Writing in favor of hot water extraction
David Nalley

I have been using hot water extraction for 28 years.

I favor hot water extraction (HWE) over any other method for most of my cleaning needs. This is for both residential and commercial carpet cleaning.

Hot water extraction has a lot of history, but I'll concentrate on something I've seen myself. Obviously, there are many methods of cleaning, and I'm very familiar with them and their benefits and downfalls.

In 1965, a gentleman passed through Jackson Hole, WY, with a carpet cleaning machine made out of glass.

I learned about hot water extraction. The machine had a pump with a gauge. It had a vacuum blower and that had a gauge, too.

It had two tanks: A clean one and a dirty one. The clean tank had a heater.

The machine came with two buckets: A white one and a gray one, and the machine made a lot of noise.

In 1975, the portable was turned into a truckmount.

There was no more water to carry, as garden hoses took care of that chore.

The truckmount had a big heater, a big vacuum, soap injectors and it emptied its waste tank.

All I had to do was drag this tool that liked to eat dirt.

Hot water extraction is a combination of heat, detergent, water pressure and vacuum. When used in balance for a particular application, it can be a great success.

For a restaurant carpet cleaning application, 240 degrees Fahrenheit, proper detergents for restaurant grease, proper dwell time and a lot of vacuum is a great combination.

Example: A typical Pizza Hut® requires one hour from drive up to drive away, one gallon of detergent, 45 gallons of water and dries in four hours — for $202.

I'm not only calling this HWE, but also low moisture cleaning.

I am requested each year to participate in Career Days at our local public school.

This is sometimes known as 50-Truck Day where firefighters, police, plumbers and even carpet cleaners get to show off their trucks and expertise.

I use a bucket of clear water and two towels on a walk-off mat, the kids provide the labor.

The child puts an index finger into the corner of a towel and dips into the clear water, rubs the spot — I know: "blot, not rub", but they are only beginners — and we show the soiled towel to our audience.

Next the student applies the dry towel.

The dry towel becomes much more soiled than the wet towel.

This shows two things: There must be a carrier of the soil (water) and the vacuum (hydraulic wicking in this case) does the cleaning.

The towel technique has a couple of downsides:

1. It just won't work in restaurants or any other high-volume, soiled carpets.

2. The carpet owner would like to put the carpet back into service before the moon becomes a popular lunch stop.

High heat, low pressure and high volume of water and vacuum equals high speed, efficient cleaning with low drying times and the carpet is dry in two to five hours versus low moisture cleaning which is dry in 15 minutes to two hours.

The HWE cleaning process is finished in a few minutes, and the low moisture cleaning process takes a little longer. Shall I spend a longer time cleaning or endure a longer time drying?

From 1965 until now, we have come up with many wonderful ideas on how to modify the flushing of carpet, which is not accomplished with my towel method.

Human nature, as it is, comes up with a great idea and puts the blinders on and we consume ourselves with the idea.

Fortunately, there are wonderfully smart people out there who can objectively look at several ideas and come up with methods to gain the most productivity from one idea used with another idea.

In short, HWE has been a great idea. In my opinion, the best idea so far, except when misused.

Over-wetting seems to be the biggest complaint. Why do we over-wet?

The list is long… it includes the technician is not balancing water pressure and vacuum, the use of too much water pressure caused by wrong settings, large or worn out jets, too little vacuum caused by plugged filters, kinked vacuum hoses, collapsed vacuum hoses, worn blowers, wrong type of vacuum hose (turbulence within the hose), too low of blower RPM, too long of vacuum hose, running two or three wands from a single small vacuum source, not enough heat resulting in multi-passes of the wand and stronger detergents, misuse of detergents, technicians who are mistrained, untrained, unmotivated, not properly motivated, overbooked, overworked, underpaid, equipped with broken/wrong/underpowered tools, etc.

In my opinion, HWE is the best method of cleaning when properly used on the appropriate job.

When I say "properly used" I want a machine that is flexible, has high heat when I want it, has no heat if I want, has high pressure or low pressure when I want it, and the same for the vacuum.

David Nalley is president of Nalley Steamway, LLC, in Jackson Hole, WY, and has been involved in the carpet cleaning industry since age 11, purchasing the family business in 1980. His volume doubled the next year and has seen growth each year since then.

Rebuttal
John Geurkink

The miracles of technology have thankfully made life easier for the professional carpet cleaner.

The march of history and the advancement of human species are based on extracting more productivity from less effort, and in today's high-cost fuel environment to extract more productivity from less fuel usage.

OP (oscillating pad) uses far less fuel because there is no need to haul all that expensive and heavy supplies around town, no need to heat water, no need to haul the clean and dirty water tanks and no need for airmovers.

The simplicity advantage of OP cleaning extends to technician training because we don't have to balance water pressure and vacuum or worry about plugged filters, kinked or collapsed hoses, blowers, rpm or vacuum sources.

OP is easier, faster, less complex, fuel efficient with a higher return on investment.

So I say to the professional carpet cleaning community: Simplify and profit by learning how to enjoy the benefits of OP cleaning.

John Geurkink runs Kentucky's Finest Carpet Care in Winchester, KY and is partner in Carpet Cleaning Systems, an equipment manufacturing company for low moisture cleaning. He has been using the OP system since 1974. He can be reached through his website, www.ccsop.com.