The essence of this method is to treat surfaces with a washing solution using an extractor, a washing vacuum cleaner, and a carpet harvester. The solution is fed through a nozzle into the product, dissolves the dirt or separates it from the fabric, and immediately it is taken back, taking with it all the inclusions it contains.
The more cleaning solution is supplied inside and the more intensive this supply is, the more effective cleaning will be. This method is suitable for processing almost any product, with the exception of materials that are afraid of even minimal moisture.
Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Extractor Cleaning
The cleaning efficiency can be influenced by the chemical activity of the cleaning solution, its temperature, the force of mechanical action, and the duration of the procedure.
The chemical activity of the drug used depends on its individual formula and concentration. However, a high concentration of the solution does not always guarantee a high result. Exceeding the permissible norm may cause a decrease in the effectiveness of the solution and even lead to damage to the product.
Solution temperature is an important parameter that can also affect the detergency of the formulation. Given the temperature of the solution, there are several types of extraction cleaning:
Classic - the composition of room temperature is used (not higher than +40 degrees), this guarantees that there is no risk of thermal preservation of the contaminants present in the surface.
Hot - the solution is brought to a level of 60-65 degrees, which is safe for most synthetic materials.
Steam - steam with a temperature of 65-130 degrees is used, it settles on the treated surfaces in the form of condensate. This type is used more often as an additional one, since steam is not able to provide deep penetration, separation of heavy particles and complete cleaning of the material without detergent, and not all materials can be processed with steam.
Mechanical impact is provided by:
the use of special brush attachments of various shapes that wipe off dirt from the surface to be treated;
circulation of the cleaning solution supplied by the device with different pressures (1-28 or more bar): the stronger the stream of water, the more dirt it can remove;
suction power of the solution (2200-5000 mm water column), which allows you to remove the maximum amount of sand and other contaminants.
The time of exposure to the detergent also varies and can be adjusted depending on the degree of soiling of the product and other factors. The technician can immediately remove the solution by acting on the same place several times, or apply the detergent and leave it for a while so that it has time to dissolve the dirt. In any case, even the smallest amount of detergent left in the fabric after the initial treatment continues to dissolve the dirt, and the repeated removal of residues guarantees a better cleaning result.
Detergents in water extraction can behave differently. They mainly dissolve and emulsify contaminants, but in some cases they react with them. Extraction cleaning is carried out at the level of the pile part of the carpet and the upper part of the upholstery fabric without wetting the deeper elements and underlays. This is the main advantage of the extraction method of cleaning over others, which makes it possible to treat almost all types of products from a variety of materials with detergents, with a few exceptions.
This method is suitable for any carpets made of wool and synthetics (except for products treated with unstable dyes), as well as all fabrics used as upholstery (except for those that are afraid of moisture). Extractive cleaning removes sand, earth, dust, wool, grease, oil, protein, dyes, and other contaminants from the material that can be dealt with by the liquid stream, dissolving them completely or turning them into an emulsion.
Risks and hazards associated with extraction cleaning
Extraction is considered to be a simple and effective method of purification, but it is fraught with certain risks. Basically, problems arise in cases when a cleaning reagent is selected incorrectly, an action algorithm is not thought out, or the type of product is incorrectly determined.
An incorrectly selected temperature, in particular, exceeding the permissible norm, causes specific problems for certain types of materials: hot water can destroy wool, "brew" protein, partially change the surface structure. Hot treatment with an aqueous solution or steam can increase the undesirable effect, aggravate the negative effect of moisture on the product.
Extraction cleaning misconceptions
One of the main misconceptions associated with extraction cleaning is associated with the use of steam. Many people mistakenly believe that hot steam disinfection disinfects the tissue. In fact, steam passing from the steam cleaner through the nozzle to the surface of the product and penetrating deep into it cools down quickly.
As it moves from source to destination, steam rapidly loses temperature. On the back of the material, it is only 65-90 degrees, which is not enough for disinfection, which requires a higher temperature and a longer period of time to process. For clarity, let's say that hospital linen is disinfected by steaming at a temperature for 30 minutes. It would be simply impossible to carry out such a long processing of a sofa or carpet with a small nozzle.
How to work with the extractor?
The extraction algorithm is simple. Preliminary dry cleaning is performed, the composition of materials is determined, they are tested for resistance to the detergent preparation, the types of existing contaminants are analyzed.
Next, you should decide whether the product needs pre-treatment, how stains will be removed. If preliminary cleaning is not needed, then you can proceed directly to the extraction.
It is necessary to prepare the equipment and the cleaning solution, the operator should take care of personal protective equipment. Clean furniture from top to bottom, starting from the least accessible areas, working your way to more accessible areas. The nozzle must be moved towards you, overlapping with each next pass a third of the previous one.
Carpets begin to clean from the far corner and the nozzle is also moved towards itself, overlapping each previous passage by about a third. In order to reduce labor costs, it is advisable to make the length of the passage no more than 60 cm.
While moving the nozzle, the trigger of the solution supply should be pressed constantly and released only a moment before it is torn off and moved to the next area. Every few strokes with the supply of detergent should be alternated with 1-2 strokes without it in order to collect the remaining moisture. To clean heavily soiled areas, they should be walked several times, changing the direction of travel.
After completing the process, you can additionally remove the remaining stains, rinse the surface or perform other types of post-processing. The final step is drying the product.
thanks for the interesting article, useful information for me🤓