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How carpet cleaning machines work

How Carpet cleaning machines work:


If you have never had a professional Carpet cleaning or Upholstery cleaning Service done, you may be curious as to how professional machines work.


There are multiple methods and machines us professionals use to get results, but I'll be talking about our most common method here which is Hot water extraction (steam cleaning)


Professional Carpet cleaning extractors have 3 main elements:


1) Suction - this varies widely between machines, you have your entry level portable extractors which are only capable of around 10 inches of mercury (lift) with about 200 cfm, then we step up to truck mount machines that are fitted with positive displacement blowers that are capable of 15 inches of mercury and 770 cfm.....in simple terms what this means is a truck mounted system can deliver far more lift & suction, we won't get into which one is better on this post but we definitely will be Talking about it.


2) heat - professional machines have a heating element to increase the water temperature to aid in cleaning. Heat is a vital part of cleaning and depending on the machine this varies from 60 degrees to well over boiling temperature.

3) Pressure - this refers to the PSI a particular machine can produce, we adjust the psi to suit what we are cleaning. For example, Upholstery requires less psi than Carpet, but tile and grout cleaning require 3x the pressure of carpet cleaning!


So how does all this come together and result in clean Carpet? Firstly, the technician will choose a pre spray chemical after identifying the fiber type and making a judgement on what chemical to use, this chemical will then be diluted and applied to all areas that are being cleaned. We then use our portable or truck mount extractor to do 3 things at once.... spray, suck, rinse.


The wand shoots out clean, hot water into the carpet fibers. As the wand is pulled back the wand tip then sucks up the water that is now mixed in with the pre spray chemical picking up all the dirt that has now become suspended ready for extraction. This process also rinses the fibers helping remove and chemical residue which could lead to sticky areas that attract dirt.


A professional machine is not cheap, portables start from about $6000 new and truck mounts start from about $45,000 new. Even a low-grade portable extractor will still give better results than a store bought or hired How Carpet cleaning machines work:


If you have never had a professional Carpet cleaning or Upholstery cleaning Service done, you may be curious as to how professional machines work.


There are multiple methods and machines us professionals use to get results, but I'll be talking about our most common method here which is Hot water extraction (steam cleaning)


Professional Carpet cleaning extractors have 3 main elements:


1) Suction - this varies widely between machines, you have your entry level portable extractors which are only capable of around 10 inches of mercury (lift) with about 200 cfm, then we step up to truck mount machines that are fitted with positive displacement blowers that are capable of 15 inches of mercury and 770 cfm.....in simple terms what this means is a truck mounted system can deliver far more lift & suction, we won't get into which one is better on this post but we definitely will be Talking about it.


2) heat - professional machines have a heating element to increase the water temperature to aid in cleaning. Heat is a vital part of cleaning and depending on the machine this varies from 60 degrees right to to well over boiling temperature

3) Pressure - this refers to the PSI a particular machine can produce, we adjust the psi to suit what we are cleaning. For example, Upholstery requires less psi then Carpet but tile and grout cleaning requires 3x the pressure of carpet cleaning !


So how does all this come together and result in clean Carpet ? Firstly the technician will choose a pre spray chemical after identifying the fibre type and making a judgement on what chemical to use, this chemical will then be diluted and applied to all areas that are being cleaned. We then use our portable or truck mount extractor to do 3 things at once.....spray, suck, rinse.


The wand shoots out clean, hot water into the carpet fibres. As the wand is pulled back the wand tip then sucks up the water that is now mixed in with the pre spray chemical picking up all the dirt that has now become suspended ready for extraction. This process also rinses the fibres helping remove and chemical residue which could lead to sticky areas that attract dirt.


A professional machine is not cheap, portables start from about $6000 new and truck mounts start from about $45,000 new. Even a low-grade portable extractor will still give better results than a store bought or hired machine!



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