[Paul Davidson]

I am needing to add a dry or low moisture cleaning option to my pakage as i am looking to improve my chances of getting hotel work, offices and public areas etc.  I also feel dry is a good marketing tool too!

I have no experienceof dry or low moisture cleaning whatsover so would appreciate your thoughts and experiences on the following.

What is the basic difference between a thermadry system, a dryfusion system (allways thought this was a franchise), and a normal bonnet machine?  Oh and texatherm too.  It looks to me like they do a similar job just some adding heat? and some more expensive than others.

Also has anyone used the flexi 5 or equivalent machine for actual dry cleaning rather than just for vac and agitation?

regards and thanks in advance

Paul

[Mike_Roper]

I can only comment on dry fusion which I have had since they were introduced over here. I work on my own in a smallish area ,Whitby.Theres not a massive amount of commercial /office type work here .
DF can be used on domestics if its the best option- problem ,shrinker or needs to be dry quick.
Ocassionaly help out on large office jobs on Teeside which DF is ideal for as you can cover areas a lot quicker and get good results.
If thats the work you want then you need a LM system.
The solution used ,Activator can appear expensive but is minimal for the return you get.
Look at them all and try them,go out with someone who has one.
Mike

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I have Texatherm with which I have achieved some excellent results and some average ones.

On dirty industrial carpet tiles, e.g factory office, results are outstanding.

My largest customet insists on LM and the return is good.

Cheers

Doug

[Paul Davidson]

Hi Guys

I have Texatherm with which I have achieved some excellent results and some average ones.

On dirty industrial carpet tiles, e.g factory office, results are outstanding.

My largest customet insists on LM and the return is good.

Cheers

Doug

Thanks Doug,  but what is the main difference between a texatherm unit and a standard bonet machine??

cheers and thanks again

Paul

[Straker Cleaning]

I have large customer that also insists on Low Moisture cleaning ........ i have been keeping them happy with Charly Pads and microsplitters/M Power .......... used in conjunction with 170rpm rotary and wringer bucket.
Whole set up cost me under £500 and the solutions i use are the same as for HWE so no need for 2 separate kits 

[mark shannon]

Same as Chris for LM carpet tiles ect Charleys and rotary the DBs at fraction price of other systems. HWE everything else.

Mark

[carlton care]

Paul

The Tex' system uses a large water heating tank in which you place your bonnets, it also uses two solutions, one is sprayed on, the other is in the tank.

There are various ways of using bonnets and various chemicals you can use.

The Charleys are a separate entity, but well worth looking into. Bonnets aggitate and absorb, to a much greater extent than some want you to believe.

I believe the thinnest bonnets are the best, but not so easy to get hold of.

I have an excellent rotary which I am selling................got two and am keeping the lighter one, which in reality is not the better one, but easier on my wrecked back.

[Paul Davidson]

Paul

The Tex' system uses a large water heating tank in which you place your bonnets, it also uses two solutions, one is sprayed on, the other is in the tank.

There are various ways of using bonnets and various chemicals you can use.

The Charleys are a separate entity, but well worth looking into. Bonnets aggitate and absorb, to a much greater extent than some want you to believe.

I believe the thinnest bonnets are the best, but not so easy to get hold of.

I have an excellent rotary which I am selling................got two and am keeping the lighter one, which in reality is not the better one, but easier on my wrecked back.

Thanks for the info.

So am i correct in thinking that the dryfusion system and the texatherm system are similar in in that both use a heated bonnets (although heatede in a different manner)

Also not sure about what Charley's are???

cheers and thanks again

Paul

[Joe H]

The Dry Fusion and the Thermadry machines are very similar - they have a heater element on the machine.
The Texatherm sysytem gets it heat, as been stated, from a heated tank of hot water.
The Dry Fusion and Texatherm systems have their own recomended cleaning fluids which you can use or not.

The Charley Pads are a different sort of pad to go on  the machine then the DF, Tex or Thermadry pads, although the Charley Pads should be able to be used with those machines as well as "ordainary" rotary machines.

We understand Alltec could well be supplying Charley Pads soon if not already.

ANy low speed rotary machine with Charley Pads or "ordainary" pads will do the job - how good will depend on the cleaning fluids used. Rotary speed needs to be in the range 150 - 220rpm

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

As Robert has stated, Texatherm uses heated bonnets and is based on the two solutions reacting together to cause an exothermic reaction(heat giving).

You can of course use a variety of chemicals, I have the Dry 60 System which is Texatherm but using other chems.It is not then the Texatherm patented system then , I am still experimenting with different set ups.

