[carpetmas5]

I cleaned my own carpets at 8.00 this morning all done by 10.00 including the arms of the settie, useing a T/M after cleaning out all the filters last night. So if I phone any carpet cleaner in the Yellow Pages thay will tell me that there carpets will be dry in 1 hour or maybe 3 hours.
We went out all day back by 17.30 to find our carpets damp to the eye, I am a little disapointed I think next I will call a c/c out of the y/p!

[darrenlee]

hi

cleaned two of my bedrooms at weekend, one wool twist
one liliac nylon shadow pile.
dry in 2 hours.
used single vac machine, no dryer, windows open every half hour or so, heating on.

darren

[carpetmas5]

Yes but I will say no heating on all windows closed & raining very hard out side, but the settie is nice & dry.

[John Kelly]

Problem could be due to lack of ventilation. The air in a room is limited by the temperature to how much water vapour it can contain. The colder the air the less moisture it is able to hold. Once the air reaches saturation point, no more moisture can evaporate from the carpets. This is something you need to watch on rented properties. I have been called out before when a full house carpets were cleaned by a not very good carpet cleaner, the keys handed back to the estate agent, next time they visited all the furniture had a layer of mildew on it.
What happened was during the clean the air temperatue was raised due to the heat of the machine and the air absorbed as much moisture as it could. When they had left the temperature dropped (it was a cold day)and the moisture in the air "fell out" causing a dew like affect on the furniture leading to the mildew problem.
After cleaning I always advise clients to put the heating on and open either doors or windows until the carpets are dry.

[carpetmas5]

Yes I do know all this, its a point I am makeing about c/cs who say dry in 1 or 2 hours. I have seen them all in 36 years of carpet cleaning.

[conallon]

All your carpets and arms of suite in 2 hours  try a dry pass and air movers

[Glynn]

get a greenglide.

[carpetmas5]

Thanks Glynn are thay as good as every one is saying? where did you buy yours? I also still think heat & air in the house would help, the carpets are now almost dry still with no heat as we have not put it on the heating yet. Martin

[Glynn]

They are only available off hyddramaster. They are excellent, I will NOT clean carpet now without them.

[Karl Wildey]

a wool carpet will absorb more moisture than a polyprop, so it depends on the carpet pile, also the relative humidity inside and outside will slow/speed up drying. So you can not judge drying time without knowing pile and RH at the time of cleaning its impossible.

[Bob Allen]

Put the heating on you tight git

[carpetmas5]

Maggie is always hot that time poor old git, plus we have soild fuel & I am not lighting up until we come back from Marrakech in two weeks.

[Ian Gourlay]

I found Martins post very interesting, as I regard him as one of this industrys experts.


It does expose the Danger of qouting drying times and even truck mounts cannot acheive them if conditions are not right.

It also means that we need to be sure that we have informed our customers about what to do after we have left


 Although I I understand why the heat was not on and the windows were closed I see no mention of Turbo driers being used,

Perhaps it was an experiment to see what happens in poor conditions.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

Interesting topic  Martin , I've always found wide variation in drying times.

However since I've been doing a lot more hard floors often involving several applications I have noticed a really big drying difference from one area to another.It is much easier to spot !

For example by a bar I do once every 2 weeks, the middle bit dries in half the time of the two end bits where air flow is less .None of this area has bad airflow which you may get in a poorly ventillated room in the corners .

Technique and the amount of water put down in the first place are probably the most important considerations.

Cheers,

Doug

[carpetmas5]

Thanks Ian you have hit it right on the head, you cannot always let your customer know times for drying.

[darren_metcalfe]

Hi,

first post on here do any of you use de humidifiers to aid drying time.

[Karl Wildey]

Dehums are too slow to do the job. You shut the room up and the dehum dries the atmosphere, to create an equal balance the moisture leaves the carpet and goes into the atmosphere, every time someone opens a door they let new wet air in. Plus you would have to return in 24 hours to remove the dehum. Air movers are far easier.

However if cleaning a carpet in a sealed office, shop etc where you need the carpet to be be dry overnight without fail, you could use a dehum.

[darren_metcalfe]

Yeah just wondered if you used them, I have used them a couple of times in conjunction with an airmover and that really improved the drying time.

[John_Flynn]

DO NOT 'over sell' in the first place you will then have NO Problems with drying times!!

[Bob Allen]

I normally tell my misses to invite all her friends round .......with all that hot air its bound to dry quick