A Few Helpful Hints from A+ Carpet Care Specialists...

Steam Cleaning or hot water extraction initially involves the application of a detergent based solution. After appropriate dwell time, a pressurized manual or automatic cleaning tool (aka wand) passes over the surface several times to thoroughly rinse out all residue and particulates. Heavily soiled areas require the application of pretreatments, preconditioners, or "traffic-lane cleaners", which are detergents or emulsifiers that break the binding of soils to carpet fibers over a short period of time, are commonly sprayed onto carpet prior to the primary use of the dry-cleaning system. One chemical dissolves the greasy films that bind soils and prevent effective soil removal by vacuuming. The solution may add a solvent like d-limonene, petroleum byproducts, glycol ethers, or butyl agents. The amount of time the pretreatment "dwells" in the carpet should be less than 15 minutes, due to the thorough carpet brushing common to these "very low moisture" systems, which provides added agitation to ensure the pretreatment works fully through the carpet. The newest steam cleaning technology, utilizes no soap, detergent, or solvent, rather the cleaning