[Jonny F]

    Hi,
           Being from the US, Im sure we have many different chemicals then you over there? I would say the most popular chemical line over here is Prochem, Bridgpoint, or Bane Clene chemicals. What some of the favorites over there?

      What is the perferred method by you all?  I would say in the US Hot water extraction (HWE) or steam cleaning as some call it is the most popular. It seems as though lately all the machines keep getting hotter and hotter.....some even use propane to heat their water!! I would worry about safety cleaning at 240 degrees!!!  I belong to the IICRC, and they as well as all the carpet mills really stress HWE over all other methods....they worry about fiber distortion with bonnet or pad systems.  What are all your thoughts?    JOn

[Glynn]

Hydramaster

[Jonny F]

Glynn,

    Yes, Hydramaster makes some great cleaning chems!!  I have be lucking enough to meet the man that delveloped many of their chemicals. I have been to their factory in WA state, very impressive!!  I watched them build machine, starting with a frame. They make some awsome products and John their National Service Manager is a very caring helpful man.    Jon

[Fintan_Coll]

I have tried many powders in my time including Bane's but the best I have found is a product called Ultimate Master by Alltec ( sometimes called Active Chemical Products in England.)
If you read some of the postings on this board you will also find reference to microsplitters which also give amazing results if used correctly.

[stevegunn]

Microsplitters are quite popular too

[Jonny F]

Steve,

  Does this microspliters have a wab site?

[Glynn]

Yes Jon,

http://www.solution-uk.com/

Its Nick, a very helpful and knowledgable man.

[Jonny F]

Thanks Glynn,

      Call me stupid, but I dont see thsi microspliters on the website? is it real new? I used the search fuction with no luck..   Jon

[Glynn]

Jon
go to

http://www.solution-uk.com/

then on the left click carpet and upholstery
then select solution no 2
youll see it all from there.

Glynn

[Jonny F]

Thanks Glynn

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Jonny

And welcome to our UK Carpet Cleaning Community.

I too am a great fan of Micro Splitting technology. It's not the easiest type of product to appreciate and use successfully if you follow your usual routine when HWE cleaning with detergents, but once mastered, it's usually the first solution of choice, certainly on most residential work. The big plus for me is that they are exceptionally safe products to use. No hazard/poison etc. signs on the labels. They are actually food grade products and are edible if you're mad enough :

When I was using detergents, I was a great fan of Prochem. Like Chemspec, but to a lesser degree IMO, the range appeared to be complicated by many products which seemed to do the same job, so I found a select, smaller list from the  range that worked for me, and stuck with those. For a short while before I changed to Micro Splitting, I used Spitfire Advanced, a multi-fibre, Woolsafe Approved, freshwater rinse pre-spray from an Australian ccompany called Research Products. If I were to return to detergents, this would be my preferred product. The results were stunning. Used at 1:30 and without any rinse detergent too!

I have recently received from another company brand within this group called Citrus Resources another freshwater rinse pre-spray called Citrafresh. It's designed for very heavy/greasy soiling and is also a fresh water rinse product.

The other company within this Australian group is called Dry Fusion. The Dry Fusion System is a unique rotary pad system which excels on low profile carpets, but has been used to stunning effect on all types of installations. As you quite rightly said, there is a general resistance to rotary pad cleaning because of the fibre distortion issue. However, if I were to say that Brintons, a world leader in quality woven wool carpets, has given the Dry Fusion System the thumbs up, would that be enough to satisfy most of the doubters?

Like you Jonny, there are many of us here in the UK who are equally passionate about our industry, and I look forward to sharing our views, experiences and opinions.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

www.dryfusion.com.au
www.researchproducts.com.au
www.citrusresources.com.au

[Jonny F]

   Ken,

    Nice to meet you as well!!  Thanks for all the information.  Jon

[Don Atkinson]

Hi jon, my preferred cleaning agents are micro splitters and use them all the time.

Micro splitters - do an average to good job, but creates no resoling problems due to the clean water rinse.
Detergent powders ect - do a superb job and give a real wow factor after the clean, but carpets cleaned this way resoil very quickly.

Unfortunately you cant have the best of both worlds, but I still prefer to use micro splitters, because of the non resoling properties.

[Matt Read]

i haven't used microsplitters so i can't really give a balanced view but the detergents i use always state no sticky residue and one of them is supposed to be self neutralising. I do get confused over this issue.... surely its the old shampoo type of detergent used years ago and still given out with hire machines that used to cause the rapid resoiling.
I've always been led to believe that america/canada are the leaders in our trade as much for the fact they are cleaner nations than ours ! and business is very brisk over there , so i was interested to see jon say heat is the way they are going . i'm a bit old fashioned i guess but the best results i get are always with the hottest possible clean (subject to survey). i do a lot of property management rental accomodation and i just can't get my head round prespray with agitation and water rinse for these disgusting places. I don't mind being proved wrong so i shall have to try a microsplitter soon. One final thought ...most of my customers want results and whenever i've chatted carpet cleaning in the past to most of them they tend to get a glazed look in their eyes,or they mention host dry cleaning cd bonnet buffing  etc etc  and how rubbish the results were.

