Carpet manufacturers recommend any of the five commonly used professional carpet-cleaning methods dry absorbent compound, dry foam extraction or carpet shampooing, hot water extraction, rotary bonnet, and rotary shampoo.
Carpet shampooing is a very popular method used to clean carpets. This method uses a lot of foam generated by a shampoo. This foam is allowed to dry, and the resulting residue is left on for a day. The residue and the soil particles that it has attracted are vacuum cleaned the next day.
Good quality carpet shampoos must have very high foam levels to reduce wetting, very stable foam, high lubricity to reduce damage to the carpet fibers from the brushes and the ability to dry to a non-sticky residue.
Carpet shampooing is done using any two processes cylindrical foam and rotary shampoo. It is the removal of foam that differs in both the methods. Most carpet manufacturers discourage the use of the rotary method as it damages most residential carpets.
The other popularly used carpet cleaning method is often called "dry cleaning" since virtually no water is used. This method uses a dry absorbent compound that contains containing small amounts of water, detergent, and solvent. This compound is sprinkled over the carpet or worked into the carpet with a machine. The liquids in the solvent dissolve the dirt particles. This is then absorbed into the carrier and then vacuumed up. Heavily soiled areas are often pretreated with a detergent spray. It is very essential to vacuum the carpet before and after the cleaning.
Hot water extraction or steam extraction is the only cleaning method classified as "deep cleaning". All the others methods perform only ?light surface cleaning" because they are incapable of removing soil deep in the pile. All other methods leave a lot of residue in the carpet after cleaning. This method uses a fine spray of water to force dirt out of the carpet. This dirt is sucked up by the vacuum slot immediately in front of the spray. Special vacuuming machinery is needed for this kind of cleaning.
