Hot water carpet extractors are among the most important tools in your auto-detailing arsenal, not only because a clean carpet gives customers an immediate sense of gratification, but because it gives you a bigger profit margin in your up-sell.
The carpet extractors available to auto detailers today work so much better than the old wet/dry shop vacuum of yesteryear. To tell you the truth, those beasts were never intended to provide a deep cleaning to automobile carpet, let alone remove all the dirty, soapy water afterward. In fact, when it comes to shop vacs, you’d be better off just sucking up the carpet through a straw.
What today’s heated extractors do is next to miraculous, immediately breaking down dirt, grease, grime, stale odors and most stains. And a good extractor will clean carpet with water that’s heated to up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. That feature alone reduces your labor time by 50 percent — which subsequently increases your profits by almost that much.
One of the things we recommend here at Detail King — in fact, it’s kind of a trade secret — is that you don’t mix any extractor soap in the solution tank of the extractor at all. Instead, we find it’s much better to spray a light mist of extractor soap directly onto the areas that will be cleaned a few minutes before extracting.
After the soap has been applied, follow up with the heated extractor, which will spray a uniform, heavy mist of hot water from the four-inch stainless steel hand tool deep into the carpet and upholstery fibers — simultaneously mixing with the extractor soap that you applied minutes earlier. The combination of the hot water and the extractor soap breaks apart the dirt, grease and grime. Then the powerful vacuum motor will suck up the dirty water into the recovery tank.
This leaves the carpets free of any residual chemicals — unlike carpets that are treated with chemicals to clean and scrub, followed up by an inefficient shop vac. That prehistoric practice doesn’t go anywhere near pulling all of the chemicals and dirty water out of the carpet. Instead, it leaves those dirty chemicals in the carpeting where it crystallizes and stiffens the fibers.
It’s a half-measures attempt at carpet cleaning, and the result is sticky carpet fibers that attract future dirt like a magnet. Not only that, but if you’re using a wet/dry vacuum, you’ll end up with wet carpets that could begin smelling like mildew and might even result in mold. That’s not going to make any of your customers happy.
Now it’s no great secret that we here at Detail King are big proponents of the carpet extractors produced by Mytee Products, a true leader in the automobile carpet cleaning category and a developer of a boatload of accompanying accessories. With the powerful vacuum suction of the Mytee Carpet Extractor, the last thing you have to worry about is the carpeting being left too damp after extracting.
The automotive heated carpet extractor lineup that we highly recommend includes:
The Mytee Lite II – Perfect for the mobile detailer
- Lightweight at 28 pounds, making it compact and portable
- Three-gallon solution and recovery tanks
- 1,000-watt inline heating system
- 120-psi solutions pump (quickly dispenses the water)
- The vacuum motor produces a powerful 102 inches of water lift
- Inline heating system heats the water up to 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few minutes.
The Mytee HP 60 – Next step up for the larger mobile detailing business or small detailing shop
- Features a six-gallon solution/recovery tank
- 1,200-watt inline heating system
- 190- to 200-degree heat
- A powerful three-stage vacuum motor
- 140 inches of water lift – One of the most powerful automotive units in the industry
- 120-psi solution pump.
The Mytee HP 100 – This is perfect for the high-volume auto detail shop, car dealership and body shop
- Features an 11-gallon solution/recovery tank
- All the same powerful quality features as the HP 60.
The Mytee Deluxe Detail Prep Center – It’s called Deluxe for a reason because it includes five detailing tools in one unit:
- Heated water carpet extractor
- 1,000-watt inline heater
- 140 inches of water lift
- 200-degree heat
- The vacuum exhaust port can also be used with the extra 25-foot-long vac hose and window tool to provide air flow to assist drying interiors or air purging water out of cracks and crevices after exterior washes.
- Cleaners, dressings and fragrances can be dispensed from the chemical dispensing system via the four adjustable heavy-duty spray heads attached to 25-foot coil hoses.
- Fill up to 4 of your most popular interior chemicals, and even most express waxes like our Final Touch Ultra.
- The chemical dispensing containers are all 1/2 gallon size and great for dispensing extractor soap, vinyl cleaner, interior dressing, interior car scent, etc.
- This unit has a new and improved tire/wheel system to make it easily portable to move around the shop.
And when it comes to extractor soap, Detail King’s Interior Extractor Soap is a highly concentrated, low-foaming soap that contains optical brighteners and has a pleasant citrusy scent. Not only will it help quickly clean car interiors but leave the fabric and carpet fibers bright and clean.
Performing interior cleaning and detailing services correctly — and doing so quickly — is the goal. By using a professional heated interior extractor, you can do both. That means you’ll have time to clean more interiors each day, thus increasing your profits. And making money is always a good thing — especially when you can do it with less effort.
