Types of Carpet Cleaning – What is best for me?

The carpet cleaning industry has shown huge growth in the variety of products and tools in the last 10 years. It is not uncommon to see any one of a number of different types of carpet cleaning advertised today from dry cleaning to steam cleaning. Obviously, each company will be biased toward their own method. And each method does have advantages. Let’s examine some of the most popular methods.

Dry Cleaning
This is probably the most improperly used term in the carpet cleaning industry. True dry cleaning is done with a vacuum. In reality, proper vacuuming of carpets should remove up to 85% of all soil as dry particles. The remaining 15% of the soil is oily or greasy and cannot be removed by vacuuming.

So first off, there is really no such thing as Dry Carpet Cleaning beyond vacuuming. Although there are some franchise companies that promote their products in this way, ask: “how will the oily or greasy residue be removed unless it is “released” by the fabric and carried away in solution?”

You are correct, it will not be. These various companies advertise their cleaning product as “little sponges” or various “media granules” but in any case, there has to be some moisture introduced to the product so this negates the term “Dry” to be used as an accurate description of their service.

From our unscientific survey of carpet cleaners, it seems this is the least effective method but is growing in customer popularity for first time users due to the “dry” claim.

Low Moisture and Very Low Moisture Cleaning
This type of cleaning has gained popularity in recent years for many reasons. There really isn’t any difference in the terminology of low to very low other then to the operator of the equipment.

This type of cleaning is usually preformed in one of several ways, namely: Encapsulation, Shampooing, Bonnet or Oscillating Pad Cleaning. These terms actually apply as much to the machines and equipment used as to the chemicals themselves used to clean the carpet fiber. The chemicals can be of a shampoo type, encapsulation type or mixture of the two.

The machines used for any of these methods have one thing in common. They scrub the upper levels of the carpet fiber. The most vigorous cleaning is provided by a planetary scrubbing machine, the Oscillating Pad machine and finally the bonnet floor machine, in this order. The amount of cleaning solution applied is controlled by the operator of the machine. So to a large degree, the effectiveness of this cleaning method depends a good deal upon the skill of the cleaner.

In the case of encapsulation cleaning, the chemical cleaner actually crystallizes the soil in the carpet which is actually removed by routine vacuuming. The Oscillating Pad and Bonnet machines actually use towel like products that scrub the upper levels of the carpet and remove the soil into the towel. The encapsulation products were originally developed for the commercial business where short fiber carpet is the norm. But in recent years it is being used more and more in the residential area with fabulous results. This system is especially effective on Berber type carpets.

Another benefit of the above systems is very short drying times. This is something more and more residential customers are interested in. Through the years, according to many reports, it seems many residential customers were dissatisfied by the poor performance of many so called “steam cleaners.” Actually the proper term would be hot water extraction cleaning. These are usually associated with the ‘yellow’ trucks and other franchise businesses who use large truck mounted machines.

Across the country, many customers expected best prices and service from the national franchises that were known for using this type of equipment. Unfortunately, through the years due to poor training or general apathy, their low paid employees more often then not, left carpets soaking wet. This contributed to mold and mildew and the guarantee of returning stains.

The low moisture methods mentioned corrected these problems and almost eliminated the chance of the return of stains and spots due to ‘wicking.’

The above systems are really referred to as low moisture systems when you compare them to the older technology of hot water extraction or as some still refer to it as: steam cleaning.

Hot Water Extraction – Steam Cleaning
This is probably the best known cleaning process and most widely used across the nation. Rightly so since for many years it was the ONLY option available for cleaning residential carpets.

The high powered truck mounted machines and almost equally powered new portable machines do a good job of shooting hot water with cleaning solution down deep into the fibers of the carpet. Then the same machine rinses and extracts the water from the carpet. There is no better way to deep clean a typical residential carpet.

So if this is the oldest method and deep cleans, why did the other methods mentioned above come into the marketplace?

There are several reasons that developed over the years. The HWE method does a good job of extracting soil from the carpeting. But it also dumps a huge amount of water into the carpeting in your home. If not strictly controlled the excess water can easily damage your carpet backing, carpet seams and also contribute to mold and mildew.

One might refer to HWE as the 20th century technique while the newer low moisture systems are developed for the 21st century products and customers. Of course many truck mount owners who read this would shoot me for this comment.

Consider the obvious: the truck mount style, HWE carpet cleaner has invested anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 into that one piece of equipment. While this has enabled many franchise owners to expand their service areas and lower their overall pricing, what else has it done?

Generally speaking, to earn a living with a franchise, the owner has to get as many jobs per day as possible. They have to make their money through volume. To guarantee volume they have to go with national trends of low price advertising.

As a consumer, ask one of the franchise cleaners what method he recommends for cleaning? They have only one option since that is the single machine on their truck.