Carpet Cleaning Jargon and Definitions

Welcome to this article! If you are here, you most likely just met two or more different carpet cleaning companies and they both told you their services, but you really aren’t sure what the services really are. They use names like steam cleaning, deep cleaning, shampoo, dry cleaning, hot water extraction, and more. What do these names really mean? As a top rated carpet cleaning company in NYC, with years in the industry, we have the answer you are looking for to dispel all confusion. 

Why is there so much jargon?

If someone wanted to sell you something ordinary, but wanted it to sound fancy and complicated, what would that salesman do? He would use vague buzzwords that sound cool, but really could mean many things. That’s what is happening here. Most of these words…MEAN THE SAME THING! That’s the dirty little secret in the carpet cleaning industry. Yes, every carpet cleaner has a different technique, different equipment, different solution, but really the process is basically the same. However, there are some important differences between some of these words. In the rest of this article, we will break down some common comparisons to get to the bottom of this jargon. 

What is wet cleaning?

Cleaning refers to cleaning a carpet or upholstery item with water. Most fabrics can tolerate water, including cotton, wool, linen, polyester, and nylon. Some fabrics cannot, such as viscose and rayon. We cleaning refers to the technique of saturating a furniture item with water and soap in the process of cleaning it. You may hear your carpet cleaning professional tell you that your carpet or couch can be wet cleaned. 

What is Dry Cleaning?

Some fabrics, which cannot tolerate water well, or cannot tolerate water well without proper, supervised drying are dry cleaned. Dry cleaning either uses solvents or a dry compound for dry cleaning.

Solvents

Solvents are petroleum-based products that are a liquid but contain no water. When you bring your suit or dress to the dry cleaners, they actually put your clothes in a dry cleaner. In that dry cleaner contains a solution of solvent. A dry-cleaning machine looks like a washing machine but it only uses solvents. Solvents evaporate quickly which is why when dry cleaning is often done in a machine. However, for carpet cleaning and upholstery cleaning, there are solvents that can be sprayed and agitated into fabrics that have a cleaning effect. These are often used for Paint, Oil, and Grease (POG) stains. Solvents are often used for spot cleaning, but dry cleaning for general maintenance is very challenging if not impossible using solvents. 

Dry Cleaning Compound

Dry cleaning compound is a substance that is sprinkled over fabrics, agitated in, then vacuumed up. It has some cleaning capabilities, but isn’t a deep clean. It is often made from natural biodegradable materials and is an eco-friendly way to clean, but its effectiveness is low.  

Low Moisture Cleaning

Low moisture cleaning involves lightly wetting the surface of a fabric and then using an encapsulation product that will encapsulate the dirt and stains into polymer crystals which will eventually dry. Then, once dry, a vacuum is used to lift these crystals. Truth is, once the solution emulsifies the stains, meaning that they are no longer visible, everyone’s happy and the crystals are microscopic. If no one vacuumed after the job, no one would care. Some carpet cleaners might call this cry cleaning because it dries within about 15-30 minutes. This is a great cleaning method for high traffic areas where there can be really no down time. The downsides are that it isn’t a deep clean, like a hot water extraction (see below). 

Vacuuming

As crazy as it sounds, some people may sell you on dry cleaning which will entail simply vacuuming. Yes, they may have a better vacuum than you do, but it's still…a vacuum. 

Steam Cleaning vs Hot Water Extraction

What is steam cleaning? What is hot water extraction? /Well…they are the same thing! That’s right folks, two words that mean the exact same thing! 

To explain what it is physically, a hot water extractor is an industrial machine that injects water into a fabric and then wet vacuums it up almost simultaneously. This in essence, rinses the fabric as the machine passes over it. 

Why do people use the word steam clean? Well, when the water is really hot, and the water is injecting into the fabric, a fine mist often releases as overspray from the cleaning head. It looks almost like steam, and when the water is really hot, it can be steam. 

But this is very different from steaming with an actual steamer. Steam cleaning is NOT cleaning with steam. 

Steam Cleaning vs Deep Cleaning

Ok, so we already know that steam cleaning is really hot water extraction. They mean the same thing. But what does deep cleaning mean? Well, truth is, you know as much as we do. We don’t know what that means. If a carpet cleaner says we deep clean, ask them what that really means? Does that mean they will remove the stains from the carpet or just do a rinse? Will they use a CRB before rinsing? Will they use multiple solutions? These are questions you need to ask your carpet cleaner because “deep cleaning” could mean…anything.

Steam Clean vs Dry Clean Carpets

If one carpet cleaner quotes you on steam cleaning, and another on dry cleaning, then one of them must not know how to clean. If the fabric can only tolerate dry cleaning then the steam cleaning will destroy the fabric. Or if the fabric can be steam cleaned, then the carpet cleaner who suggested dry cleaning erroneously thinks it is a delicate fabric that cannot tolerate water. Truthfully, if a carpet cleaner tells you that the fabric cannot tolerate water, I would trust that recommendation, as knowing specialized fabric cleaning methods is a more advanced technique.  

Steam Clean vs Shampoo Carpet

Ah, the luxurious idea that your carpet is just like hair. Take out the shampoo, get it all lathered up, make it feel like a prince! Well, in most cases, if you are offered a carpet shampoo, it means the same thing as a steam clean, meaning a hot water extraction. Shampoo often lathers, yet carpet steam cleaning products shouldn’t lather that much. Yes, there can be suds, but not luxurious big suds like you get when you wash your air in the shower. If your carpet is taken away to a facility, they do actually use more sudsy soap for a deep cleaning, but that cleaning is contained in a rug washing pit, and everything gets wet. In your home, steam cleaning is contained to the item so extreme suds would be difficult to clean up. 

Don’t Come to Conclusions

Yes, it seems that there are a lot of words being thrown around, seemingly to make things sound big and grand, which might justify a higher price tag. However, every carpet cleaner does have his own method of cleaning, often learned and perfected over years of experience and trial and error. If a carpet cleaner offers you a service that sounds vague, give them the benefit of the doubt, and simply ask them to clarify what they really mean by the words they use. Perhaps “shampoo” or “deep clean” are justifiable in their process. Perhaps there are basic cleans, and ones that are more advanced. Whatever it is, don’t be afraid to ask questions. 

Transparent Carpet Cleaning in NYC

At PristineGreen, we are very transparent about our carpet cleaning process. We have multiple packages, some packages with deep cleaning. Whatever we offer you, we break down our exact cleaning process so you can make an informed decision if we are the best carpet cleaning company for you in NYC. We serve all 5 boroughs so give us a call!