When washing a carpet, do you keep cleaning your carpet until the water is clear? In this article, we are going to look at this issue and give some insight into why you keep getting dirty water and what you can do to remedy it.
A clean carpet is not only visually appealing but ensures that you and your family live in a healthy environment. There are little critters that can make their home on the carpet; leading to disease and allergic reactions. Some Pet and Reptiles also create a hazardous environment as their urine and poop act as breeding grounds for pathogens.
For these reasons and more, your carpet needs to be cleaned at the recommended intervals. When you are cleaning your carpet, you would ideally want the water to be clean when rinsing.
This signifies that your carpet is completely clean and dirt as well as detergent free. Leaving some detergent on the carpet will give dirt somewhere to cling to meaning that it will get dirty much quicker than it should.
Should I clean the carpet until the water is clear?
Ideally, yes, you would want the water from your carpet to be clear at the end of your cleaning process. This signifies that your carpet is 100 per cent free of dirt and grime.
For this reason, you want to make sure that the water that is returned at the end of your cleaning and rinsing process is clear. To get a good result, you need to make sure that you clean your carpet properly.
In order to do that, you have to clean your carpet slower than you vacuum. You want to make sure that you get all the dirt over a few passes.
To do this effectively, you can use a multi-direction approach.
This means that you clean in North-South, and East-to-West directions. Once you’ve done this and allowed the detergent to soak in as directed on the detergent container, you need to make suck out the detergent and dirt using the same multi-direction approach mentioned earlier.
Once over, make another pass using clean water and possibly some vinegar over the whole carpet. After this, you need to run your vacuum over again making sure to suck up any excess dirt and moisture.
The key once again is to go as slowly as possible giving the vacuum enough time to suck up all the dirt and moisture. When you do this the right way, you will discover that the water will get clearer on the second pass.
How many times should I rinse my carpet?
The question then arises of how many times you should rinse your carpet when you clean it. The simple answer is until the water collecting in the vacuum cleaner is clear.
When you do it this way, it means that you would have thoroughly cleaned your carpet removing the dirt and detergent.
As mentioned earlier, detergent left in the carpet will attract dirt making the carpet dirty much quicker than it would have if no detergent was left inside it.
You need to ensure that it is completely clean and detergent free. As to the number of times that you have to rinse your carpet, you also need to bear in mind that your carpet should not take in excess moisture.
This can damage your carpet padding. It will also allow dirt caught up in the padding to rise up resulting in the carpet staining when it dries.
Too much moisture will mean that the carpet takes longer to dry which may then lead to molds forming in the padding causing a lot of other problems.
Reasons why my carpet water remains dirty after many passes
Sometimes you will find that your carpet will keep putting out dirty water even when you rinse it many times. Let’s look at some of the reasons why this may happen.
Mould in Padding
When mold forms in your carpet padding, it will cause dirty water to keep coming up even after you have thoroughly cleaned and rinsed your carpet many times. The best way to remedy this is to have a professional come and deal with the mold.
Cleaning too Fast
As stated earlier, when you are cleaning your carpet, you need to make sure that you do it in such a way that you get every spot. This is also true when you are using the wet suction function to remove soap and dirt.
You must make sure that you do the initial passes where you are adding detergent really slowly. Much slower than you are used to when doing regular vacuuming.
The same applies when you are removing the detergent and rinsing. Also remember to use the multi-directional approach of North-South, and East-West so that you get your carpet completely clean and as dry as possible.
How do I know if my carpet is clean?
If you do your cleaning job well and make sure to use the techniques in this article, you will know that your carpet is clean by seeing n clear water collecting in your wet and dry cleaner at the rinsing stage.
This is a good sign that you would have gotten all the dirt and detergent out and that your carpet is clean.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you better understand what you need to look out for when you are cleaning your carpet and to know when exactly your carpet is 100 percent clean.
