Fluorochemical protectors are film formers.
They keep soil from attaching to the fiber or surface.
That allows removal with routine vacuuming . . .
or makes it easier with the next cleaning.
OK Cobb and Rick
@encapman ---We all know the dirt does not get encapsulated and then vacuumed away. It gets encapsulated and drops to the backing in the carpet.--
The chems and the agitation break the bond the dirt has with the carpet fiber. AND the carpet looks much better. Some residual chems are stuck to the fiber and make it harder for dirt to attach to the fiber (and drop down).
If you take a bunch of dry dirt and spread it over the carpet. Then run a vacuum over the carpet without any suction, a completely full bag (like 40% of the houses you go into with bags). The dirt will fall to the bottom of the carpet and look much better without any dirt removal.
The regular vacuuming does a better job of opening up the carpet to let the dirt fall to the bottom than actually sucking dirt up.---But it looks better.
Most vacuums have so little suction but the best have lots of agitation to open the carpet and let the dirt fall.
In the same house if you compare the dirt removed from a hardwood floor to the dirt removed from a carpet you will find the carpet just does a really good job of getting the dirt down into the carpet where no vacuum or HWE will get it out.
What are the best encap machines? They have the best AGITATION---