So, last week I was at my parents’ house for a visit and my dad asked me to explain why using a rental carpet cleaning machine is different from what we at Anderson Carpet Cleaning do. Wow, talk about getting my juices flowing…
So, I told him that first, when you rent a machine from a store, you have no idea what the person before you, used it for.
For example, vomit (dog or people), dog poop, urine, or just really, dirty carpet. When they are done, they bring the machine back to the store and put it back on the shelf. Did they clean the outside of it, where you handle the machine?
I bet they did not sanitize the inside of it before returning the machine to the store. He kind of made a face at this point. Additionally, I said, the chemicals that are sold with the rental machines are not too good for your carpets.
Another difference is that our water temperature gets up to 240’. That is hot enough to kill most bacteria that are in the carpets. Our water is heated through the truck mount system in our vans.
That the water people use in the store rental machines is either hot tap water which only gets up to about 100’ (not hot enough to kill anything). Or water they heated up by boiling it then adding it to the machine, but by the time the job is done, the water is no longer hot. And is probably cold. Which means that it is not doing the job that you are expecting. Interesting, said my dad. Keep going…
Finally, and most importantly, I told him, that store rental machines have a very low PSI for extracting (sucking) the water back out of the carpet. The typical PSI on a rental unit is less than 100.
At Anderson Carpet Cleaning, the PSI of our truck mount extraction is closer to 3-500. Oh, sorry, PSI is pounds per square inch. The higher the PSI number the better the cleaning of the carpets will be. A higher PSI means that dirt and soil is more easily broken down and removed. And let’s face it, that is why you wanted clean carpets in the first place.
If enough water is NOT extracted out of the carpet, many other issues can occur. For example, mold, mildew, breakdown of carpet backing and/or pad underneath. Odor that will never go away…it really is just a bad idea. Kind of like choosing the least expensive plastic surgeon…
So, between the higher PSI (sucking) power and the hotter water, Anderson Carpet Cleaning is just a better choice