I havent used Charley Pads but would like to give them a try.

I remember CC's saying the best system they found was Tex with the Dry Fusion machine, hot and hot !

Cheers

Doug

[Gary Webber]

Hi Paul,

the best advice would be to ask the various companies for a demonstration. That way YOU can asess the results and find out the advantages / disadvantages before making any decisions. I think both Texatherm and Dryfusion are attending the Clean Expo Soth at Sandown Park, 23rd & 24th September. If you are near it may be worth a visit.

Regards

Gary

[jasonl]

I have used a pad system for 15 years ,initially from Chem dry , I have trialled Texatherm , , but I  find it easier to heat the pads  by pouring boiling solution straight from a kettle onto them . On most jobs though just cold is fine , due to my high charges , I rarely get dirty carpets.

[Andrew Briscoe]

Take a look at this one, advertised in this months cleanzine magazine.
Advertised as green cleaning, using low moisture.

www.thecleanzine.com/products5/Hruby_Orbital_Systems.html

might be worth a look, no idea of price.

Regards
Andrew

[Ian Rochester]

www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=61766.0

[carlton care]

The Hruby is the latest development of O/P ---VLM machines.  That is a phenomenal machine !!!!!

robert m

[Paul Davidson]

The Hruby is the latest development of O/P ---VLM machines.  That is a phenomenal machine !!!!!

robert m

Robert,

Phenomenal sounds pretty good have you used this machine? what makes it better than the others mentioned? do you know how much they cost?

By the a BIG THANKYOU to all who have offered excellent advice knowledge and experience!
 
Regards and thanks

Paul

[brian willis]

what chems do you use with charly pads or just bonnets on say office tiles.
as i am looking to add a lm system to my set up.,
bri

[Straker Cleaning]

I am using M Power so no separate set of solutions for 2 vastly different systems of cleaning   

Heavy duty microsplitter is very good on carpet tiles that have been trashed 

[Paul Davidson]

Paul

Have you made a choice for your dry cleaning system yet..

I think my first choices would be the Thermadry System or the Dry Fusion, I quite like the sounds of the texatherm chemicals, but the heater could be a pain to lug about and work with. 

I dont think they will do a significantly better job than a standard bonnet system, but think it would be easier to sell the concept and add a high tec story to the marketing and the customers!

I did a low profile brown needle cord today in a care home with HWE.  It was pretty messy in the dining room and took a bit of scrubbing up, there was lots of spilled dinners and drinks etc that the staff had attempted to clean up.   :

Also used the turbo dryer for the first time today, it worked well and dried it up pretty quickly, WOW them things can blow

I think going forward a bonnet clean might work well (only assumed this from reading about low profile bonnet cleaning) and am quoting for a quarterly maintenace contract, but as an initial clean i am struggling to accept a bonnet system would get a much muck out as i did today............a time and place for everything i think!

cheers

Paul

[murky]

Use HWE on your initial dirty clean to get all the muck up and then use the bonnet clean for the maintenance, say every 3 or 4 monts to keep it clean.

Murky

[Mr Dvae]

so there you have it!!!
you've got the witches cauldron
the hair dryer!!!
or the good old fashioned bucket and spade
question is are u gullabe or practical, truth is you don't need to spend a fortune, all these systems are dependable on the chemical they use that's how u make your decision.
Happy and profitable cleaning


Dave

[Paul Davidson]

Well still not made any final decision yet but will be over the next week or so.  As mentioned the Dry Fusion and thermadry systems look good.

The Hruby and Challenger are both Oscillating pads and seem to be well thought of, i like the sound of all sides of the carpet fibre being cleaned during the process, it sounds sense that it cleans better when it cleans all sides.

Does anyone have any experience of the Challenger OP?  and did i read in a thread over the last couple of weeks that someone offered one for sale? (not in the for sale section)  I am sure i read it somewhere but cant find it now

Anyways thanks again, i enjoy learning from other peoples experiences!

Cheers and thanks

Paul

[covenant]

I use the Texatherm system and get great results, well worth getting them to give you a demo.  It doesn't cost you anything but a bit of time

[garry22]

Paul,

We've got Dry Fusion.

Two things work in it's favour.

Firstly, the heat is produced on the machine and is thermostatically controlled (quite accurate). The source of heat is less than six inches above the carpets / tiles at all times. You can get up to 85 degrees, right where you need it constantly. You can then turn the heat down to say 65 deg. for polypropylene (to avoid scorching / friction damage). In other words, you are always in control.

