Does a Vacuum Cleaner REALLY Clean?

The answer is Yes and NO! How’s that for an answer?

Yes, it picks up stuff on the top of the carpet. NO, it does not clean the carpet.

Okay, let’s get a bit deeper into the subject is what I’m trying to say. If only surface cleaning is what you are after, then used a vacuum. I don’t care if it is commercial or residential grade.

An upright vacuum cleaner with a brush roller does remove dirt and grime from carpets at best from the top 1/3 of the pile. However, it is what is BELOW, in the remaining 2/3 of the pile which causes the health issues to us.

Many years ago, I started to really look at the facts of carpet cleaning and discovered that using a vacuum cleaner is like using a dust mop on hard surface floors. While it removes what I can see, it doesn’t really clean. So why do we continue to use tools that don’t really do the job?

That is when I started looking into the old ‘pile lifters’ of old. Heavy, bulky, loud, and just plain too aggressive to be used on any regular basis. Did they work? Oh, heck yes they worked.

So, what could I find that would be more user-friendly and do the job. I found it. Twin cylindrical brush units that basically float across the carpet. They dig up the dry soils below the surface, change the appearance of the carpet, and DON’T HAVE A VACUUM.

When I instruct a carpet care class here at the Academy, we always start by learning what soils are and when to use the right processes. DRY EXTRACTION is what we call it…with NO VACUUM.

You can view a short clip of students learning this first step in TRUE carpet cleaning here.