Rug Doctor carpet extractors, utilize a clean water reservoir for hot water and cleaning solution which is applied to carpet when the red button on the top handle is pressed. This mixture is sprayed onto the carpet through the nozzles and scrubbed by the brush system (also activated when pressing the red button), and then vacuumed up by the front nozzle.
It is important to emphasize from the beginning that the only detergents that should be used in the solution tank, are Rug Doctor brand extractor shampoo's and detergents, as they are the only recommended cleaning agents that are guaranteed safe for the pump and injectors (protecting your 5 year warranty), and will be more than sufficient in most cases (at the recommended dilution ratios printed on the containers).
These approved cleaning agents are formulated specifically to work safely in the Rug Doctor, and not cause premature wear, and are safe for use on the carpet types recommended on the instructions printed on the bottle (which give proper dilution and other information). It is important to heed the warnings and use these solutions as instructed.
(Rug Doctor Oxy-Steam Carpet Cleaner...CRI Platinum Level rated when combined in solution tank as directed with Rug Doctor extractors)
But under special circumstances, such as when exceptionally dirty carpets are encountered, the effectiveness of the detergents can often be increased by upping the mix ratio of detergent to water, or with other products which act as heavy grease cutters or specialty spotters (pet stains for instance) which are not Rug Doctor products.
The problem with simply adding more detergent (or some specialty chemical) is that this is not very good for the pump and injectors on the Rug Doctor (early pump failure and/or plugged injectors for example).
Also, there may be instances when you have a spill or what have you, and you don't have any approved detergents on hand.
Additionally, you often see tips from people who have found a home made solution which they claim works wonders for removing stains, and usually encourage others to put these solutions in the Rug Doctor because they will save a lot of money over buying Rug Doctors' chemicals...again bad idea from a warranty standpoint (remember that any other solutions beside Rug Doctor's own shampoo is ill advised).
Keep in mind, that there are two systems employed during operation of the Rug Doctor.
First is the pump and injectors, which use the fresh water reservoir and any solution mixture contained in this tank, to apply this evenly to the carpet when the button is pressed (which also activates the brush).
The second system is the recovery system, utilizing a vacuum motor and dirty water recovery tank, with the vacuum nozzle and hoses to pick up all the water and dirt, with the used detergents.
When you turn the Rug Doctor on, the recovery (vacuum) is always running, but the pumps and injector nozzles are only utilized when the red button is pressed down. So basically, you can easily control the amount of water and cleaning solution applied to the carpet.
The important aspect of this is to understand that the problems usually encountered with pumps and injectors (and the associated warranty) is because of what users put into the machine through adding it into the clean water reservoir.
(with recovery tank removed one can see the opening to the water/solution, or fresh water reservoir. This is where water and any Rug Doctor approved cleaning solutions are added)
(adding hot tap water to the Rug Doctor X-3 with no cleaning chemicals in this instance. Recovery tank (white) is removed for emptying dirty water and refilling lower clean water reservoir)
The recovery side of the Rug Doctor is capable of picking up almost anything without causing an issue, as the vacuum motor is isolated from the water and chemicals (and other potentially hazardous materials vacuumed up) because the dirty water and contaminates are left in the recovery container, and never reach the vacuum motor (unless foaming occurs, which can happen with extra sudsy soaps like say dish washing liquid, or when the upholstery tool and hose are used, which both are issues which aren't the focus of this article, but anti-foaming agents are available from Rug Doctor for these instances).
Since this is the case, any un-approved cleaning agents (that magic recipe for the best carpet cleaning detergent you've heard about for instance), can be worked with as long as they aren't put into the Rug Doctor's fresh water reservoir.
Pre-spraying is the ONLY safe way to use these other chemical concoctions (it should be noted that Rug Doctor brand cleaning chemicals can be applied by pre-spraying as well).
Pre-spraying is a standard practice in the carpet cleaning profession as it is very effective and uses the chemicals to their best advantage by allowing the carpet to be treated as needed.
In essence, the dirtier areas get more detergent than the cleaner areas. Make sense right?
