How to Vacuum Wool Carpets

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Selecting a vacuum cleaner can be difficult, especially when selecting a vacuum cleaner that performs a specialized task such as cleaning woollen carpets. This guide is here to help!

When selecting a vacuum cleaner for a wool carpet, you should choose one that will not damage the threads of the carpet or rug, but can still remove the germs, dirt, and grime.

Choosing the Right Vacuum Cleaner

Suction vs. Cleaning Efficiency

Vacuum cleaners with a balance of suction power and cleaning efficiency are ideal for cleaning woolen carpets. You may not get this perfect balance with bigger vacuum cleaners. 

If your vacuum cleaner has too much suction, it can damage the fibers of your woolen carpet. Due to this reason, your woolen rug may not last for a long time; otherwise, these carpets are very durable. 

Beater Bar

Secondly, your vacuum cleaner’s beater bar should not have hard bristles, because they can damage woolen strands. If you notice, many options from both Dyson and Shark have hard bristles on their beater bars, which you should avoid if you are mostly going to be carpeting a soft woolen rug. If the beater bar is height adjustable, it would be better.

Adjustable Height

The height of the beater bar for the vacuum cleaner that you are using for cleaning a woollen carpet should be adjustable. All of the best vacuums for carpet will provide this functionality.

vacuuming woolen carpet

Dust Brush

Woollen or woven rugs have a lot of designs and knots on the backside of the carpet. These carpets also have the same design on the front as the woollen rug. You should regularly dust off your carpets to maintain them. For this purpose, you can use the vacuum cleaner’s dust brush.

The amount of dust on the carpet depends on where you are living. If the flooring in your house is more complicated, then you know that a thick layer of dust settles on the surface of the carpets. 

If the air filtration in your home is not good, then you should be dusting off the carpets in your home regularly. There are also some things that you should not do while cleaning a woollen carpet. These issues are discussed further below. 

Anti Clog Dust Collector

Lastly, it would be best if your dirt collector had some kind of anti-clogging mechanism built in. Some new models of vacuum cleaners use sonic booms to separate dirt from the fabric before cleaning, which can be a good idea for woollen rugs.

Things You Should Not Do While Vacuuming Your Woolen Carpets

Do not use a self-adjusting vacuum cleaner

You should not operate with a self-adjusting vacuum cleaner as they may get too deep into the pile of the woolen carpet. Using such a vacuum cleaner on a woolen rug can cause fuzzing. 

Do not use hard brushes

You need to make sure that you don’t use a stiff brush on the vacuum cleaner’s beater. This will also lead to the wool on your carpet fuzz over time. You should not use a robotic vacuum cleaner. 

Do not overdo the cleaning.

Some people vacuum their woollen carpets daily, mainly because they have pets at home. Dogs do shed a lot of hair daily, and these hairs can accumulate and get stuck on the fabric of the woollen carpets. Older carpets and rugs need you to give more attention and maintenance. For woollen rugs, daily cleaning is too frequent and is not a good idea.

Factors on Which the Cleaning Frequency of Your Woolen Rugs Depend

As wool is a thicker material than other materials used to make rugs, wool has a natural tendency to have more germs and dust mites. All these nasties are collected in the fibers of the carpet. There are several factors on which the cleaning frequency of your woolen carpet depends:

Traffic

If your woolen rug is walked over regularly by multiple people, then you should clean it twice or thrice a week, whereas if the number of people walking over the rug is fewer, you can vacuum it once a week. Typically this also depends on where the carpet is kept: If it is in the living room, then the traffic will be high. In the bedroom, traffic is generally less.

woolen carpet on living room

Location

The location of your woollen rug is also very important. If you are keeping this rug outside your house or somewhere there is more dust, you should clean it every two to three days. If it is kept in a secluded area where the human traffic is less, then you can do it once a week or maybe even once a fortnight. 

Pets

Another major factor that affects your cleaning frequency is the presence of pets. Households with pets require more cleaning as animals naturally shed hair and have dirt and gravel on their paws. 

On the other hand, if you don’t have any pets in your home, then you can average one or two vacuum sessions for your woollen rug in a month. 

Allergies and Asthma

If any of your finally members have allergies or asthma then it is a really good idea to clean your carpets regularly. Choosing a vacuum cleaner that is best for asthma and allergies will help. This is because they are designed with the best filtration and completely sealed to ensure all the dust mites are retained and not spilled back into the home.

How to Use Your Vacuum Cleaner on Woolen Carpets

In order to look after your premium woolen carpets, you should vacuum the woolen carpet slowly and in both directions. This cleaning method ensures that you can remove all the dirt from the carpet. You will also find that the rug will fluff up after this cleaning. 

You should clean your woollen carpet often to avoid dust accumulation on the mat. If you vacuum the carpet twice a week with a gentle vacuum cleaner, then the carpet will remain cleaner. 

Final Thoughts

Caring for your wool carpet is a comprehensive task. You need to carefully find the perfect vacuum cleaner for your woolen carpet. Generally, you should not use an upright vacuum cleaner on a woolen carpet as these vacuum cleaners can be too aggressive. That is except for these best vacuums for carpet

Don’t use these vacuum cleaners on silk and woollen rugs. Cleaning your woolen rugs at least twice a week is an effective solution for caring for them. You should also consider other external factors while you are cleaning the woollen rugs as they can lead to additional dust accumulation.

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