Carpet cleaning is an enormous industry. For some people it can offer a small business opportunity, for others, it is something that they do twice a year when they rent a machine from the store, and others, it is a service that they hire a professional company for. This article is about carpet cleaning in general. We will look at what exactly carpet cleaning machines do.
Carpet cleaning machines, also called carpet extractors, do two things: spray and suck. The machines two major functions are to spray water into the carpet (usually mixed with some sort of cleaning chemical) and to then, suck or extract the water out of the carpet. Usually carpet cleaning companies will wet the carpet with a cleaning chemical and allow it to dwell in the carpet while it attracts and breaks down dirt. Then they will rinse the carpet out, spraying and sucking all of the water out.
There are hundreds of different types of carpet cleaning machines out there. They all do the exact same thing, spray and suck. The difference is that different machines offer different benefits/capabilities. Some offer very powerful vacuums that pull more water out of the carpet, improving results and drying times. Some machines have stronger water pumps, so they can spray water deeper down into the carpet to attack dirt that is harder to reach. Some machines are equipped with water heaters, so that the water they spray into the carpet is very hot. A widely accepted fact is that water's cleaning potency dramatically improves when it is hot. Some portable units offer auto fill/pump out capabilities. This means that you do not have to constantly refill the machine and dump out the dirty tank. They are usually connected to some sort of water faucet and also have a pump that automatically pumps out the dirty water to a toilet.
Carpet cleaning machines have a vacuum hose, and a solution hose that connects from the extractor to the wand (hand tool). The vacuum hose sucks the water in, and the solution hose sprays water into the carpet. There are several types of wands out there. The standard wand that looks like a vacuum that you push forward and back. There are shorter wands that work for stairs. There are much smaller hand tools that are used to clean upholstery. Again, all machines do the same thing.
Other hand tools connect only to the solution line; they offer another type of solution inside the hand tool. They look almost like bug sprayers. But the solution that they spray is usually pre spray or could be used to apply carpet protector. That is an additional service that carpet cleaning companies offer.