[Mark@Eco-Powerclean]

Matt, I've got a job booked in over next weekend. A woman has just come back to her house after spending the last two years in her native Malta. In that time, she's rented the place out to lodgers who must have been using the lounge to do motorbike repairs or something similar. She showed me a piece of the original carpet, and it's hard to believe that it's come off the same roll. Probably the same, or maybe much worse, than you've experience in your property letting jobs.

I'm going to use m/s on this job, and will take some piccies (before, during after) on the digital camera, if she'll let me as I've not asked her yet. If I'm able to, I'll try and post the results.

If I don't post any pics, it'll be because (a) she won't let me take any, (b) I've c***ed up using the camera again or (c) m/s aren't as good as the confidence I'm putting into them (sorry Nick, only joking  )


Mark

[paul@ctcs]

Number 2 HD and plenty of agitation will do the business
I worked yet another miracle myself with this today!!

Paul

[Mark@Eco-Powerclean]

That's exactly what I intend to use Paul. If I can't perform the same miracle, I'll pray to God to have his son come over from Newmarket. 

[Matt Read]

Look forward to the pics mark if she lets you take them...i can see the logic and safer cleaning of microsplitters but when i saw don put average to good results from using them it does put me off a bit....a. i think carpet cleaning is a results business otherwise whats the point .... b. surely a sticky residue from detergents is the cause of rapid resoiling ..so are the "no sticky residue" detergent suppliers lying ?...i can't say i' have had any customers complain of resoiling in my 11 years of carpet cleaning and if i was now to change to average to good results from m/s but explained to my customers the reason i can't see them either understanding or more likely they would prefer a "result".As for property rentals...the quicker the result the better as they tend to get them cleaned after each tenant changes and very hwe and detergent does get results quickly.

[Mark@Eco-Powerclean]

As for property rentals...the quicker the result the better as they tend to get them cleaned after each tenant changes and very hwe and detergent does get results quickly.

One of our local property rental agencies has got it down to a fine art. They get the landlord to have the carpets cleaned when he first puts it on the market, then they insert a clause in the tenancy agreement that the property must be returned in the same condition as when it was first rented. It specifically mentions carpets professionally cleaned and insists that 'DIY carpet equipment (I take it they mean something like Rug Doctor) will not do.

I rented a property from them, and noticed that the carpets resoiled extremely quickly. When we handed in our notice to leave, I queried the professional carpet cleaning with them. They insisted that it had to be done and before I could get a word in to tell them I was in the trade, they rattled off the phone number of a carpet cleaner and as good as instructed me to contact them. I finally managed to tell them I could do it myself, and the woman didn't sound too happy. They must be making a fair bit out of this 'association', so am I right in thinking that cleaners sometimes (or always maybe) pass some of the earnings back to the agent as commission?

Also, maybe I'm being a bit cynical here, but I got to thinking that it's actually in the carpet cleaner's best interests to use a detergent which will rapidly resoil when dealing with property rentals?

I'll try to load a couple of piccies of the carpet in the kitchen after it had been 'professionally cleaned' and how it looked after I cleaned it six months later. I've never tried to load pics on here before, and I see some people haven't had much luck, so it may take me a couple of years. 

[Matt Read]

Hiya Mark,
Yes it is true some rental companies expect a commision..the ones i work for don't that i'm aware of but of course they could always add to my invoice i guess.
Maybe you  microsplitting converts are correct on the resoiling and i just need it explained to me how the no sticky residue detergents(assuming its true) cause resoiling if  no deposits are left on the carpet..thats the bit that baffles me most.

I'm sure you are a clean living lad so this won't apply to your good self but most rental places aren't treated as well as someone who owns their home or long term rent and put carpets down... so resoiling is hard to monitor when your doing let houses.

Finally you're right on the" it being in the interests of a cleaner if a carpet resoils" but as stated above its too hard to monitor with men behaving badly student types but i can say on the family type rented homes i don't get called in every 6 months and the companies i work  for are very strict on their checklists when they do their property survey's. I also wondered how you remove gum and bluetack the green way...i assume solvents are outlawed in the enviromentally aware world ?
Btw you sound about as capable as me with a dig cam ! I could pm you my email addy if you prefer i really am interested to see the before and after pics of ms cleaning....yes salesmen do hate me i'm not an easily convinced person