What is a wet vac? Let’s assume you already know what a regular vacuum cleaner is. A wet vac, also known as a wet vacuum cleaner is designed to clean up liquid spills and wet debris, along with dry dust and dirt.
The waste is taken in by the suction force into a two-bucket system rather than a bag; it separates the liquid from the solid into two different chambers, hence the wet vac is adaptable and appropriate for both indoor and outdoor use.
As mentioned above, a wet vac has the feature of a dry vac, so it can be called a wet-dry vac. A wet-dry vac is a versatile cleaner that removes dry dust as well as wet spillages.
The wet vac comes with interchangeable brushes that are designed for dry dust and wet spills. A Wet vac is recommended for you if you have kids and experience frequent spillages on carpets or other flat surfaces.
Read: Best vacuum cleaner
How To Use A Wet Vac To Clean Carpet
Table of Contents
With the introduction of wet vac cleaners for home use, many people have drifted to using it due to its amazing features and detailed washing capabilities. Carpet; commonly used in homes, holds on to stains, solid soil, mildew and bacteria.
If you’ve had a wet vac for a while now but you’ve only used it for cleaning outside in your basement or garage, you should consider using it to clean your carpet as well, because it is possible and effective.
A wet-dry vac can also come in handy when you want to get stains out of your carpet.
Steps on How to Use a Wet Vac to Clean Carpet
Get the room ready. Remove all furniture and/or anything that will be an obstruction during vacuuming. This will ensure that there is enough space for you to move around swiftly and clean all the hidden areas.
Step 1
Locate a comfortable socket position and plug in your wet vac. Use the dry mode on the wet vac to dust-up first. Doing this will remove large debris from the carpet and in turn prevent large dirt clusters.
Step 2
Take note of the most stained areas on the carpet. This will make you have an intentional plan on spots you should start with and the areas you should apply extra scrubbing.
Make use of a stain remover and ensure that it is designed for carpets. Use the stain remover on the stained areas you identified earlier. Make sure to check our recent article on how to get honey out of carpet.
Step 3
Before using the stain remover, make sure you read all the instructions on the product’s pack to know how you will use it. Adhere to the carpet cleaner guide on preparing a solution with water.
To allocate enough time for reaction with the stain remover, it is important that you treat the stained spots first. Evenly spread the stain remover solution on the carpet.
You can make use of a garden watering canister or spray tool to spread the solution equally over the carpet. You can also use a brush to further spread the solution across the entire room.
Make the carpet wet enough that foam shows after you scrub it, but be careful not to flood the carpet.
Step 4
This step requires more work; scrubbing. First, use your normal scrubbing brush to scrub and get rid of some of the stains.
This first step will remove the simple stains and push debris out of the carpet, paving way for a more intense scrub from the wet vac. Check to see if there are no spots left, repeat the vacuuming of the spots if you find any.
Step 5
After the carpet has been scrubbed thoroughly, the next step to take is to get rid of the water. It is at this point that dust will be extracted from the wet carpet.
Set your wet vac to begin powerful suction. Select the proper filters for wet collection. The suction level you set would depend on the texture of your carpet.
Move the wet vac head over the carpet and draw out the stain remover solution first before rinsing it with clean water using a watering canister or spray bottle.
Repeat the cycle of sucking up water and rinsing until the carpet stain remover foam is completely sucked out.
Step 6
Finally, slide your wet vac over the carpet to dry any wet spots, because some areas will take more time to dry out. Allow the carpet to air dry by enabling cross ventilation. You can consider switching on fans in the room to speed up the drying process.
What is a Wet-Dry Vac?
A wet-dry vac is a vacuum cleaner that picks up dry debris and liquid from many types of surfaces in the bid to clean them. It is an appliance you should have in your home because of its multi-purpose characteristics.
The wet-dry vac is designed to effectively clean many types of surfaces; wet or dry. It has a great suction power that works amazingly.
The wet-dry vac is designed with a large collecting tank to save you the time of emptying the tank frequently while cleaning. With the possession of a wet-dry vac, cleaning difficult areas like garages, workshops, construction sites and commercial places have been made easy.
So, if you have a very dirty and wet garage, just take the hose around and clean up all the areas you desire without having to switch vacs for wet and dry surfaces.
The wet-dry vac can also clean curtains, fireplaces, carpets, clogged sinks and hot tub. Wet-dry vac is a great choice if you are considering the purchase of a vacuum cleaner.
Difference Between a Wet and a Dry Vacuum Cleaner
Wet vacs are much more versatile and flexible than dry vacuum cleaners. Dry vacuum cleaners are designed to pick up dry dirt such as dust and pet droppings (lint and fur).
Contrarily, wet vacs have two separate compartments that are suitable for picking up both wet spills and dry dirt.
The designs of a wet vacuum and a dry vacuum are totally different, although they use the same process for sucking materials. The wet vac is designed to be waterproof with a large leak-proof container that can allow you to gather water inside.
The dry vac is made to just suck up debris and other dry materials into a container. A dry vac is not made to collect water, if it collects water, it will get damaged.
