During the soaking process, the water in the wash pool is constantly circulating with clean water running in and dirty water pumping out. The soaking process allows time for age-old dirt and contaminants to dissolve and separate from rug fibers.

The minimum time to let a rug soak is one hour, however, in cases of urine contamination, vomit, or smoke damage, a deodorizer is used and rugs soak overnight.