Carpet cleaning detergents are an important part of hot water extraction cleaning. While cleaners sometimes use acidic rinses or even clear water after using traffic lane presprays, as we discussed last, the majority of cleaners use a carpet cleaning detergent in their portable or truck mounted carpet cleaning equipment.
Carpet cleaning detergents have been around as long as there has been hot water extraction machines. At one time they were used alone for cleaning, and some cleaners still do most or all of their cleaning by simply adding this type of product to their solution tank or truck mount stock solution.
Most cleaners, though, use a carpet cleaning detergent to clean the areas of a carpet that are not routinely sprayed with a traffic lane prespray.
The two types of carpet cleaning detergents that most cleaners encounter are liquids and powders.
Liquids have the advantage of being easy to dissolve in water, and that they often leave the carpet with a soft hand, or feel.
Their weakness is that in very hard water areas,they may not be as effective.
Powders, on the other hand, need more time to dissolve, but are often the most aggressive cleaners and are very effective in hard water applications.
So if you use a portable machine or have a truck mount that has a sensitive (translate "easy to clog") chemical metering system, then liquids make sense, especially if the water is soft.
If you use a truck mount, and if you are willing to take a few minutes to make sure you detergent is dissolved thoroughly, you might prefer the extra cleaning power that a powder can give to you.
A third category of carpet cleaning product that is NOT a detergent are the "surfactant free" or "soap free" products. These products have no detergent, but only alkaline builders in them. What they provide is good cleaning of oily soils without leaving a surfactant residue behind. Carpets cleaned with these products feel like they've been rinsed with water only, and have no odor. Such products are ideal for people who want a "chemical and fragrance free" cleaning.
