Steam Carpet Cleaning The word steam is a little bit of a misnomer – there is no steam involved. In this method, hot water is sprayed onto the carpet and vacuumed up immediately. This method relies on the dirt being suspended by the water being sprayed on before being extracted. Chemicals are sprayed onto the carpet beforehand to loosen the dirt. Some carpet cleaners put these chemicals into the water being sprayed but this is not ideal because the chemicals take time to work and the chemicals are not flushed out leaving a sticky residue which can attract dirt after the carpet has dried. Steam cleaning is a more thorough clean and is often recommended carpet manufactures as the preferred method of cleaning. The main drawback of using this method is that the carpet takes a number of hours to dry. Factors which influence the drying time are air temperature, humidity, airflow and of cause the amount of water used. If the carpet is taking days to dry, way too much water has been used. Dry Carpet Cleaning Dry Carpet cleaning, also sometimes called bonnet cleaning is more of a chemical clean but still uses some moisture. The chemical is sprayed onto the carpet and then scrubbed using what is called a pad. The dirt is then either lifted directly onto the pads or encapsulated into crystals formed as the chemicals dry and vacuumed up later. Dry carpet cleaning is good if the carpet needs to be used right away or only a light (maintenance) clean is required. Also, good steam cleaning equipment is heavy, sometimes it difficult getting the equipment in place, like in some high-rise buildings. So which is best? If you have a few hours to let the carpet dry and want a deep clean, steam cleaning is the way to go. If you need to use the carpet right away or just need a light clean, dry cleaning may be better.