You may find that a "hot" pad will not be half as hot after it has been used over 15-20 square metres, whereas with DF the heat is pretty constant.

Secondly, you have a selling advantage, especially with rest homes and kids' nurseries. There is the normal chemical, "Activator" that cleans, deodourises and stain blocks. Then there is a second one called "Bactoshield OV" which does all of that plus it applies an anti microbial treatment (full reports etc are provided when you buy the chemical). This gives you an advantage when quoting against others for those sort of jobs.

Garry

[Robert Watson]

Sounds good Garry.
I wonder what the heat would be, generated with just the friction of a bonnet.
Anyone know?
Rab

[Mike Halliday]

I think heated bonnet systems is a load of marketing hocus-pokus.

 I've tried both D/F and pre-heating the bonnet as in Texatherm. With D/F the machine doesn't produce the heat to penetrate the bonnet, it gets warm but not hot enough to aid cleaning.  D/W works well because the chemicals are excellent, the heat side is just to make it sound different from other bonnet systems, it makes no difference.

As for Texetherm, dunk a bonnet in boiling water, the run it across 14ft of carpet, then check how hot the bonnet is, its just warm. A hot bonnet cools to quickly during cleaning to make any difference.

D/F has the right idea in injecting steam onto the bonnet but they need a much bigger steam generator something that injects saturated steam ( not dry steam) onto the bonnet to help the heat pass through the bonnet onto the carpet, until then 'bonnets & heat' is just waffle

[rich hand]

Hi Mike, how does DF and texatherm compare with ordinary rotary used with the best pad and MS?

[Mike Halliday]

Rich, I can't say I've tried them side by side so don't really know. I use M/S and Argo bonnets which I imported from the USA. they are a thin ( but tough) 100% cotton bonnet.

one of the best things I've found for bonneting is folded bathtowels, cheap, very absorbant and 1 towel when folded gives 4 sides to use, so a couple of towels with do a through lounge.

[Gary Webber]

Mike,

the idea behind the Texatherm System is to USE the heat only in the first pass. The heat combines with the advanced cleaner presprayed beforehand and the neutraliser/water mix to cause an exothermic reaction. The idea is that the heat will reduce, but by then it has done its job in creating the reaction. The second pass is then carried out to trap the "wicking" soil.

The second point would be how do dry fusion operators clean stairs? do they use a heated method or just apply a cold handpad?

[carlton care]

If you can L/M clean without heat, why bother about heat ?  There are a fair number of very effective products available which don't require heat and give virually the same result as the " briefly or poorly " heated systems.

I first used L/M about 10, maybe 12 years ago, with a non heated product with great results.

robert m

[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

Anyone had any sucess with cr*ft*x catlyst with LM cleaning.

Cheers Paul

[garry22]

Paul,

Obviously Mike and myself have had differing experiences with Dry Fusion. That does not make either of us right or wrong. We have been using it for say 3 & half days a week since 2002 and I'm really happy with it.

There have been isolated incidents where I got better results with a micro splitter (very greasy tiles). Heat to the pads does not seem to be a problem (ours get quite hot) and certainly helps when doing the "drying pass" (DF chemicals contain a lubricant which helps the pad to glide across the surface. They are also all neutral Ph as opposed to a high ph pre spray and acidic rinse on the pads).

In saying that, most of our work is offices and we direct our advertising at this market ( I've said it before here, look for the work that suits your equipment).

If you want to do this sort of work (you should because the numbers are large), then here's my advice....

Before you fork out a couple of grand on a "pucker" system, try the cheap way.

Try a few local auction houses (or E Bay) and look for a standard speed machine with drive pad. I got mine at an auction for £45.00 a few years ago.

Get a few microfibre carpet pads and a mop bucket (wringer).

Get some micro splitter (I've only used One Step or Solutions but both gave excellent results) and a pump up sprayer.

This will get you into the market for less than a couple of hundred quid.

Make sure you really dry vacuum well and then try it out. You will be amazed at the results that you get on low profile carpets and tiles.

This should give you a really good insight into what's involved. By then, you will know what to look for in a LM system.

Only after I had done this for a while and gauged the size of the market, did I go and buy the Dry Fusion system.

Hope this helps,

Garry

[Gerry Styles]

Have you considered dry powder such as host or envirodri?

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I have said this before but one of my biggest customers insists on Texatherm and he has tried TM, Portable , dry.

I had a look at Charley's yeaterday and will give them a try.

Cheers

Doug

[carlton care]

Is there a better price available on Charleys with the new set up at Royston.   I foolishly gave away mine, thinking I would never use them again..............

robert m