Advance Spectrum™ Upright Vacuum

Advance Spectrum™ upright vacuums deliver superior pickup and filtration, with the power to pull dirt and dust from carpets in a single cleaning pass, resulting in greater productivity. The 12P and 15P feature a two-stage, 1000-watt motor. Dual motors equal 20% greater productivity than single-motor uprights. The 15D and 18D add a brush motor to deliver 1,350 watts of power.

The innovative design of the Spectrum power head creates a seal with the carpet surface to agitate and capture dirt and dust that other vacuums miss. This design has earned the Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI) Seal of Approval, meeting the industry's latest pickup and filtration standards for vacuum performance.

Advance VU500™ Upright Vacuum

The Advance VU500™ delivers exceptional cleaning performance in an easy to use, easy to maintain upright vacuum that is designed to withstand stringent environmental requirements.

• Automatic, self-adjusting brush height ensures proper cleaning performance and maximum productivity when cleaning different floor surfaces.
• With the Advance Radius Turning System, the VU500 delivers exceptional maneuverability to optimize operator efficiency.
• The VU500 provides excellent indoor air quality with three-stages of filtration, including true certified H.E.P.A., that will contain less than 99.97% of all dust, pollen, bacteria, allergens, and other particles.
• Meets LEED requirements with CRI Seal of Approval (Silver) and low sound levels.

Understanding CRI Certification

A CRI Seal of Approval on an extractor or a vacuum indicates the machine meets specific standards for operation and performance. 

Equipment manufacturers voluntarily submit their carpet care models for CRI''s independent testing. An independent board of scientists reviews the test results and recommends whether or not to certify the machine.

The CRI testing program certifies machine performance in three areas, in addition to an appearance assessment:

• Soil removal: The combination of foot traffic and dust settlement leads to a large amount of soil buildup in carpet. To gain certification, a vacuum must make four passes over a piece of test carpet that contains one-tenth of a gram of soil per square inch of carpet. Extractors must be able to remove 55 to 70 percent of soil to receive bronze certification, 70 to 80 percent earns silver distinction and more than 80 percent achieves gold certification.
• Dust containment: This protocol evaluates the total amount of dust released into the air during the act of vacuuming, requiring that the vacuum release no more than 100 micrograms of dust particles per cubic meter into the surrounding air.
• Water containment: Since moisture residue in carpet can cause any number of problems, from mold to fostering bacteria growth, it is important that no excess water remain after the extractor finishes cleaning an area. To test an extractor, the machine is allowed four passes over a carpet sample that contains a set quantity of water to remove as much water as possible. To receive certification, the machine can leave no more than eight ounces of water behind per square yard of carpet.
• Carpet appearance retention: Over time, dust accumulation can wear down carpet fibers and diminish the appearance of carpet. This test is designed to assess the impact of a particular machine on carpet appearance. A cut-pile carpet is subjected to one year of simulated use, including vacuuming or extracting and walking. Researchers compare before-and-after photographs to determine the amount of wear incurred using a technique called Spectrographic analysis. The vacuum or extractor receives a passing grade if the degree of wear is judged to be equal to or less than one year of standard use.

Results from all three tests are peer reviewed by experts in the field of maintenance and indoor air quality (IAQ) to assure their validity.

Enhancing Indoor Air Quality with CRI-Certified Carpet Care Equipment

This article was originally published in Building Services Management

By: Scott Keller
Vertical Marketing Manager, Nilfisk-Advance

Protecting the health and safety of a facility and its occupants is one of the key challenges of a building services manager. This requires them to keep their building looking clean, visually appealing and, above all, improve the facility’s indoor air quality (IAQ). IAQ can be impacted from many types of dust particles, inside and out. Dust inside a building is present in a wide range of forms, from bacteria and allergens to paper dust and mold. Fine particles, such as asbestos and coal dust also add to dust generation. Dust from outside a facility, such as pollen, pesticides, fertilizers and other natural environmental toxins can also penetrate a building, which adds to poor IAQ.

Building services managers can combat dust particles with carpet cleaning equipment designed to effectively contain dust particles and remove soil while providing efficient, sustainable performance. When selecting carpet care equipment, cleaning professionals turn to the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), which rates machines on their ability to remove soil, contain dust and retain quality carpet appearance.

A CRI Seal of Approval on a vacuum indicates the machine meets specific standards for operation and performance. Equipment manufacturers voluntarily submit their carpet care models for the Carpet and Rug Institute’s independent testing. An independent board of scientists reviews the test results and recommends whether to certify the machine. The CRI testing program certifies machine performance in three areas: soil removal, dust containment and carpet appearance retention.

Results from all three tests are peer reviewed by experts in the field of maintenance and indoor air quality to assure their validity.

The Goal of CRI

Now that we've discussed the testing program for CRI carpet extractor certification and its benefits, let's wrap up this blog post series by taking a look at the goal of CRI.

Established in 1991, CRI is a national carpet and rug industry trade organization headquartered in Dalton, Georgia. CRI counts as its members over 90 percent of all carpet producers and raw materials suppliers in the United States. In 2000, CRI established a Green Label vacuum certification program in response to an industry need for a common standard in environmental certification. CRI views standardization and certification as an important part of its mission, and certifies carpets, cushions and adhesives in addition to vacuums and extractors.

When evaluating carpet extractors, consider products that bear the CRI Seal of Approval. The environmental and cleaning performance of CRI-tested and approved extractors can help you save time and labor costs, increase the life of flooring and improve a facility’s indoor air quality.

