Industry studies have shown that the top concerns of business owners and operators of carpet cleaning equipment are improving carpet appearance and cleanliness and shortening carpet dry time. Yet with the methods of carpet cleaning historically available to the commercial market, "quality cleaning" and "short dry times" have been mutually exclusive—until now.

New to the commercial carpet care industry, there's a technology that leaves clean carpets, dry and ready for use in less than 30 minutes. This rapid dry time frees professionals from current carpet cleaning constraints, allows for quicker turnaround of space, and improves carpet appearance.

ReadySpace™, an industry-leading, patented technology developed and marketed by Tennant Company, has demonstrated this ability to reduce carpet drying time while maintaining the cleanliness and appearance of the carpet at high levels.

This means that, finally, the commercial carpet care industry has a wet-cleaning tool designed specifically to meet its carpet care needs—a tool to help cleaning professionals achieve new levels of success and a higher level of clean.

Carpeted spaces are either "in service" and usable by customers and employees or "out of service" and unusable by customers or employees. Out of service carpets cost companies significantly in lost revenue and long dry times greatly restrict how often and when the carpet can actually be cleaned (typically done at night or on weekends).

There are a number of times during the carpet cleaning process when the carpet is, in fact, out of use—during and after pre-spray application, during the cleaning itself, and while the carpet is drying. With conventional cleaning methods, carpet dry time far exceeds pre-spray or actual cleaning time, so reducing carpet dry time is vital to reducing the total out-of-service time.

For example, consider a 10,000-square foot commercial carpet that has been pre-sprayed. With conventional deep extraction, the total carpet out-of-service time can be upwards of 18 hours, and nearly 13 of those hours are dedicated to dry time. With conventional light extraction, the total carpet out-of-service time is upwards of six hours with actual dry time requiring about three hours.

With ReadySpace technology, the total carpet out-of-service time is reduced to about 2.5 hours, and less than 30 minutes of that total out-of-service time is dedicated to dry time.

Carpet dry times typically account for the largest percentage of total carpet out-of-service time, making the ability to decrease carpet dry time an obvious advantage. Until now, however, manufacturers of carpet cleaning equipment have not provided the commercial carpet care industry with products or technologies that both clean the carpet and keep dry times low.

Bonnet cleaning, which dries faster than other cleaning methods, does not remove a significant amount of soil in the carpet. Additionally, because of the potential damage bonnet cleaning can cause, many carpet mills will void their warranties if bonnet cleaners are used. Light extraction cleans only moderately well and still requires several hours to dry. And deep extraction, which provides the highest level of clean, requires an extraordinary amount of time to dry. Both light and deep extraction also increase the likelihood of wick-back.

All of the conventional wet-cleaning methods listed above directly apply water to the carpet. Applying water directly to the carpet will, rather obviously, lead to a wet carpet. And a wet carpet will lead to increased drying time, which will lead to increased total carpet out-of-service time. To decrease dry time and reduce carpet out-of-service time, it seems clear that water should not be applied directly to the carpet.

Targeting soil within the carpet pile, the ReadySpace technology removes the dirt that diminishes carpet appearance, luster and life span. Unlike traditional carpet care products, ReadySpace relies on sprayer units that apply water to two counter-rotating, specially designed fabric rollers that pick up the soil from the carpet. As the rollers turn at a rate of approximately 400 times per minute they are rinsed with a solution spray, and two built-in vacuum shoes extract the soil from the rollers. Very little water reaches the carpet because the carpet is never actually sprayed with water.

The result? With Tennant Company's ReadySpace technology, carpeted spaces are clean, dry and ready to use in minutes.

Faster dry times yield numerous benefits beyond putting the carpet back in service sooner, such as:

• increased safety that is achieved with drier carpets and carpets that dry more quickly (there is less likelihood of wet shoes transitioning from wet carpeting to hard floor surfaces);
• decreased mold and indoor air quality issues with a carpet that is drier faster;
• decreased potential for wick-back; and
• decreased potential for re-soiling.

Tennant Company's ReadySpace technology is a winning solution for the carpet care industry. To learn more about ReadySpace and Tennant's complete line of carpet care products, visit www.tennantco.com.