Chem Dry V/S Steam Cleaning

Chem Dry Carpet cleaning is actually a franchise name brand that many people associate with dry cleaning. In the 80’s companies like Chemdry came out with dry cleaning methods for carpet cleaning. They were exploiting the weakness of earlier steam cleaning methods. In the 70s and the 80 information wasn’t available for carpet cleaners to learn from the way it is today. Back then most cleaners did not understand about cleaning ph and often left carpets very wet. Over wetting was probably the biggest problem back then. Over wetting will cause many carpets to brown making them look dirty. Over wetting will also cause wicking. Wicking is dirt coming up from the bottom of the carpet or the pad as it dries. Faster drying time prevents this. Dry cleaning prevented all of this. The only problem is that dry cleaning is not a very good way to clean carpets. Just ask any Chemdry how they clean carpets now and they will tell you that they use wet cleaning. They still claim to have quicker dry times and that they use their own Carbonating, active cleaning solution. They do have quicker dry times because they only clean with a water pressure of 90 PSI. Most reputable hot water extraction companies clean at 500 PSI. They do use a rotary machine witch I do believe does a better job than the traditional wand, but you still need the wand for the edges. Many carpet cleaning companies offer the RX-20 rotary machine which looks a lot like Chendry’s machine. We use the RX-20 a lot and it is an awesome machine.

How should I Have my Carpets Cleaned

Remember all carpets are not made out of the same materials and some cleaners work better on different carpets. A good carpet cleaning tech should be able to identify what type of carpet you have and know how to clean it. Most of the time you can rinse the carpet leaving it ph balanced, but some jobs are really bad and require heavy duty stuff. It takes an experienced professional to determine what method to use. There is no reason to go heavy duty on carpets that have been taken care of. The IICRC put out guide lines for proper cleaning of carpets. We flow these guide line 90 percent of the time, but sometimes you run into carpets that have been mistreated and we have to use stronger chemicals that are not as safe for the life of the carpet. Sometimes it is necessary to use stronger chemicals to get the results that the customer wants, but this should be discussed with the customer. Certain cleaning methods void carpet manufacture warrantees. Dry cleaning carpets can void many carpet cleaning manufactures warrantees.

Hot Water Extraction is the Best Method

It’s is my professional opinion along with most industry experts that hot water extraction is the best method out there. I don’t think that Chemdry method is bad I just think that it’s outdated. They are still tiring to exploit dry time weaknesses. The problem is now that most hot water extraction companies are outperforming their method. Sure their method gets your carpet drier a couple of hours faster, but nowhere near as clean. Hot water extraction should be dry in about 4 hours and is the best cleaning method for carpet cleaning.