We bought a Vax about a year ago but never got around to using it.
Plan to try it this weekend but not sure how long we should plan for the room to be off limits?
Should I leave the heating on to help dry it out?
Depends on the temperature, of course, but for me a couple of hours is plenty. The whole point of a Vax is that the bulk of the water is removed with the dirt and the surface of the fibres is all that gets wet.
R.
johnboy wibbled on Friday 09 October 2009 15:08
It'll take a couple of days with the heating on. The needent be "off limits" - it'll just me damp.
I don't have a VAX, but with my Hoover Aquamaster it's typically a few hours. If you don't mind getting damp socks (or leave your shoes on) you can walk on it immediately. Though in practice I leave it to dry out overnight. All it does is spray a small quantity of water into the carpet weave, then on the second pass sucks most of it back out. You can tell how much is left behind by the difference between the quantity you fill it's tank up with and the (alarmingly dirty) water that's collected in pass #2. The difference isn't that much and it's spread over the whole area of the room. 'corse if you decide to tip a few buckets of water over the carpet until it's sodden and *then* vacuum it up it will take days - and probably ruin the carpet, too.
Depends on the carpet. I've not tried with a Vax, but with other machines I've found it's usually a few hours to at least to be walkable on without getting damp feet, and probably a day to fully dry.
I did make the mistake of trying to clean a foam-backed (about 1/2"), deep-pile carpet once; about a week later it was still damp and smelled yuck as the foam just wouldn't dry out. Thankfully it was due for replacement anyway, so I bumped that job up and tore it all out...
Probably. If you've got a big portable fan (we've got one that's 2' across) those *really* help; you can quickly dry high-traffic areas.
Talking of which, make sure people only walk on it with clean feet for the next day or so - dirt just loves to stick to anything that's even slightly damp, even if it might feel dry to the touch.
cheers
Jules
Depends on (a) the efficiancy of the vacuum recovery system and more important (b) the material the carpet is made from.
For example if the carpet is wool or wool/nylon mix. Wool can absorb 40% of its own weight of water & no vacuum can remove absorbed water. If its an acrylic or nylon it can't absorb any water so the vac can remove almost
100%.Ventilation is the key to fast drying, heating makes little difference. It helps if you go over the carpet with suction only half an hour after cleaning.
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