No doubt you’ve heard of alkaline water being great as a drinking water. Perhaps you even are a fan of local Carlsbad Alkaline Water. But have you ever wondered why we use it to clean carpets? Well there is a good reason for it!

First here is a little refresher in Chemistry 101: Aqueous solutions or liquids are measured on what is called a pH scale. The term pH stands for “potential hydrogen” in reference to the hydrogen bonds that can be made on an atomic level. But really it is just a means to give a value to the concentration of hydrogen in any given substance. The more hydrogen in a solution, the less potential for hydrogen bonds there are, and the more acidic it is. If then there is a pH less than 7 than it is considered acidic, whereas above a 7 is considered basic. The fun thing about acids and bases is that they can neutralize one another!

 Most of the soil or substances that make carpets “dirty” are acidic. This includes food, beverages, body oils, ect. As mentioned previously acids and bases neutralize each other, so the best was to remove an acidic substances is to counter act it with a basic agent. In the case of the carpet in your home it is our alkalinized water. While soaps and detergents are also on the basic side of the pH scale they are not great for carpet cleaning, because they leave a sticky residue that will attract more soil. Which means stains and spots returning worse than before.

The actual pH level of the water being used to clean carpets is also important. It needs to be high enough to neutralize the acids, yet it can’t be so high that it damages carpet fibers made of natural materials. At Peninsula Carpet Care we use water that has is pH9. High enough to clean your carpets thoroughly, yet low enough not to cause any damage to the fibers.