Carpet steam cleaning apparatus with control for directing spray at front or back of wand vacuum head

Abstract

Carpet cleaning apparatus includes a cleaning wand having a vacuum head and an elongated member forming a passageway for transporting material removed from a carpet by the vacuum head. A cleaning liquid spray nozzle is located at the front of the vacuum head and another cleaning liquid spray nozzle is located at the back of the vacuum head. Two control valves are attached to the elongated member, each controlled by a separate moveable handle, allowing the operator to selectively spray in front or in back of the vacuum head as desired.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to apparatus utilized to clean carpets.[0002] It is well known to utilize portable steam cleaning equipment to clean carpets. These devices work on the same principle; they spray hot water on the carpet and the water is removed from the carpeting as quickly as possible. Rather than just employ hot water as the liquid cleaner, detergents and the like can be combined therewith to increase effectiveness of the operation.[0003] The earlier steamers employed wands called drag wands which were manually manipulated by an operator and applied the liquid cleaner to the carpet. Immediately thereafter the liquid cleaner was removed by a vacuum applied through the wand. The drag wand only works on a backward stroke due to the fact that the water or other liquid cleaner is sprayed on the carpet through spray jets that sit on one side of the vacuum slit. The operator would adjust the length of the handle on the drag wand to the height of his waist, both hands being p...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] The present invention relates to carpet cleaning apparatus of the hand-held and manipulated wand type which effectively and efficiently provides for the cleaning of carpets. The term carpets as employed herein also encompasses rugs and other types of floor coverings. The invention is characterized by its relative simplicity and ease of use.

Problems solved by technology

The drag wand only works on a backward stroke due to the fact that the water or other liquid cleaner is sprayed on the carpet through spray jets that sit on one side of the vacuum slit.

Sometimes this would have to be repeated several times to get the spot out, a very time consuming process to say the least.

Drag wands are quite heavy and very slow.

All carpet has a grain and on some carpets the grain can make the wand bounce on the backward or forward stroke, losing the vacuum seal on the carpet and thus reducing the effectiveness of the extraction process.

The operator would have to use another or extra forward or backward stroke to extract the water that was left behind, further slowing down the operator.

Another drawback of the scrub wand is that when cleaning area rugs it normally requires two operators, one to hold down the rug while it is being cleaned and the other operator to maneuver the wand.

These devices are, however, relatively specialized, complicated and heavy pieces of equipment, with the arrangements disclosed not lending themselves to use with a manually held and operated wand.

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