The Advantages of CRI Certified Extractors: Lowered Costs

This week's blog post continues our series on the advantages of CRI-certified carpet extractors for your facility and cleaning procedures. While last week touched on the benefits of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), this week we will discuss how these extractors result in Lowered Costs.

According to industry-sponsored studies, as much as 95 percent of total cleaning costs are in labor. CRI-certified extractors are more effective at removing soil, dust and other compounds, which translates to greater cleaning efficiency and less time spent extracting. In addition, other studies have shown that improved IAQ helps reduce employee absenteeism and liability issues, which in turn contributes to cost reduction.

Next week, our blog post series will finish with how CRI-certified extractors result in Longer Lasting Carpet.

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.