[Mike Halliday]

what does everyone else use to spray very hot liquids, I've used sodium Met' twice this week but once I stick the boiling water into the bottle and start spraying the heat just knacks up the bottle and the trigger,  it just stops spraying. Its like the hot water warps the plastic.

as a side note both these jobs make me look like a magician, 2 red wine stains that just disappeared as the sod' met' hit them.

 I'd been to the shop and bought it that day and he said it had been delivered the day before, so it was fresh from the factory. I think it must go off as I've never seen it work as good before.

[derek west]

would a hydraforce work mike, forgive my ignorance as ive never used sod met.
maybe you can do a write up on it?
derek
is it that powder stuff that when you open the plastic jar it blows your head off.?

[Mike Halliday]

yep thats the stuff, itss sold as spray & go by Chemspec, I use about 200ml so a H/F is over kill

[Jim_77]

Do you need it to be boiling?  The obvious answer would be to shift the CHAT equation around a little bit!

But you probably already thought of that

What sort of sprayer have you been getting the problem with?  A normal trigger spray?

[gwrightson]

Mike,

I,v had exactly the same problem as the water does have to be hot, personaly i now mix up in a small bowl and dab using a terry towel, same results,

Geoff

[mark shannon]

Where do you guys source sodium Met? i use Craftex shift but its a bit pricey that way.

Mark

[Mike Halliday]

Jim do you use spray & go ? I find it activates better very hot.

Geoff I tried the towel & dab method but could get even coverage.

mark I bought mine from a wine & beer supplies shop. little sachets of 100gs for 75p

[Nigel_W]

Sodium Met is much better boiling hot - although there are times when a cold mix is enough and better because of delicate fabrics or bleaching problems. I have had great results further heating the solution using a hair dryer or steamer.

Mike -  you might want to just try some different trigger sprayers. I just use a standard contico trigger spray and it seems to cope fine with the hot solution.

I use Chemspec Spray & Go. I have to say one tub lasts forever so I can't be bothered to shop around.

Nigel

[derek west]

i used the powder on a red ink mark using a damp towel and an iron, didn't get the mark out but managed to fade the bright red to a light brown, which the custy was happy with.
nigel
would that work the same with a steamer after putting the powder down or would it blow everywhere, or..... could it be done with a towel over it?
derek

[derek west]

mike
could you not actually put the contents direct into a steamer?
just a thought.
derek

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

No Derek
It'll knacker up the insides. It's highly corrosive and will rust all metal it comes into contact very quickly.
I spilt some inside a plastic box containing some metal tools and 1 week later I had some pretty useless metal tools.

[Nigel_W]

Derek you should always mix the Sod Met powder with water. The steamer or hairdrier is for the purpose of adding heat to the chemical reaction to increase the reduction process. In other words spray on the spray and go mixture and then heat it up! Not to be done without testing and an extremely risky process that should only be used once you are confident. On some carpets and fabrics using this process will cause irreversible damage within 5 seconds. Tread very carefully.

Nigel

[derek west]

cheers nigel
could you expand on what fibs and fabs are susceptible and what damage to look out for?, might get some samples and experiment
derek

[Nigel_W]

Derek,

The only sensible answer to the question is "the ones that are damaged after you have used it". That is because there seem to be no rules. The best bet is to take the time to test in an inconspicuos area and if you are concerned don't use it. I have heard many experienced carpet cleaners who won't touch the stuff because of problems they have had with bleaching of carpets. I have persevered because, like Mike, I find that quite often you can appear to be the magician as tricky stains disappear before your eyes.

Nigel

[derek west]

so at a guess, its not the fib or fab, but the colour of it, or lack of it if it goes wrong? i'll get some bright red samples and do me worst.
and like you said, when i'm on the job i'll test first.
derek

[mark shannon]

Yep bleached an off white half landing slightly with it recently.

Got away with it by bleaching the rest of the landing.

Unpredictable stuff

[Doug Holloway]

Hi guys

I would be surprised if Sodium Metabisulphite would go off, unless it was to get damp .

Most chemical reactions occur faster with increasing temp but I would be careful of using boiling water.

Another way to accelerate is to lower the pH by mixing with one third citric acid, also available from your local homebrew shop.

All these things are a matter of experimetation but caution is warranted as once bleached it is difficult to go back.

Cheers

Doug

[colin thomas]

whenever i use meta i have the machine running and poised to extract if i think there is a problem occuring, that said, i have in the past 'misted' meta over a stain and left it to work, more than once a customer has rang me the next day to say the stain has gone,
colin

[gwrightson]

and when all else fails............   the custy is more often than prepared to have us the c/c try anything , even if some damage/discolouration may be apparent ,

far better than a red stain standing out like a sore thumb,
i once used on the arm of a cream /cotton sofa, the result from that 1 job resulted me cleaning the whole house and the custy business offices on a regular basis, yes be carful, but when all else fails it is a great weapon to have.
As s/m effectivness is seen as the drying procces is taking place i use a hair drier to speed this up,

Geoff

[Mark Slaney]

  Might be completely wrong here but when i done a ncca course along time ago the sodium met was sprinkled on the red wine stain and then a steam was run over it and hey presto gone!