Special Report Carpet care:wet or dry?
Dry extraction cleaning is oftenmaligned and little understood. Geoff Greeley, VP of market development at Racine Industries Inc, reports.
These days themajority of industry experts should really be called wet extraction cleaning experts. Their understanding of dry extraction is on a par with a trombone player explaining how to play a violin - he knowsmusic and music theory, but if he hasn’t played a violin, he will operate it im- properly yet still expect to hear music! Dry extraction is oftenmaligned and little
understood. Let’s put the record straight. Themajor difference between dry extrac- tion and wet extraction is the amount of water and detergent used per square foot and the technology of how the liquids are controlled. The term extractionmeans removal. Both
dry and wet extraction systems remove the sticky dirt and spots from the carpet by vacuuming. The critical differences are the type of vacuuming that is done, the amount of liquid used during the cleaning proce- dure and how the liquid is controlled to pre- vent soil fromrunning deeper into the pile. For example, dry extraction vacuuming is
done with simultaneous pile lifting and vac- uuming - a teaspoon of liquid is used per square foot of carpet, and the liquid is con- trolled bymoistening tiny ‘sponges’. So how does carpet soil? Carpet pile, cut
or loop,makes the fabric a vertical surface. Once installed, the carpet begins to do its job of trapping and holding dirt, dust and allergens which are brought in fromoutside
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Geoff Greeley, vice president of market development and support at Racine Industries Inc
on shoes. Research has shown that the majority of the dirt on a carpet is carried in on shoes fromthe outside or fromhard surfaces inside. This dirt can be divided into two cate-
gories…dry dirt and oily (oil base), sticky (water soluble) dirt. The dry dirt represents up to 85%of the total dirt that is walked in on shoes. So carpetmaintenance strategy concentrates on themost highly trafficked areas of the carpet in order to keep the whole carpet clean. The objective of clean- ing is to remove this dirt before it is tracked by shoes further and spreads throughout the facility. This involves vacuuming/pile lifting as well as chemical cleaning. The Host Dry Extraction Systemdoes both. Dry extraction cleans carpet using a con-
trolled amount of liquid. The liquid is typi- cally a blend of water (mostly), and a small amount of detergent and other green cleaning chemistry. Green Seal certified dry extractionmethods today do not contain any petroleumsolvents. This controlled amount of liquid is
enough to dissolve the dirt, but not enough to lose control of it deeper down into the carpet pile.While this small amount of liq- uid dampens the carpet during the clean- ing procedure (the amount of liquid - one teaspoon per square foot - compares to 40 times that amount with typical wet extrac- tion systems), the carpet is dry and ready
for traffic when the cleaning is done - hence, no downtime and no wicking. The millions of small, absorbent particles
dampened with the right amount of water, detergents and green cleaning chemicals control the liquids at all times during the cleaning process. The objective is to avoid soaking the carpet or causing wick back of spots and soils a day or two after cleaning. The Host Dry Carpet Cleaner is just like a sponge you might use in your kitchen to wipe up spills on a table or counter. When you pass the sponge across the surface, it lays out a film of cleaning agents, which dissolves the soil. Everything that is dis- solved is absorbed and trapped in the sponges so it can be removed by vacuum- ing. This is the controlled and efficient way of removing dirt and spots from a carpet. Proper cleaning with a dry extraction sys-
tem involves a machine designed for the purpose plus the cleaning ‘sponges’. The dual counter-revolving brushes of the Host machine open and lift the carpet pile allow- ing for more effective removal of the deep- down, dry dirt. The powerful vacuum deposits this dirt in a bagless hopper. After this thorough vacuuming/pile lifting, the sponges are applied to the carpet. The ma- chine brushes themoist dry carpet cleaner up, down, over and around the carpet fibres so they contact all surfaces of the soiled fi- bres, breaking the oil or sugar bonds and wiping the soil away. The sponges absorb the dirt and spots
and hold them. After brushing in several di- rections so as to bring the sponges into contact with all surfaces of the dirty carpet yarns, they are then vacuumed out of the carpet with the Host machine’s vacuum.
www.hostvonschrader.co.uk
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