Breaking Down CHAT

Our last article, Cleaning Without Harsh Chemicals, touched on the balance of cleaning using CHAT. This article is going to go into a little more detail on what CHAT means. A brief reminder from the last article, CHAT stands for Chemical, Heat, Agitation, and Time. These are the four components needed in order to clean carpet.  

      Chemical (C) would be a pre-conditioner or any product used to remove soil from the carpet. This can be as simple as water, which was explained in the last article, or any other carpet cleaning product. As you are going through the carpet cleaning process, there may be some places in the carpet that are heavily soiled, in these areas you would need to spray more pre-conditioner or chemicals to help remove the soil at the same time as the rest of the carpet. Some places where the carpet might have spots, even with adding more chemicals, it may need more time for the chemicals to break down the spots. Adding more chemical isn’t always the answer. Some chemicals when more is added, will take more time to rinse out and some may cause damage to the backing of the carpet. When using chemicals, always mix them to the proper dilution ratio stated on the label according to the manufacturer’s specifications. With that said, some cleaning chemicals will have a different dilution ratio for heavy soil. I’ll say it again, be sure to follow all instructions from the manufacturer before mixing and using chemicals. 

      Heat (H) plays a factor if you are trying to use less agitation or time. Depending on the method chosen to clean the carpet, heat will be a big part of the process. If you are hot water extraction cleaning, there is not as much need for agitation since the heat will help remove the soil and spots easier and quicker. In other cleaning methods, such as low moisture cleaning, you may start with hot chemicals but will be using room temperature chemicals by the end of your run and the process may take a little longer at the end than when you started.

Agitation (A) on a carpet can be as simple as what Mark calls doing the “Nike shuffle” with a dry towel over a spot or as much as a counter rotating brush machine. When a spot is particularly difficult to remove, having the right tools to work the chemical into the carpet can make agitating go faster. Agitation helps in separation (deflocculation) of the soil and spots from the carpet fibers.  

      Time (T) simply means how long you let the chemical work in the carpet to remove the soil. Depending on the chemical, if it only sits for a short time, it isn’t going to have the chance to work as well to remove the soil or spot from the carpet. Sometimes adding time will help you reduce the amount of chemical. Using some of the other factors, you can decrease the time needed to clean the carpet.

Bottom line, if you increase one or more of the factors, you will decrease one or more. If you are having difficulty removing soil or spots from carpet, evaluate the factors in CHAT and determine what elements need to be increased in order to get the carpet clean.