The HWE industry is constantly hammering on and trying to totally discredit any and all carpet cleaning systems that are not HWE. See the video at http://www.ethicalservices.com/. This tells consumers that they should not hire a cleaner that does not use HWE. They imply that not cleaning with HWE is unethical. They go on to say that it will not remove allergens or dust mites.
How well does the Challenger system really compare, and how can users of the Challenger system counter these strong attacks?
I basically ignore the attacks, as they are for the most part only read within the industry anyway. Your customers don't read this stuff, and most people are savvy enough to realize that any particular industry will only talk about what puts them in a favorable light. Think of how long, and how much money was spent by the tobacco industry trying to convince the public that smoking was just fine, and wouldn't hurt people at all. There is a lot in the media these days about the concussions and other head injuries caused by playing football, and the NFL has been poo-pooing most of it. Once your customers experience the results you can achieve for them, without noxious chemicals and with very little water, they will sing your praises whenever the subject of carpet cleaning comes up.
Re. dust mites: remove them with dry vacuuming before and/or after a job. The HWE guys frequently leave a lot of water out of sight down in the base of the carpet, even when the carpet fibers FEEL dry to the touch. Micro-organisms such as dust mites and mold thrive and colonize quickly in moist, humid environments.
The HWE folks try to capitalize on the -idea- that bonnet and related cleaning types only clean the top
-third- of the carpet. I see this claim online frequently. That's not what I have observed, however.
On nylon pile carpet, especially the type that is similar to strands of knitting yarn, I would say that the challenger reaches 3/4 of the way or maybe even 9/10 of the way down the fiber. On tightly wound berber carpets, it doesn't do as well, but it cleans at least halfway down the loops. Its hard to tell how much further down it cleans. If you scrub for a long time, I suspect it reaches better than 1/2 way down.
