[Steve Chapman]

Hi All,

We use our t/m most of the time for cleaning, but occasionally would benefit from using l/m cleaning

now & again, whats the easiest and cheapest way to do this, was thinking of just a slow speed rotary

and pads, but not sure of solutions and method, if someone can enlighten me.

Its for doing the occasional office type in a high block !

Is it possible to use m/s or similar?

cheers
steve

[Ken Wainwright]

The most cost effective and versatile piece of equipment you can have is a rotary machine.

I prefer a 230rpm 400mm Victor, but the industry standard is a 175rpm 450mm.

On larger jobs you can go through a lot of pads, so it may be worth your while looking at Super Pad Charly from Alltec or the microfibre pads plus a scrubber from Solution UK.  With the M/F and Charly's you need just two pads. 1 to use and one soaking in the bucket.

I use synthetic pads now 'cos they are easier to launder afterwards, but cotton are useful to have for drying assist with extraction jobs.

I've cleaned acres and acres of carpet with generic bonnet cleaning and for me, the best products have been microsplitters, M Power and more recently DFC 105.

Lots of CC's are now working  with Encap. I've a little experience with this but to be honest I've not enough experience with it to offer constructive comments about solutions, but I did find on one job where I had lots of different kit to play with, ie CRB, 230rpm rotary, 290rpm rotary, 175 rpm rotary with bonnets, pads and brushes that the 290rpm machine with a white floor polishing pad gave the easiest results.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[Steve Chapman]

cheers Ken

a perfect answer

Method wise, is a scrub brush needed to agitate the area first and then bonnet?

cheers
steve

[clinton]

Steve

I just give a good pre vac and then just bonnet on my commercial work

Prob with a v dirty carpet woul use the brush on the drive board buyt only when v dirty

[Ken Wainwright]

Steve

You're more likely to use a scrubbing brush for agitating pre-spray on commercial rinse/extract.

The Solution UK Grey scrubbing pad is used for LM cleaning as an agitator on heavier soil build ups when using microfibre pads. MF pads are excellent at wiping softened soil from a carpet, but not so great at agitation. IMO, Charly pads fall halfway between these two pads combined, but it's close. Conventional cotton and synthetic pads are both excellent at LM cleaning, but you need to keep changing them and launder afterwards.

Safe and happy...........
Ken

[JS2]

Hi Steve

I seem to remember that quite a while ago you enquired about the smaller OP machines like the Oreck or Floormac.  I presume that you never purchased one of these ?  The reason I ask is that I've still got an interest in these lightweights for a limited amount of scrubbing or bonnetting.  However I'll follow the responses to this thread with interest.

Regards

Pete (JS2)

[robert meldrum]

Pete

The small oscillators are really too light, although a few use them for aggitating, a 15 " rotary is much better and you can get bonnets / pads for  them.

There is an excellent 15 " O/P machine available from a supplier in Cornwall at around £1900

For a couple of hundred, you should be able to pick up a 15 " rotary ( 175rpm )make sure it has a drive board and there are several bonnets around the £18 mark

The best bonnet is a thin one which has a floppy action if you use the 17 "but you would have to get them from the US.

Mike Hallidays suggestion of folding a towel over twice, is an option to give you a feeling of what to expect. The thin bonnet I refer to, is just towelling cut into circles and sewn.

[Steve Chapman]

Hi Pete,

yes you are right, and i did buy the oreck orbiter, while it is light and good for agitating and light buffing

its not really man enough and heavy enough for a large office and to be honest find it a bit awkward to

use being an oscillater rather than rotary, the plate size is a bit too small as well for doing large areas,

so i think a 15 rotary would be good if i can get a fairly light one, as we will  be going several storeys

up.

Regards
steve

[Ken Wainwright]

Steve

Forget about a lightweight rotary. You need a reasonable amount of weight to be effective. Some machines even have extra add-on weights available for specific tasks. Can't remember the ideal weight, but I think it's something like 35kgs+/-

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[clinton]

Think you can attatch small plates that have dif weights and they fit onto the rotary