Every time I try to clean commercial carpet it tears my pads all to pieces as well. I called around trying to find out why and everybody I spoke with said they never heard of that happening before.Glad to see its not just me.
We used 100% cotton pads and yes they were wet enough. Carpet was presprayed as well. The same thing happened on my residential berber job. Needless to say we shelfed the holy glider and stick with the thin glider. Not as much ground coverage with the thin glider as opposed to the holy but peace of mind that we won't ruin our pads. So far so good!