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UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Grant Whyte on June 30, 2012, 04:56:19 pm

Title: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Grant Whyte on June 30, 2012, 04:56:19 pm
Hi all

As a newbie (self employed since March 2010) carpet and general cleaning contractor, "I'm still not really sure why OPE (Oscillating Pad Extraction) cleaning is nowhere near as big in this country as it is in the States, they're mad for bonneting and encap over there."

Anyone thought this one through yet?

Thanks

Grant
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Kinver_Clean on June 30, 2012, 05:01:53 pm
When you ash your shirt do you rinse it or just wipe a damp towel over it?
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Grant Whyte on June 30, 2012, 05:11:09 pm
Answer is obvious, but you can't compare shirt cleaning with carpet cleaning for various reasons.

You don't totally immerse fitted carpets in a washing machine as you do shirts. If we could we would as a washing machine cleans better than both a HWE and OPE.
You can't compare a washing machine with a HWE machine, two different cleaning processes.
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Mike Halliday on June 30, 2012, 05:19:02 pm
they clean a lot of man made fibres in the states which respond very well to bonnet/ Oscillating type cleaning. plus a lot more choice of machinery & chemicals which are not available in the UK
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Grant Whyte on June 30, 2012, 05:34:19 pm
Accepted but,

In the states OPE machines are also used for natural fibre incl. wool and alltypes of carpet construction incl. Berber type (though perhaps not real Berber).
Originally and still today many HWE machines come from the states why not OPE machines and chems?

You must have some other ideas why it's not taken off here?
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Simon Gerrard on June 30, 2012, 06:45:14 pm
I don't think ope is anywhere near as big in the states, truck mounts reign supreme and have done for decades and rightly so. All of these lesser systems, many of them best described as fads, have there place as maintenance systems, which is what they were designed for.
Simon
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Grant Whyte on June 30, 2012, 08:11:49 pm
Its probably a safe bet that proportionately OPE is bigger in the US than it is here. The issue of truckmount supremacy is not in question. The issue is why OPE has not been more widely taken up in the UK. If as you say its primarily a maintenance system, is there any OPE  maintenance cleaning between deep cleaning that anyone is carrying out at a scale that made there investment worthwhile?
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: robert meldrum on July 01, 2012, 12:29:47 am
I've been a fan for some years and would have imported an American machine if I was 20 years younger. The main man in o/p is John Guerlink who'se been o/p'ing for around 40 years.
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Grant Whyte on July 01, 2012, 03:07:19 pm
Still looking from the sidelines, considering step into it. OP machines seem more versatile than rotary. I've come across the Padman 'guru' Geurkink too, on the web.
Title: Re: OPE - Why not?
Post by: Jamie Pearson on July 01, 2012, 03:14:29 pm
Have you looked at a Cimex Grant?

They would be a little more versatile than something like a HOS Orbot Sprayborg which is an awesome bit of kit if you have the work for it.

Its about 2 grand cheaper and you can get the machines and parts in the UK (not that you would need parts, they just dont break down)