Which Method Cleans Best?

• Dry Foam: the carpet cleaner applies shampoo to your carpet, allows it to dry, and vacuums. Can you imagine shampooing your hair, allowing it to dry, and then removing the shampoo from your head with a vacuum? This method is not effective, leaving dirty residue in your carpet.

• Absorbent pad (bonnet cleaning): Similar to dry foam, the company sets a large cotton bonnet on your carpet and with a floor polishing buffer machine "buffs" the carpet. The rotating motion causes the bonnet to absorb dirt from your carpet. Bonnet cleaning is like trying to use a large cotton towel or mop to rub the dirt out of your carpet and is not effective.

• Dry, absorbent powder: The dry-compound method spreads a moist, absorbent powder throughout the carpet, where it is allowed to dry and then vacuumed. This method leaves dry sponge particles at the base of the carpet yarn. Because the carpet is not rinsed, this method is also not very effective.

• Hot water extraction: A hot water cleaning solution, under high pressure, is forced into your carpet and then sucked out. This method breaks up the dirt, bacteria, chemicals, and pollens in the carpet. Premier Specialty Services utilizes this highly-effective method.

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, done with a small, hand-held unit.

On which type to choose, Shaw’s technical report states: "[cleaning] can be done from a truck-mounted unit outside the facility with only the hose and wand brought inside, or where a truck-mounted unit cannot reach, by a portable, self-contained system brought into the facility."