® RIBBON BLUE ANTY WARR ® bic feet per minute is a measurement of the rate of airflow in a vacuum cleaner. Power. This is a very broad term and can relate to several dif-ferent metrics, including the amount of electrical voltage required to operate a vacuum, the wattage power of a vacuum’s motor, its suction power and/or the electrical voltage needed to operate a vacuum. Suction. This is the actual pulling power of a machine. It refers to a vacuum cleaner’s ability to efficiently remove soils lodged in carpet fibers. Water Lift. When discussing vacuum cleaners, water lift mea-sures the strength produced by a vacuum’s suction motor. Suction gauges are calibrated in terms of inches of water lift. This is equiva-lent to taking a vertical tube, placing the bottom in a container of water, attaching the vacuum hose at the top and measuring how high above the water surface the water in the tube rises. Watts. Watts are a measure of the flow of electric current. Like the term amp, watts are often used to indicate the power of a vac-uum cleaner’s motor. Most manufacturers of professional vacuum cleaners now use these and many other terms to describe the efficiency of their products. But this terminology can be confusing. For instance, CFM, airflow and water lift are often misunder-stood or believed to mean about the same thing. Wattage and suction are also confused. Wattage, according to most experts, simply tells how much power a motor has at its disposable, not how efficiently it will suck soils and debris from floors. That’s what suction is all about. The situation can get even more confusing when terms coined to describe vacuum cleaners are applied to carpet extractors. For this reason, airwatt technology is a new term that has ap-peared in the carpet care industry. Essentially, some of the above metrics are grouped together under a single term with the goal of helping purchasers decipher terminology regarding extractor performance. Premium Quality Filtration For Commercial Cleaning Janitized® Vacuum Bags & Filters The industry’s largest offering of vacuum bags and filters for all commercial vacuum cleaners. 99% Filtration Efficiency down to 0.3 microns providing the highest indoor air quality (IAQ) for worker safety and facility clean air management. Backed by the industry’s first Blue Ribbon Warranty. Janitized® Biodegradable T he Industry’s first and only environmental solution to traditional vacuum cleaner bags. Made from 100% renewable resources developed to biodegrade when aerobically composted reducing the amount of valuable resources entering our landfills. A truly "Green" solution for our environment. Extractor Transparency Carpet extractor manufacturers have mainly focused on two met-rics to define their products’ effectiveness: CFM, also known as airflow, and water lift. In this context, water lift refers to the suction power of the machine when extracting moisture, chemicals and soils from carpet fibers. Airwatt technology actually combines these two metrics. The result is that the higher a machine’s rating is, the better the machine’s performance for extracting moisture from carpet. In the end, manufacturers developing an inclusive term should allow cleaning professionals to better understand the capabili-ties of their machinery using just a single metric. The goal is to end the confusion that can be caused by using a variety of terms, to help end-customers make wiser purchas-ing decisions and to add greater transparency for purchasers evaluating carpet extractors. CM Janitized® Sweeper & Scrubber Filters Replacement panel filters for the most popular industrial and commercial floor & sweeper equipment. Featuring the industry’s first "Washable" filter media in addition to standard paper and meltblown filter media. Select products also available at: www.lagassesweet.com To request a catalog or speak with a sales representative call us toll free at 1-888-689-1235 or visit at www.janitized.com FREE INFO: Reader Service 206 or CMMOnline.com/freeinfo www.cmmonline.com 23