Carpet and furniture cleaning is made much easier in recent times, with credit awarded to better equipment, newer technology and innovative chemistry.

Detergents have come a long way in recent years. Cleaning is a technical field.

A detergent is defined as a synthetic cleaning or wetting agent that has the ability to emulsify oils and soils, containing surfactants that attack soils in solution, making these soils easy to rinse.

Detergents contain many ingredients that perform a variety of vital cleaning chores. These can include:

• Surfactants
• Builders
• Solvents
• Suspending agents
• Enzymes
• Reagents
• Corrosion inhibitors for your equipment
• And more

The most important part

The most important aspect of detergency is with the surfactant (surface active agent).

Surfactants make water "wetter" and allow your cleaning agent to break through barriers and attack the soils, preparing them to be easily rinsed from fibers.

A surfactant has a head and a tail. The head (hydrophilic) is "water-loving" and attracted to water-soluble soils. The head has to be stronger than the tail, in order for the detergent to remain water soluble.

After all, you use water in cleaning, so this is important.

The tail (hydrophobic end) of the surfactant molecule is the part of the surfactant that removes the oily soils.

These (the head and tail of a surfactant) work perfectly together. When the detergent is applied to your carpet or furniture's surface, the surfactant goes to work, attacking both types of soils for removal, as you can see in this photo:

The other type of soil - insoluble - is removed with vacuuming or the physical force of your cleaning operation.

A simple demonstration

To see how a surfactant works, you can do a quick demonstration.

To do this, you need four things:

1. A plate or bowl
2. Water
3. Pepper
4. Detergent (dish detergent is fine)

Put some water on the plate or in the bowl, and liberally sprinkle pepper on the surface of the water.

You'll notice that the pepper will move around and act "energetic" - this is due to the energy of the water. The pepper should be distributed pretty evenly across the water's surface.

Then, put a small amount of detergent on your fingertip and touch the center of the water.

For those who don't want to do this experiment, I'll tell you what happens: The pepper moves to the outer edge of the plate or bowl, due to the surfactancy of the detergent.

If you do this experiment and use pure ammonia, you will see some surfactancy, but in a smaller amount.

A professionally formulated detergent will have more surfactancy and the pepper will move faster and remain on the edge longer.

This is part of the reason why you should wet out the entire panel or surface area when cleaning or spotting upholstery - otherwise, you may end up with a water ring. Water rings can also occur with carpet, but not as often.

pH isn't the key with surfactancy. In fact, choose a neutral or even acid cleaner and do this experiment. You'll notice the surfactancy is very good.

Breaking through protectors

Another reason that good detergency and surfactancy is important is that water is limited in its cleaning power.

With many carpets, the soils are attracted to the surface of the fiber. This can be due to abrasion, levels of soils and more.

When you try to clean these soils with just water, the soils laugh off the attempt. They are "stronger" than the water and more is needed.

Adding detergency to your water makes the water effective in removing soils.

Another point: Most cleaners have experienced cleaning a carpet with fabric protectors applied. Cleaning is definitely easier with a protected carpet.

However, the water doesn't want to penetrate the surface, due to the protection.

Try this for yourself: Put a few drops of water on a protected carpet. You'll notice the water beads up and doesn't want to penetrate.

Imagine trying to clean a soiled carpet when the water won't even penetrate.

But put a small amount of detergent on that drop of water that is sitting on the surface, and you'll see the water absorb into the carpet.

That's the cleaning reaction you need.

It's a good idea to reapply protectant after using a surfactant, as the lowering of the surface tension can weaken the effectiveness of the protectant.

The dirt facts

To get the dirt out, you have to get your cleaning solution to interact with the dirt, making for easy rinsing.

Of course, a quality detergent must also keep soils suspended. It doesn't do much good to loosen soils from fibers and then have them reattach before you can clean the surface.

Lubrication also plays a part in detergency. If a soil isn't suspended or dissolved, it can still be removed physically due to lubrication and agitation.

It's like golf

Lower surface tension is the winner in the game of textile cleaning.

Protectors lower surface tension.

Cleaning agents need to lower surface tension in solution, for better cleaning.

The cleaning agent has to have lower surface tension than what it is cleaning.

It's like golf. The lower score wins.

Surfactancy in detergents gives the professional cleaner the tool he needs to be successful.

Which detergent will you choose?

Most professional formulations will work fine. Do your own testing. Try various types on various carpets and soils.

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