The Advantages of CRI Certified Extractors: Longer Lasting Carpet

We have discussed how CRI-certified carpet extractors can help to improve a facility's indoor air quality and lower cleaning costs. Today, we finish our blog post series by discussing how these extractors can help facilities achieve Longer Lasting Carpet.

The soil in carpet is not only unsightly and unhealthy, it is also destructive. Carpet soil includes sharp and abrasive microscopic particles, which when walked on, cut into carpet fibers and abrade them. This ultimately causes the carpet to continuously appear dirty. Over time, the wear caused by soil will require replacement of the carpet sooner than would otherwise be necessary. Having CRI’s certification means an extractor is both able to effectively remove dust particles, as well as not adversely affect the carpet’s overall appearance. Additionally, a certified machine will effectively remove the water from the carpet, thus greatly reducing mold and bacteria growth. All this translates to a longer life for your carpet.

To learn more about Advance's CRI-certified carpet extractor solutions, visit: www.advance-us.com.

The Advantages of CRI Certified Extractors: Improved Indoor Air Quality

Our last few posts have discussed the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) Carpet Extractor Certification in detail, analyzing machine performance certification in various areas. Our next round of posts will look at what CRI certification really means for your facility and cleaning procedures. There are many ways an extractor with the CRI Seal of Approval can positively affect your company’s cleaning program, including: Improved Indoor Air Quality, Lowered Costs and Longer Lasting Carpet.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is a measure of the quality of the air in an indoor environment. Good IAQ depends on many factors, including effective building design, up-to-date maintenance and the selection and use of “green” cleaning products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that improving IAQ can reduce health problems, improve worker productivity and improve the efficiency of cooling and ventilation systems. Dust, residual cleaning products and poor ventilation are all enemies of good IAQ. Commonly thought of solely as a nuisance, dust frequently contains pollen, fungal spores, dust mites and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can be harmful to health. A certified extractor will effectively improve IAQ by extracting the most soil during cleaning as possible. In addition, better removal of dust by extracting, reduces the amount of cleaning solutions needed.

Stay tuned for next week's segment discussing Lowered Costs!

CRI Testing Program – Carpet Appearance Retention

Thus far, we’ve discussed CRI carpet extractor certification for soil removal and water containment. This week we will look at carpet appearance retention.

Over time, accumulating dust can wear down carpet fibers and diminish the appearance of a carpet. This test is designed to assess the impact of a particular machine design on carpet appearance. A cut-pile carpet is subjected to one year of simulated use, including extracting and walking.

Researchers compare before-and-after photographs to determine the amount of wear incurred using a technique called Spectrographic analysis. The extractor receives a passing grade if the degree of wear is judged to be equal to or less than one year of standard use.

Results from all three tests—soil removal, water containment and carpet appearance retention—are peer reviewed by experts in the field of maintenance and indoor air quality to assure their validity. If an extractor model passes all three tests, it receives the CRI Seal of Approval.

CRI Testing Program – Water Containment

Last week’s blog post discussed machine certification for soil removal. This week, we will analyze the CRI testing program in terms of water containment.

Since moisture residue in carpet can cause any number of problems from mold to fostering bacteria growth, it is important that no excess water remain after the extractor finishes extracting an area. In this CRI test, a cut pile of carpet is weighed to determine its “dry” weight. The carpet sample is then given a set quantity of water. The extractor is allowed four passes over the sample to remove as much water as possible. After the extractor has finished, the carpet sample is weighed again to determine how much water remains. To receive certification, the machine can leave no more than eight ounces of water behind per square yard of carpet.

Stay tuned next week for the last component in the CRI testing program: carpet appearance retention.

CRI Testing Program - Soil Removal

Last week we discussed what CRI certification really means for carpet extractors. Over the next few weeks, we will analyze the three different areas that the CRI testing program certifies machine performance in. These include soil removal, water containment and carpet appearance retention.

The combination of foot traffic and dust settlement can lead to a large amount of soil buildup in carpet, requiring the need for soil removal. CRI’s soil removal test utilizes X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology developed by NASA that analyzes the emission spectrum when an atom is excited. In the test, a patch of carpet receives a set amount of soil. The cleaning machine is then allowed to extract the carpet. After the machine is done cleaning, the XRF gun irradiates the carpet, and the soil left behind emits fluorescent X-ray radiation based on the energy characteristics of each element. Scientists then measure the intensities of the emitted energies to determine how much soil remains in the sample. If the extractor is able to remove 55-70 percent of the soil it receives bronze certification, 70-80 percent earns silver distinction and by removing 80 or more percent of the soil the extractor is rated with a gold certification for soil removal.

Check back next week for a discussion on the CRI testing program for water containment.

CRI Carpet Extractor Certification

When evaluating carpet extractors, cleaning professionals want equipment that gets the maximum soil out of the carpet and leaves the carpet as dry as possible. While manufacturers claim their products are efficient or effective, it can be difficult to validate these claims. However, that’s starting to change. The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), in conjunction with NASA, has a testing program that rates extractors for their ability to remove soil and water as well as their ability to preserve carpet appearance. An extractor with the CRI Seal of Approval means the extractor meets the highest standards in the industry for efficient and effective cleaning, as well as appearance retention. CRI’s scientific testing procedure provides the hard data you need to evaluate and compare carpet extractors.

A CRI Seal of Approval on an extractor tells purchasers that the machine meets specific standards for operation and performance. Equipment manufacturers voluntarily submit their extractor models for the Carpet and Rug Institute’s independent testing. An independent board of scientists reviews the test results and recommends whether to certify the machine.

Stay tuned for next week when we discuss machine performance certification in different areas.