In the mad rush to one up the other guy and virtually remove the human element from the equation, the last few years have seen many carpet cleaning equipment manufacturers invest almost entirely in autonomous, automated cleaning. You can’t visit a big box or large retail store now and not see an unmanned robot-controlled floor cleaning machine driving up and down the aisle of the store, often in the middle part of the day. Ignoring the fact that this automated equipment exceeds the budget of most companies or facilities, the investment into this type of equipment by almost all the major floor care equipment manufacturers certainly outweighs the true market share.

But this really is not anything new. The evolution of the carpet extractor in the commercial cleaning world has almost always been more about increasing productivity and reducing labor than it has been about deep cleaning effectiveness. The box extractor evolved into the electric walk behind extractor. The electric walk behind extractor evolved into the battery powered walk behind extractor. The battery powered walk behind extractor evolved into the battery-powered ride-on extractor. Now the ride on extractor has evolved into the smart brain controlled robotic, autonomous extractor. We can certainly clean carpet faster with reduced labor cost. But what has mostly been overlooked is the simple fact that the cleaning technology – the solution pressure, the vacuum system to recover the water and soil, and the ability to heat the cleaning solution is pretty much the same throughout the evolutionary process. Now don’t get me wrong, The marketing folks have made it sound like true advancements have been made in reducing the use of cleaning chemicals; reducing the use of water to make drying times faster; or even added mechanisms trying to assist the vacuum system in water recovery, but essentially the four fundamentals of the cleaning pie chart have pretty much stayed the same – chemistry, heat, agitation, and time. Now for many commercial buildings, this level of cleaning has been acceptable. Budget is most often more important than actual results. Downtime reduction of the area being cleaned is more important than actual results. Reducing labor costs is more important than actual results. Cold water “green” cleaning sounds like a great idea if you are trying to reduce the use of resources. Technology advancements and the evolution of cleaning equipment have certainly addressed all those areas.

But for an important and growing number of buildings and facilities, the level of deep cleaning results remains top priority. The recent pandemic even brought a higher level of scrutiny to just what “clean” really means. Dr. Michael Berry, who headed up groundbreaking research on the interaction between professional cleaning and the indoor environment defined clean this way:

“Clean is an environmental condition free of unwanted matter. Matter is anything of substance. Substances are of three forms: solids, liquids, and gases. Pollution is unwanted matter that gets in the way of human endeavors, poses a risk, or causes an undesirable effect.”

“Cleaning is the management process used to achieve the clean condition. Effective cleaning is the process of extracting and removing unwanted matter to the optimum extent to reduce exposure to unwanted matter.”

The value of heat in the cleaning process should also be reinforced at this point. Most people understand that the use of heat accelerates most chemical reactions resulting in deeper cleaning and often reduced drying times. According to an article published in Chemistry World, “a growing body of research reveals that to hurry reactions along in water and replace reagents all that’s needed is some heat.”  Even key concepts from a middle school chemistry training program reinforce this:

• “Adding energy (heating) increases molecular motion.
• Increased molecular motion competes with the attraction between solute molecules and tends to make them come apart more easily.
• Increased molecular motion causes more solvent molecules to contact solute molecules and pull on them with more force, usually resulting in more dissolving.
• Since different substances are made from different atoms, ions, or molecules, increased temperature will affect their dissolving to different extents. “

The use of heat in the role of the removal and treatment of unwanted substances, including biological germs and viruses has been scientifically measured and demonstrated in numerous scientific studies performed by Dr. Berry and the Research Triangle Institute, Airmed Health Studies, and other research organizations. Measured reductions in biological contaminants and other unwanted substances have been clearly identified in carpets, textiles, upholstery, and hard surface floors after the use of extraction cleaning equipment that can maintain temperatures across the surfaces being cleaned of 130º – 160º F.

Dr. Berry summarized what “Characteristics of High-Performance Carpet Cleaning” looked like in a 2017 article published in the Journal of Cleaning, Restoration and Inspection.

“Effective cleaning is the process of extracting and removing unwanted matter to the optimum extent to reduce exposure to unwanted matter. Most people clean carpets when they look dirty. Rarely does anyone recognize that their carpet needs to be cleaned for health protection. Yet every time pollutants are extracted from the carpeting; the quality of the indoor environment is enhanced by reducing exposure. A high-performance carpet cleaning process focuses on nine steps using a wet, high temperature, high flow, high extraction system”

The large majority of commercial carpet cleaning equipment manufactured today does not meet the definition of “High Performance Carpet Cleaning.” Your extraction equipment needs to be:

1. Wet (Water based)
2. Maintain a High Solution Temperature (130-160º F) across the surface being cleaned)
3. High Flow (> 0.8 to 1.0gpm of water flow. This is not just a higher solution pressure (psi). It is a higher flow rate for better flushing of Pollutants from the carpet. It takes an extractor with a high flow 400-500 psi or more solution pump to achieve this.
4. High Extraction System (Strong Vacuum recovery capabilities with wastewater storage for proper disposal.)

The HydraMaster PEX500 High Performance Heated Extractor meets and exceeds the above-defined criteria. While some would consider this kind of box and wand extractor to be “old technology, “it is the type of equipment that has focused on improving the cleaning process itself, not just making carpet cleaning faster and less labor intensive. The PEX500 uses the highest capacity heating element available (2000W) to maintain higher cleaning solution temperature even when under a higher water flow demand. Most heated extractors use a 750W to 1750W heater. It has a 50-500 psi adjustable pump with flow rates at 400-500 psi being around 0.9 to 1.0 gpm. It uses dual 3 stage vacuum blowers for maximum solution recovery. Combined with the EVOLUTION wand, this combination was demonstrated to have the highest level of recovery and fastest drying times of any portable extractor tested.

So if a facility you are tasked with cleaning wants high performance deep cleaning instead of just reducing labor costs, it might be time to invest in this equipment that has focused on cleaning improvements. Who would be interested in this level of cleaning? Businesses and facilities are concerned not just about how the carpet looks, but how healthy is the indoor environment it is installed in. Many healthcare facilities certainly fall into this camp. But more and more Class A commercial buildings and health sensitive corporations are simply not satisfied with the level of “cleaning” they get from a robot or a ride on extractor that is focused on speed only. If really getting the carpet deep cleaned at the highest level is their desire, you can step right in with the PEX500 extractor and deliver them the service they are craving.

In the end, the benefits they get from deep cleaning will become more and more obvious.

• Extraction and removal of unwanted matter
• The sanitizing effect (decontamination) of hot cleaning solution
• Restoring confidence in the safety and healthfulness of their facility
• Reassurance to employees, customers, vendors, and all stake holders
• Extending the life of the carpet investment

For more information on the PEX500 heated extractor, visit https://hydramaster.com/product/pex500/. For more information, and copies of the studies on the science of carpet cleaning, download the free information at https://hydramaster.com/thescienceofcleaning/