Knowing How to Select the Best Carpet Cleaners

Before you purchase a commercial carpet cleaner, you need to be certain about your requirements. If you purchase the wrong type of commercial carpet washer, you could lose hundreds of dollars on the purchase, and the wrong rug washer could lead to further costs in terms of productivity.

This carpet cleaner buying guide offers tips for selecting the right rug cleaner.

Temperature

A carpet cleaner achieves temperatures as high as 210ºF. Usually, water temperature of around 140ºF is considered sufficient for cleaning most rugs. You may invest in a cold water carpet washer as they cost less. However, these carpet washers can be used only when self-heating is not necessary. Every rug cleaners' buying guide advises using cold water when cleaning expensive or antique rugs. Thankfully, there are carpet washers that can heat water as well as use non-heated water only for cleaning. Similarly, there are non-heating carpet cleaning machines that can accept pre-heated hot water for washing rugs.

Low Flow

Water usage of a rug cleaner takes on special importance due to the fact that low flow machines have many benefits. A low flow carpet cleaning machine reduces cleanup of the work site and leads to faster rug drying. When a carpet dries fast, opportunities for odor and molds are reduced. On the other hand, a rug washer's buying guide usually cautions against the use of machines with high flow rates because the rug takes longer to dry.

Pump Pressure

A commercial carpet cleaner has higher pump pressure than home-use machines. Starting at 120 psi, the pump pressure can be as high as 220 psi in industrial carpet cleaners. Higher pump pressure is an indicator of a high performance machine.

Solution and Recovery Tanks

Bigger solution and recovery tanks mean longer duration of cleaning operations and less stopping to refill and dump. Tank size can vary from 4 gallons to 17 gallons.

Accessories

The most important accessory for a  machine carpet cleaning is the wand. A stainless steel wand is preferred because of its strength and corrosion resistance. Four-inch wands are used for cleaning upholstery, and larger wands are used for cleaning carpets. Wands are typically single jet, although more powerful wands are double jet.

Portability

Portable carpet cleaners are useful for maintaining large buildings, car fleets or multiple vehicles. A portable carpet cleaner can be carried around more easily and transported on mobile car wash trailers.

Vacuum Pressure

Vacuum pressure helps extract the moisture from the rug, leaving the carpet clean and almost dry. More powerful carpets feature water lift of 150 inches and high performing vacuum motors. Industrial machines may have double motors.

Automatic Filling and Dumping

Machines, that have mechanized water filling and disposal mechanisms, save a lot of time and are therefore more productive.

Hose

Make sure the carpet cleaning machine has an adequately long hose. Commercial carpet shampooers have hose lengths starting at 20 feet, and you can add to the length to make it as long as 50 feet.