Seven Wand Terms Cleaning Professionals Should Know
Carpet cleaning has its own terminology. There’s hot water extraction, low moisture extraction, spotting, “steam cleaning,” defoamers, and even digesters. But, did you know there are also terms specific to the wands used in carpet extraction?
According to Doug Berjer with CFR (Continuous Flow Recycling) carpet extractors, the following are the seven “wand” terms cleaning and carpet cleaning techs should know:
Wand: So we are all on the same page from the start, a wand is a weighted piece of equipment that attaches to a carpet extractor and is used for hot or cold water extraction. The wand contains a vacuum head and detergent jets. The head of the wand is called the “wand shoe.”
Wand agitation: This occurs when the wand shoe is passed back and forth over carpet pile. The movement of the wand combined with injection of water/cleaning solution and vacuum airflow help agitate and remove carpet soils.
Proper agitation: This allows for cleaning chemicals to dwell on the carpet for a few minutes, ensuring maximum soil suspension before they are extracted out of the carpet by the wand.
Double stroking: This typically refers to a double rinse of the carpet.
Flood and flush: Also known as “chop stroking,” this is used in extreme soiling situations. The technician pushes forward with the wand with the spray valve open and then pushes back on the wand a second time with the spray valve open; this “floods” the carpet to remove soils. After these two steps, extraction begins.
Parallel stroking: This refers to the basic “spray forward, extract backward” use of the wand in a repeating sequence, overlapping the area cleaned.
Atomization: A high-speed, moisture controlled technology that helps agitate carpet fibers and inject and then extract water/cleaning solution from the carpet, leaving less moisture in the carpet for faster drying times.
“There’s another term we should use when describing wands and that is ‘important,’” says Berjer. “The effectiveness of the entire extraction process is dependent on many things, but chief among them is the wand.”
Cleanlink.com