Also, when chemicals are placed inside the machine used to clean, the amount of time the diluted solution has to do its magic is only a second or so at best. The nature of the machine is to spray the mixture immediately ahead of the brush, which is given a brief time to scrub the stain before the vacuum system sucks up the water, chemical, and hopefully the stain.
Again, this usually works great on most carpets. But sometimes this isn't enough of a concentration of chemical, or time to really break down the stains bond to the carpet fiber. The fibers won't always release the dirt immediately in some cases, and even though a brushing action is applied by the machine, the chemical reaction necessary to break the bond between dirt and fiber may require more than just a split second or so.
The answer is to find a way to allow the cleaning agent greater access to the stains, and more than a split second or so to break them down.
To do this most easily, the cleaning agent can be pre-applied, or pre-sprayed onto the carpet and allowed an appreciable period of time to more effectively break the chemical bond of the dirt to the carpet fiber.
(pump up sprayer being used to pre-spray carpet before extraction with Rug Doctor X-3)
Most often this is accomplished with a spray bottle, or pump up sprayer as this allows a metered application of the soap. As some areas of the carpet are usually soiled more heavily than others, this method allows the application to be more heavily applied to the areas of greater need, while lightly applied to areas with little obvious dirt.
Also a "dwell time" can be employed, which simply means the detergent can have a few minutes to break down the chemical bond of the stain, allowing it to be easily removed by the Rug Doctor when it applies hot water, along with the brushing action, to the area. Then the vacuum can remove everything together at once.
Dwell time varies, but about ten minutes is a good amount to allow in most cases, as it doesn't give the agents enough time to dry up, while allowing adequate time to let the break down of the bond of dirt to fiber to be performed.
Another great benefit to using pre-sprays without any detergent being added to the clean water reservoir of the Rug Doctor, is that the hot water applied when pushing the button is removing as much of the cleaning detergents as possible from the carpet, without adding additional detergent.
This is important, because if detergent is allowed to remain in the carpet to dry, it promotes rapid re-soiling, and leaves the carpet rather stiff to the touch.
Many complaints (if not most) about cleaning services leaving, and the stains coming back after a few days are because the chemicals used to clean weren't thoroughly removed. It is easy to fail to do this, regardless of the method used to clean (Rug Doctor, or any other brand of extractor including truck mounted equipment).
So complete removal of the cleaning agents is essential to a good long term result, and pre-spraying helps in this goal because it allows the Rug Doctor to be filled with straight water, which greatly enhances the removal of carpet cleaning agents.
An additional problem that can be avoided with pre-spraying is "wicking" which occurs when carpet is left overly damp. As the carpet dries, any un-removed dirt (no extraction system has a 100% dirt removal capacity with the carpets left in place) from the matting or backing of the carpet, or even underneath in the carpet pad in some instances which is drawn up as the moisture slowly wicks it way up through the fibers as the overly damp carpet dries.
Wicking (or wick-back) is usually seen by the next day or two if that was the problem, but stains that re-occur several days later are most often from carpet cleaning solution not being thoroughly removed. But in any case, thorough removal of liquid is ideal.
Pre-spraying aids this as the initial cleaning pass employed with the Rug Doctor is removing cleaning solution, not adding it, and this uses less water over all, which aids drying time considerably.
So, adding a pump sprayer to your carpet cleaning arsenal is a good idea. It will allow you to better utilize your cleaning chemicals, add dwell time to your process, break down stains more effectively, and aid in thorough flushing of chemical residue from the carpet...all while helping you to get the carpet dry more quickly, a completely positive benefit in and of itself.
In conclusion, when necessity requires using non approved chemicals or solutions with a Rug Doctor, use a sprayer to apply these products directly to the carpet, allow an appropriate amount of time for the chemical reaction to break down stains, and thoroughly flush all the residue from the carpets to ensure a good end result.
Take care to remove as much moisture as possible with the vacuum system on the Rug Doctor and, I might add, use fans or open windows if necessary to dry the carpets as quickly as possible.
When these procedures are followed, the end results will be very satisfying for you. You'll have done a proper professional job and saved a lot of money by doing it yourself.
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