out the dry soil will be very much harder to remove using the hot water extraction process.
We can list out the essential components of the carpet cleaning process as chemical, heat, agitation and time. The amount of soiling that is loosened away from the carpet yarns will be dependent on the effectiveness of the chemical that is used. Developments in cleaning solution technology have produced carpet cleaning products that are detergent free, biodegradable and completely safe for people. Detergent free cleaning products are much less likely to have a negative effect on the carpet fibres. The great thing about them also is that they will not leave a detergent residue which will cause the carpets to look dirty again quickly. Before recent developments in carpet cleaning technology had become widely popularised carpets would often look dirty again a few days or weeks after the carpets had been cleaned. This was due to the stickiness of the residue left by the detergent causing dirt to re-attach to the carpet pile which in turn would make the carpet look dirty again quickly.
The second component heat refers to the temperature that the carpet cleaning chemical is initially sprayed onto the carpet. When the dirty water in the carpet is extracted out this process would normally involve a “rinsing process”. This involves spraying water into the carpet at the same time as immediately vacuuming it out again using an extraction machine. The temperature popular furniture wood of the rinsing water is also an important factor in the effectiveness of the cleaning. Generally speaking cleaning solutions work better at hotter temperatures, however there will be a limit to how hot you can clean wool carpets without damaging them (normally around 60?C). The good news is that synthetic carpets can withstand much higher cleaning temperatures.
Agitation is the third component and often refers to the process of agitating the cleaning solution into the carpet yarns during the chemical dwell period. Thoroughly brushing the carpet helps not only to disperse the cleaning solution through the carpet but also manually dis-lodges dirt from within the fibres. This will speed up the process of breaking down the dirt and will make it faster and easier to extract. The rinsing process also involves a degree of agitation to the carpet fibres. If the pressure of the water used in the rinsing process is increased this will result in an increase in the level of agitation. Many modern carpet cleaning extraction machines will operate at a pressure of around 400 PSI.
The 4th component of time refers to the dwell time of the pre-treatment in the carpet. The dwell time must be sufficient such that the carpet cleaning solution has time to act effectively on the dirt but not long enough to dry and thus make the dirt harder to remove. Normally pre-treatments should be left for about 10 minutes to work effectively before rinsing.
It is critical to understand how these 4 components of the hot water extraction system (chemical, heat, agitation and time) work together to improve the effectiveness of the cleaning process. If one component is increased in its prominence it may be possible to reduce one of the other components. For example, if you use a higher level of agitation and heat it may mean that you can use less chemical and less dwell time to get a similar result. One crucial consideration is the level of chemical pre-spray to put down on the carpet pile. It is obviously important to use just enough so that it is effective but not too much such that the carpet takes too long to dry. The amount of suction and airflow that is generated by the hot water extraction machine will also help to reduce the drying time. So it is very important that a powerful machine is used that extracts out the vast majority of the moisture in the carpet.
