[Ian Rochester]

Did a job yesterday, large house, all downstairs carpets, approx 120m².  The couple had just bought it from a Fireman and got the keys on the Thursday.

Anyway, I cleaned the lounge no bother, then got to the entrance hall and passage (36m²) and immediately I noticed a change in the feel of the carpet and the colour of the water going up the wand.  Within a few seconds my machine had changed note and the waste tank was full to the brim with thick foam, and I mean thick, it was like shaving foam!

I had to empty the tank, add defoam and try again, but the residue coming out of the carpet was that thick that even the defoam wasn't coping with killing it off.

In the end I put clean water with defoam in the solution tank and also added some defoam to the waste tank, and basically did a clean water rinse using the foam in th carpet as the cleaning solution.  The hall and passage alone took me nearly two hours to clean.

The results were very good and the customer was very happy, but I don't think I will have got all the foam out and I told him that it will likely resoil quite quickly.

I have cleaned many carpets before that have been DIY cleaned and have had a foam residue still in the carpet, but nothing like this!

I think what has probably happened is this fireman has decided to clean it himself with a Rug doctor or similar before selling the house, but rather than using the correct dilutions he has decided that he knows best and added more for good measure!!

What would others have done?

[markpowell]

Hi,
Would just have used water to extract with de-foamer in the waste tank, i use a silicon based de-foamer which shouldnt be used directly onto the carpet. However the level of foaming you are talking about here i have never come accross thank god.

Mark

[Chris R]

I had a similar thing happen a few months ago.

The lady of the house used "1001" to clean her carpets, several times a year, for about 5 years !

The job was supposed to be lounge + hall / stairs / landing , but after I had cleaned the landing I realised that all of this foam was going to damage my machine and so i stopped.

I explained the problem to the lady ( not happy) and to prove how bad it was I got a small cup of water from her kitchen, poured it onto a dry section of carpet and rubbed it with my fingers.

"Hey presto" a great big patch of foam appeared !

Fortunately its not something that I come across very often !

regards

Chris

[Ken Wainwright]

I doubt if the foam problem was caused by the correct use of any HWE system. My suspicion would be that it would be similar to Chris's experiences with a foaming shampoo.

Most defoamers work better if they are drawn in along the vac hose rather than being added to the recovery tank.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[carpetguy]

Classic "Vanish" problem...............not always obvious 'till you apply water, not good for the motors and highlights the wisdom of always having some defoamer in the van. In the absence of defoamer, you can substitute by tossing a bar of soap into the recovery tank.

[Chris R]

I would just add to my pre post by saying that I did have de-foamer ( liquid) with me, but the amount of soap in the carpet was just toooooooo much for it to cope with !

Not worth causing damage to vac motors on a job like this 

Chris

[prodry]

Hydramaster De-foam..  You sprinkle it onto the carpet like chicken feed before cleaning and problem solved. Worth carring it in the van.

I had a job a few days ago and the ladys three year old had emptied loads of bottles of shampoo and radox onto the carpet. Started cleaning and within a few minites her drive was full of foam from the truckmount. used the above and prob. solved and I charged her £40.00 extrta.

[Ian Rochester]

Ken,

I did initially draw defoam up the hose, which is how I normally do it, but honestly, you would not believe the amount of foam that came out of this carpet!

I had very similar thoughts to Chris, ie "My motors!!", but because of the size of the rest of the job I perservered.  He did give me £50 cash as an extra for the work.

Never tried hydramasters defoam, may give them a call, as I already mentioned in an earlier post their Soil break and blitz are excellent products

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

also you can use hair conditioner  or comfort in the recovery tank if you run out of defoamer 

[ady]

evening Ian threre are two carpet cleaners where i am who use foam  and  ive had the sme its a nightmare and now I ask the customer who cleaned the carpets before and if there names are mentioned i turn the job down its not worth the blood sweat and tears dont know the method but according to custmers they spray it down and suck it up and resoils within days regards ady

[JS2]

Me too !

When I started doing casual Carpet Cleaning in 2001 I had a massive foam-up on the very first task.  Apparently a carpet shampoo had been used on a room where the dog had done a whoopsie a few times and, despite my efforts, I just kept drawing in foam after foam.  At that point I believed that CCing was going to be too unproductive, since the flushing out of the recovery tank simply kept going and going and going.  However afterwards I always used de-foamer and productivity was much better.

Still, just my experience !

Regards

Pete (JS2)