Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Adam Eastman on August 19, 2016, 06:50:56 pm
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Advice please guys, I have bought a secondhand magma heater and a little unsure of what temperature is safe to use on different pile fibres?
Can I crank it up full on polypropylene?
Whats the safe limit on a wool mix?
Thanks
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Usually have mine on maximum with 50ft solution hose, I don't think it produces enough sustained heat to cause a problem but if in doubt I reduce the temp.
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Is that on wool as well Paul?
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No way, would I have it on full heat on wool. We usually have ours on between 50-70 depending on how bad the carpet is, and wool or wool mix around 30 max.
You can tell how hot it gets just by touching your disconnect coupler on your wand. It gets hot!
Also, if running 50ft or 75ft, have the heater connected closer to the wand rather than down stairs near your machine.
Above is my opinion, others might go higher/lower. But defo on wool keep it low!
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Thanks Darran, appreciate the advice mate.
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As said I usually have 50ft of solution hose running from it and with the wand technique I use the heat is building up on clean passes and getting hot (not hottest) just as I'm going back for dry passes. Then when going back to clean passess its building up the heat again. If in doubt (wool) I reduce the temp.
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I have one and rarely gets used if I have to use it then it's on full on the areas that need it whether it's wool or poly .
As if I need heat then the damage has already occurred
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You will not get enough heat out of a magma..... or any other inline heater which will cause damage to wool at 50ft of hose. using heat to clean carpets is a bit like walking over hot coals.... if you run, the heat is not in contact with your feet for long enough to burn them, If you stand on hot coals you will get your burned feet. How often have you held the wand in one position long enough to actually burn a carpet with the heat? If you did the carpet would also have seriouse over wetting problems.
Ask the average Truckmount user what temperature they clean wool at, considering also a truckmount has a much higher flow rate so much more, hotter water is in contact with the carpet with the fibre for a longer period of time. You will be surprised with the heats they clean at. Without damaging the fibers!
There is of course a limit to the heat you will want to use but there is a lot of scaremainering mumbo jumbo in this industry.
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done loads of wool using my magma on full heat (where needed) no problem at all............
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ive have had a magma for 4 months done 25 whole houses wool and wool mix i leave the box on the floor next to the machine downstairs in the front room fill machine turn on magma to 60c move all furniture then switch magma to 110c then i a plug a inline hf sprayer and preysprey at 110c then clean with wand at 110c ive have had no problems apart from a wavey carpet which went back to normal after a day dont think theres anything to worry about to be honest
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and it works a treat, to think i was told not to bother with heat at all when cleaning.......... ???
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I think a lot of people have been scared off from using heat because .... Another forum says it's bad and not needed, this is because the machines they import don't have heaters in them.
As robin says truck mounters use high heat all the time with no problem at all.
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I can't see how heat is any harsher (unless you go extreme) than over agitating
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High heat, like high alkalinity can frazzle the cell walls of natural fabrics making them brittle a bit like putting a wool sweater in the wash . If you wash it in cold water it will shrink but relax out again. If you wash it in too hot water it will be stuck shrunk. In a washing machine items are submersed for some time though however with carpet cleaning the extraction water is only in contact with the fibre for a couple of seconds at most before the airflow cools it.
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That would take extreme heat to damage fibres like that, we are talking 70* ish this won't damage the carpet. And would mean less agitation.
Problem could occur from a quick connect left on floor not covered
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I'm not a 100% sure but I believe wool fibres are washed in boiling water to remove all the impurities during the process of creating the actual fibre used in carpet manufacture, so any damage that could occur to the fibres at a cell level would be done then.
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I'm not a 100% sure but I believe wool fibres are washed in boiling water to remove all the impurities during the process of creating the actual fibre used in carpet manufacture, so any damage that could occur to the fibres at a cell level would be done then.
I'm not sure that's true,
A woolsafe trained boffin should know... are there any on here.
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I'm not a 100% sure but I believe wool fibres are washed in boiling water to remove all the impurities during the process of creating the actual fibre used in carpet manufacture, so any damage that could occur to the fibres at a cell level would be done then.
I believe that to be true
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I have found a few links to wool processing and have tried to find somewhere boiling water is used on the internet but can't, maybe you have one.
http://www.blackberry-ridge.com/prosdscr.htm
http://www.mylearning.org/from-wool-to-cloth/p-2738/
https://museum.wales/wool/about/the-process/
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The process of wool washing is called 'scouring' the first video show this scouring process although the actual temp of the water is not mentioned you can see steam raising from the machine
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zPyrvWSv5Io
4mins 10 second of this video the women mentions washing the raw wool in hot water
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kMjx-t3tH3A
Edit..... This 15 sec video show the wool being washed in steaming hot water
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GuXa1sA7WdY
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Umm... yes she said in the second video that the scouring process requires at least 160 degree F so that's 70 C.
That means using 70 C at the wand should not cause any probs at all on wool... which is a good job because i've been doing it for years.
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And this is a total submersion in a bath for a prolonged time, unlike a wand that sprays a jet of water which rapidly cools as it touches the carpet
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And this is a total submersion in a bath for a prolonged time, unlike a wand that sprays a jet of water which rapidly cools as it touches the carpet
Not disagreeing with you.. but where did the whole heat and wool thing come from in training.
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Truck mounts I would imagine.
70 even 80 your not going to have a problem.
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I think there will be circumstances where high heat could cause damage to carpet fibres ( not just wool fibres) I think most training courses will always air on the side of caution, best to be safe and recommend low heat than risk possible damage.
Plus there is the motive for recommending low heat put by machine manufactures who know they cannot offer high heat so will scaremainer about damage to fibres to bolster their position of not offering it.