The dry vac has moving bristles that help gather and suck dirt into the container while the wet vac is typically a hose with attachments.
Vacuum Cleaner VS a Steam Cleaner
Having known what a vacuum cleaner is, which do you think is better and more efficient? A vacuum cleaner is limited to cleaning surface dirt but a steam cleaner goes further and deeper into the base of the carpet to eliminate dirt when cleaning.
This make steaming cleaning a very effective method of cleaning and puts it at an advantage against a vacuum cleaner.
Keep in mind that a steam cleaner doesn’t make a vacuum cleaner redundant, vacuum cleaners also have their own task and they work hand in hand with a steam cleaner.
You can always vacuum your carpet, then use a steam cleaner after vacuuming, this keeps your home super clean. Steam cleaning is important and should be done at least, once in a month, while vacuuming should be done weekly.
But here’s the catch, there’s a difference between a vacuum cleaner and a steam cleaner.
What is a Wet Vac?
At this point, you might ask again, what is a wet vac? As explained earlier, a wet vac can also be referred to as a wet-dry vac due to its multifunction. It can act as a wet vacuum cleaner and a dry vacuum cleaner. A wet-dry vacuum cleaner works similarly to a canister cleaner.
The wet vac is suitable for picking up wet spillages and dry dust. It can also work effectively on heavy-duty jobs.
To make the wet vac appropriate for removing wet spillages, the internal parts of the wet vac is insulated properly and placed separately to reduce the chances of damaging the device and/or being electrocuted.
Rather than using one container, the wet vac has a two-bucket system for separating wet and dry waste.
Motor unit and collection tanks are the main parts of a wet-dry vacuum cleaner. The motor can be found on top of the collection tank. The fan draws air via the hose and the collection tank.
When the air passes through a smaller area, speed is raised and suction is created. The increased speed aids in picking up particles and transfer to the collection tank.
When air enters a larger collection tank, the vac releases the particles. The air vents out to the upper part of the wet-dry vac.
Read: best vacuum cleaner review
Wet-Dry Vacuum Cleaner Versus Regular Vacuum Cleaner, Which is Better?
If you purchase a wet-dry vacuum cleaner, you won’t ever need to hire a professional carpet cleaner again. This is very okay and economical in the long run; wet vacs are made to get rid of all forms of spillages, dirt and grime.
While a regular vacuum cleaner will only pick up dry dirt and keep your floors and carpets clean, a wet vac can move a step further. The wet vac comes with a deodorization process that eliminates all kinds of foul odor from your carpet.
This makes your carpet and home fresh, safe and healthy to live in.
Regular vacuum cleaners work well on upholstery and carpets; but when it comes to removing grime and dirt from other hard surfaces, they can’t. On the other hand, wet vacs can clean your basement, yard, garage floors and all types of surfaces smoothly.
A wet vac can be used to suck up large amounts of water and/or debris because it has a large collection tank and the tank is easy to empty. The wet vac comes with a longer hose with attachments; this is very helpful when you need to get to hard-to-reach areas.
Considering all these points, the wet-dry vacuum cleaner is a better choice. It is reasonable and economical to have a vac that is multi-purpose and very efficient.
5 Unique Ways to Use a Wet Vac
Clean Liquid Spills
Cleaning liquid spills can be a very difficult task. If you have kids, you will have to devote a lot of time to remove stains from stained surfaces. The stains can come from a spilled cup of tea, glass of wine or a bowl of water.
A wet vac can be employed to make the task very easy. Make sure you clean up the vac immediately after you’ve cleaned the spillage.
Clean Fireplaces
Fireplaces, as well as fire pits, are relatively hard to clean because you may end up making a mess with the leftover ash and soot. This can take the whole day.
A wet vac can come to the rescue; it has a separate tank to collect the ash from the fireplace. When you are about using the wet vac, ensure that the leftover ash is already cool.
Clean Floors And Curtains
Wet vacs are suitable for cleaning floors alongside curtains. Curtains and floors accumulate a lot of debris and dust on a daily basis. Wet vacs also come with an attachment that is appropriate for hardwood floors and other types of materials.
Clean Carpets
Like I explained earlier in this article, a wet vac can impeccably clean carpets. It will save you time and energy by flawlessly removing marks, debris, dust, mildew, stains and pet hair from your carpet.
Clean Hot Tub And Sinks
The wet vac can be also used to clean hot tubs and clogged sinks. This is possible because of the high suction power of the wet vac. Just set the blower mode on; the work will be done by the vac.
Read: How long do vacuums last?
Conclusion
A wet vac is a valuable cleaning machine you should have in your home. Its multi-purpose ability makes difficult tasks easy while giving your home a brilliant look.
Peradventure you meet someone, probably a novice in cleaning his/her home, asking you: what is a wet vac? Don’t hesitate to enlighten the person.
You have been armed with enough information from this article and I hope you will put it to good use. Tell us how your wet-dry vacuum cleaner has been of benefit to you in the comments section below.
