Low Moisture Carpet Cleaners Association | Misc.: Three Cleaning Methods and Lots of Fun

30 Nov Misc.: Three Cleaning Methods and Lots of Fun

Posted at 04:54h in Resource Library by astracom

It was a great weekend, with great friends, and some carpet cleaning.

I had asked Steve Smith if he could bring his Cimex and his new 1/2 HP Oscillating Pad machine with him so we could do a little testing in a “real world” environment (AKA a filthy traffic-lane church gymnasium carpet). Funny thing was… The carpet had been Hot Water Extracted a month before by a cheaper truckmounted HWE company in town. The carpet looked awful just one week after they cleaned it.

I approached our church and asked them if we could do some testing on their carpet to try to determine how to get it clean, and stay clean. Of course, there was no charge for doing this.

I am searching for a quality method that can clean large amounts of commercial carpet, where we could bid less per square foot than on residential, and still turn a nice $100 per hour figure while cleaning.

I concur with Steve’s comments on the results. I do think if we would have gone over the Cimex area more with that machine, we may have gotten better results (in all fairness to the Cimex). However, that would have increased the time for cleaning the area.

I would like to see similar demos at the next Summerfest, where we would go out and actually measure off some carpeted areas of equal soiling conditions, equal sizes, and clean with different systems, check results, and the time spent cleaning. Cleaning strips of carpet in parking lots or randomly cleaning areas of a hotel is not giving each of the cleaning systems available a “fair shake”.

I performed the HWE with our machine for this test, so let me explain my procedure.

First, I dry vacuumed the area to be cleaned, as we did in all the areas.

Next, I pre-sprayed with Clean Streak enzyme.

Then, let it dwell for 12 minutes.

Finally, I acid rinsed the entire area with the heat at 220º “At The Wand” (through 2 -9503 jets and 120′ of 2″ vacuum hose). The wand was a specially modified Easy Glide, with “perm-a-seal” lips (silicone – LOL). Other wands of this type have been known to leak vacuum air while cleaning, and leave the carpet way too wet.

Recheck of the areas revealed no spots or areas returning, no wick-ups, on day 2, and day 5, in any of the three areas cleaned. I believe the extra heat of the HWE used in this test made a big difference in time and results (with some of the credit going to the improved wand seal). The OP machine did a great job, and the Cimex will return for more testing. A fantastic weekend with great friends, and more cleaning on Saturday at a Day Care center, thanks to Steve and Jax, and my son Ian.

The more we learn, the more we earn.