Which method cleans best?
Dry foam: The carpet cleaner applies shampoo to your carpet, allows it to dry, and then, without rinsing, sucks the dried shampoo into a vacuum. This method leaves dirty residue in your carpet.
Low-moisture foam: A low moisture cleaning foam is brushed into the carpet fibers. The soils are suspended in the foam and extracted immediately. We use this method when temperatures outside don’t allow us the use of the truck-mount, and also for interim maintenance cleaning.
Absorbent pad (bonnet cleaning): A cotton bonnet is used with a floor polishing buffer machine. The rotating motion causes the bonnet to absorb dirt from your carpet. This method is also called bonnet cleaning. After the main cleaning, we may bonnet heavy traffic lanes to help pick up additional soil and lift the pile.
Absorbent Powder: The dry-compound method spreads a moist, absorbent powder through the carpet. The powder is allowed to dry and then sucked into a vacuum. This method leaves dry sponge particles at the base of the carpet yarn which must be vacuumed again to remove.
Hot water extraction: This is a fancy way of saying that a hot water solution under high pressure is forced into your carpet and then sucked out of your carpet.
In a recent Technical Bulletin, Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, “recommends the hot water extraction system which research indicates provides the best capability for cleaning.”
You can choose from two different types: Truck-mount extraction, which is done with a large machine mounted in a truck or van or portable extraction, which is done with a small, hand-held unit.