Why Are Carpet Cleaning Drying Times So Important?

If you’ve been looking for professional carpet cleaning, you may have noticed a significant emphasis on carpet drying times. Though it may not seem to be critical, carpet drying times are incredibly important. The best carpet cleaning companies will use very little water during the process of cleaning and will be able to extract nearly all of this water. This leads to a drying time of only a few hours at most.

The Importance of Quick Drying Carpet

Older, traditional methods of carpet cleaning, such as steam cleaning, can typically leave carpets and the padding underneath saturated in water for 24-48 hours. A slow drying carpet is a carpet that may grow mold, mildew, and other bacterial growth. It doesn’t take very long for a saturated carpet to start developing an odor — and that not only defeats the purpose of the cleaning, but could also be ultimately unhealthy for the household. It’s not just the carpet itself that has to dry; deep carpet cleaning can also saturate the padding. If the carpet is taking more than a few hours to dry, the padding could be taking all day. During that time, mold and bacteria could potentially fester. The faster the carpet dries, the less of a chance there is for these issues to occur. Did you know up to 40 to 75 gallons of water can sink into your carpet padding? The excessive amounts of water and high pressure end up pushing the stains and dirt deep into the carpet which often will rise back up once the carpet is fully dry. This is why one of the most common complaints with steam cleaning is the reappearance of stains, which is also known as wick back.

The More Water Used, the Less Environmentally Friendly

Why would a carpet dry slowly? Often it’s because an excess of water has been used, most often associated with antiquated carpet cleaning methods. With the right professional equipment, this is a non-issue. Power Pup Clean uses special encapsulation-based extraction cleaning methods that use a minimal amount of water in order to clean. We only lightly mist the carpets and typically use 2 gallons of water per home, thereby eliminating the many of these problems. This is better for the environment and better for your carpet. Through our special methods, carpets can clean in 2 to 3 hours max.

Slow Drying Carpet May Indicate an Unclean Carpet

Washing is only one part of the carpet cleaning process. The water and cleaning fluids need to be removed along with the dust and dirt to truly make your carpet clean again. This is done through the use of an extractor. An extractor that isn’t properly working isn’t only leaving water on your carpet — it’s also leaving the cleaning fluids and the very dirt that it was meant to remove. An excess of water on your carpet simply means that a soapy, dirty residue is very likely still there and slowly setting in. Once it’s dried,  your carpet may actually be in worse condition than before; the cleaning chemicals themselves will begin to attract dust and potentially even create stains over time.

Of course, the above reasons ignore the most practical concern: getting back to your day-to-day life. Who wants to wait days for your carpet to be cleaned and dried? The faster your carpet can dry, the faster you can begin enjoying it. At Power Pup Clean, we focus on fast, thorough cleaning methods that restore your carpet without harm to the environment. Contact us today for a quote and see for yourself why we are Seattle’s Carpet Cleaning Specialists!