by Brianna Crandall — February 18, 2015—Carpet cleaning has its own terminology, such as hot-water extraction, low-moisture extraction, spotting, steam cleaning, defoamers, and even digesters. But according to Doug Berjer with CFR (Continuous Flow Recycling) carpet extractors, a Tacony Company, there are also terms specific to the wands used in carpet extraction.
According to Berjer, the following are the seven wand terms that cleaning and carpet-cleaning techs and facilities professionals should know:
- Wand: To begin with, a wand is a weighted piece of equipment that attaches to a carpet extractor and is used for hot or cold water extraction. The wand contains a vacuum head and detergent jets. The head of the wand is called the “wand shoe.”
- Wand agitation: This occurs when the wand shoe is passed back and forth over carpet pile. The movement of the wand combined with injection of water/cleaning solution and vacuum airflow help agitate and remove carpet soils.
- Proper agitation: This allows for cleaning chemicals to dwell on the carpet for a few minutes, ensuring maximum soil suspension before they are extracted out of the carpet by the wand.
- Double stroking: This typically refers to a double rinse of the carpet.
- Flood and flush: Also known as “chop stroking,” this is used in extreme soiling situations. The technician pushes forward with the wand with the spray valve open and then pushes back on the wand a second time with the spray valve open; this “floods” the carpet to remove soils. After these two steps, extraction begins.
- Parallel stroking: This refers to the basic “spray forward, extract backward” use of the wand in a repeating sequence, overlapping the area cleaned.
- Atomization: A high-speed, moisture-controlled technology that helps agitate carpet fibers and inject and then extract water/cleaning solution from the carpet, leaving less moisture in the carpet for faster drying times.
To conclude, Berjer stressed the importance of wands in the extraction process.
