by Cheryl Bradshaw

Created on: August 21, 2008

For as long as we have had carpet, we have been faced with deciding how to clean it. This has been accomplished through a variety of means such as hanging rugs over a fence and beating them to having a vacuum cleaner suction' out the dirt. In more recent years, other methods have become available to deep clean carpets, mainly through the use of dry chemical cleaners' and carpet steam cleaners.'

Choosing how to clean your carpet is best done by understanding how the different methods are applied and considering your situation and preferences.

Dry chemical cleaning' is usually accomplished professionally by applying either shampoo or a substance resembling moist sawdust onto the carpet to absorb the dirt, and removing it by vacuuming when dry. A variation of this method is to apply a cleaning solution and use a spinning bonnet' to absorb and remove dirt and moisture. This appeals to some because their perception is that the bonnet is scrubbing' their carpet, hence reasoning it will be cleaner. Many who are knowledgeable in the carpet industry would debate this. They cite that some carpet soils such as sand have numerous cutting' edges and when repeatedly forced over carpet fibers, it contributes to fraying the carpet- an irreversible damage. This same damage is caused by leaving these soils in carpet and walking on it. An indisputable benefit to this type of cleaning is that the carpet doesn't take long to dry, usually one to two hours.

Carpet steam cleaners' can vary from large and powerful truck-mounted systems to smaller portable machines you can operate yourself.

The portable carpet steam cleaner can be rented from most major grocery stores for a reasonable price for those who don't mind doing the work themselves. Shampoo and other products of the same name brand are also available to purchase. These machines usually require the user to fill one tank on the machine with hot tap water which is then jetted into the carpet through a wand and then extracted with the same wand back into another tank on the machine which must be emptied when full. This type of cleaning will usually do a fair job of removing a regular amount of soils and making the carpet look cleaner. It will take a considerably longer time to dry, possibly a couple of days, since these units use water only as hot as is available from the tap and they lack strong vacuum power. The biggest benefit to the use of the portable carpet steam cleaner is that it is very economical.

Truck-mounted carpet steam

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