Do Dysons damage wool carpet?

[Mikey P]

A client of mine has a nice wool Berber with intense blooming in the traffic lanes. The Mill owner has decided that her Dyson with it's extra stiff bristols and lack of a pile height setting is the cause of it.

His recommendation is to use a Vacuum with a gentler brush set at medium AND high to attempt to "shave" off the loose fibers OR pay them $400 to come out and "shear" it.



Your thought's or experience's please.

 

[Scott]

Shaw says at least one of the Dyson units creates accelerated wear in their tests on nylon so I wouldn't be surprised if it also caused damage on wool.

I would recommend a CRI-approved Green Label vacuum. I see there are many approved now, including many found in dept. stores, WalMart, etc. I don't see any Dyson's listed, which for a large company like Dyson, is unusual. Just about every other brand name is listed except Dyson.

http://www.carpet-rug.org/drill_dow...y=1&Vacuum_Type=0&offset=0&requesttimeout=350

As for correction, without seeing it it's impossible to know. Even then it might take seeing a test area to know for sure.

If she pays the $400, will they guarantee it'll look like new again? Seems to me there would be a noticable difference if there was "intense blooming".

Scott

 

[Mike Brummett]

Mike:
The term "blooming" generally refers to cut-pile carpets. The yarn tips kind of mushroom, or "bloom" out. This condition would be caused by intense traffic rather than vacuuming.

Since most carpets called Berber-style any more are a loop-pile, I am wondering if you are not referring to "fuzzing" instead of blooming.
(not possible for a loop-pile construction to bloom) Fuzzing refers to the yarn bundle partially releasing individual strands of fiber, but they still remain attached. Carpet looks fuzzy or hairy.

If the inspector actually used the term blooming to refer to fuzzing, then, technically, there may be a legal loophole.

MIKE

 

[Mikey P]

Okay...Fuzzing.


So bad you can barely see the loops through the fuzz.


I'm off to look at it now and give my Sanitaires and the Lindhaus a twirl.

 

[JamesBaileySmith]

I have heard from other sources that Dyson may have some issues with creating pile distortions.

 

[Jim Martin]

I have seen wool berber do this in a few different homes........the owners did not own a Dyson......for that matter none of them owned the same type of vacuum..........It is my understanding that this is not to uncommon on wool......

 

[Ray Morgan]

Depending on the carpet, even berber-style loop-pile carpet can often be sheared (see http://carpetology.com/articles/?p=8). However, if the problem is caused by poor encapsulation, it's likely to recur indefinitely.

In one case I had like this, the UK manufacturer of the carpet took the (interesting) position that shearing was a normal part of maintenance that the consumer should expect to do periodically, like cleaning. The homeowner disagreed.

 

[JamesBaileySmith]

Ray, how much encapsulation of the latex do you recommend? What guideline do you follow? Who do you recommend for the testing?

 

[Mikey P]

Just got back from inspecting the carpet.

14 month old 100% wool Berber, never cleaned.


It's obvious that a vacuum caused the fuzzing, the question is was it the Dyson or would any vacuum have caused it to fluff up. We tried vacuuming it with my two units and while we got dirt and additional fibers out it was plenty obvious that more vacuuming would not correct this situation.


I used a Gillette 3 bladed shaver to "Sheer" the fuzz off some areas and the result was nearly perfect. Other then some slight fading and a loss of naturally longer fibers not protruding up any more, they would be very happy if the carpet was made to look like this in all the damaged areas.


They want to pay for a unbiased Inspector to come out and make sure that due to possibly faulty latex that it wont happen again if they pay (or do it themselves) to have it sheered.


Can anyone give me the contact info for a good inspector in the San Francisco/ San Jose area?

 

[Ray Morgan]

There's no industry standard for encapsulation and some constructions, notably wiltons, normally have zero encapsulation. For tufted constructions, the number 70% seems to be tossed around by manufacturers as a "rule of thumb" for both encapsulation and penetration. On very large yarns it's not uncommon to see encapsulation/penetration down in the 20-30 percent range.

Somewhere out there is a visual scale that's relevant for assessing velcro tests on BCF loops. For commercial styles, I'd specify no visible slippage with that test. Other than that construction, everyone is pretty much on their own.

I think that the correct amount should be "enough to prevent slippage under normal use", but that's probably not very helpful.

 

[-JB-]

I had a specialty area rug company in our area give me a copy of a letter from a area rug manufacturer that they carry, stating that if a Dyson was used on any of their products they would void any warranty related to that rug, period! It was dated 6/2006 or so, I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[The Great Oz]

Mike,
Any abrasion will make a fat-yarn wool loop carpet fuzzy, so any vacuum with a brush will do this. This is usually not as apparent in a cut pile as the loosened fiber can slip enough to be vacuumed away.

A suction-only vacuum is recommended for loop pile Berber carpet to prevent excessive fuzzing.

From the Wools of New Zealand website.

"Shaving" the carpet with another vacuum is something I've never heard suggested; it will continue to happen if the customer continues to use an aggressive brush vacuum.

 

[Mikey P]

This is actually a very small, tight loop. Not CGD tight but very much so for a wool.

 

[Jimmy L]

Have you tried using an electric hair trimmer and a comb?
Allow the fuzz to come thru the comb like hair and then use the trimmer to cut across it.

 

[Eric Valentine]

Jimmy, if he did that, would he have to give it a shampoo, rinse, and style with that cut?