Well lets look at the different levels: You can use powder cleaners like Host and Capture.. Sure you can remove "some" soil but you end up leaving behind a lot of the powder.
Then their is interim cleaning using low moisture methods.. ie encap. pad capping, bonnet cleaning.. ext. They work for keeping soils in check but don't remove large amounts of soiling,, if at all.
Then you have a couple variations of steam cleaning:
A) Straight steam cleaning using detergents or for the real hacks.. water. and no pre vac or preconditioner.
B) PreVac and Steam clean.. again no preconditioner
C) Preconditioner and Suck.. no prevac or prescrub
D) Pre Vac, Precondition and Extract no prescrub
E) Pre Vac, Precondition, prescrub, Extract
I don't think anyone is going to argue that E is going to remove the largest amount of soil from a carpet, assuming they take the time to do each step properly and use quality products and equipment.
When a carpet was new or near new.. it did not come with all of the soil. A quality Restorative Cleaning should aim at removing as much of the soil as possible to restore it back as close as possible to like new condition.
Now do some people use it as a marketing gimmick and do one of the lesser methods when they say they are going to restoritively clean... absolutley. And there are also carpets that don't need a restorative cleaning and carpets that are beyond a restorative cleaning. Its up to us as professionals advice our customers one what level of service they may need.
That is why I have a hard time offering package pricing. We have them, but I don't offer customers choices unless I feel they are going to be penny pinchers. We are the experts on what level a carpet may need and thus its up to us to find a solution that works within out customers budget and removes the most soil from their carpet.
