Flex Ice on Smart Strand Polyester

Johnny

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Presprayed Smart Strand Silk (poly) with 2 oz / gal. (4 oz in small area), Flex with Citrussolv. Rinsed with Flex Ice at recommended dilution. Customer called a few days later about residue on her Dyson. I cleaned the scum off her vac and recleaned with the same chemistry. A few days later, customer complained about stiff carpet, so I performed the mother of all rinses (MOAR) with Fab Set, which left the carpet soft and visually clean. She called yesterday (30+ days later), about new scum on her clean vacuum. She is not trying to jerk me around. I need to understand what is causing this, not only for her, but for myself.

I've cleaned hundreds of polys with Flex prespray and Ice rinse. Are some polys more difficult to rinse? (More oleophilic?) Is it possible that Ice doesn't have the emulsifying muscle to rinse this particular poly? Is Ice leaving residue?

She says the previous cleaner didn't leave residue, but she didnt call him back because he was sloppy and didn't prevac, prespray, or scrub. I'm guessing he didn't even know the fiber, but hit it with the same alkali rinse he uses on everything else, which was, by chance, appropriate for this fiber.

Im thinking my next approach should be a mild alkaline rinse (Point Blue, Pro Max, etc.).

She also mentioned the carpet is matting. I believe this is typical of Smart Strand.

Much obliged.
 
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Onfire_02_01

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I was thinking the same thing. I am no guru so maybe someone else has ideas but something doesn't seem right to me i.e. a little fishy.
Matting carpet is typical and unavoidable with poly over 2 years old. It is the weakness of this fiber.
If I were called back for a foreign substance on the carpet I would have opened up the fibers at various locations to check if there was anything sitting on the backing of the fibers that was similar to the vacuum buildup.
No matter if you used ice or some other rinse there is not enough rinse material there for a buildup of that amount. You have at worst 3 cups of rinse into five gallons of water which is then diluted to 2-4 gallons per hour. To get a residue on her vacuum cleaner you would have had to spray out 2-3 gallons of rinse onto the carpet and not extracted any of it back out. "I assume you are better than that."
There is my dollar of advise. Wait does that make me a guru now? :biggrin: :clap:
 

Johnny

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I was thinking the same thing. I am no guru so maybe someone else has ideas but something doesn't seem right to me i.e. a little fishy.
Matting carpet is typical and unavoidable with poly over 2 years old. It is the weakness of this fiber.
If I were called back for a foreign substance on the carpet I would have opened up the fibers at various locations to check if there was anything sitting on the backing of the fibers that was similar to the vacuum buildup.
No matter if you used ice or some other rinse there is not enough rinse material there for a buildup of that amount. You have at worst 3 cups of rinse into five gallons of water which is then diluted to 2-4 gallons per hour. To get a residue on her vacuum cleaner you would have had to spray out 2-3 gallons of rinse onto the carpet and not extracted any of it back out. "I assume you are better than that."
There is my dollar of advise. Wait does that make me a guru now? :biggrin: :clap:

White carpet fibers and backing looked completely clean after last cleaning.
 

steve_64

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Just a guess but you may have loosened the oils in the fibers but not removed them completely.

Oils are used in processing the fibers and are not completely removed during the process.

Try an olefin cleaner.
 
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BIG WOOD

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I remember Scott making the comment when flex ice first came out that you need a water softener to use ice

Is that still true?
 
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Ron K

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What does the residue on the vacuum look and feel like? Can you replicate it with something? A back of a spoon rubbed on the carpet? Scrap the residue off the vacuum and see if it can mix with water? Do the brush rolls have residue? Does she use any spotter heavily?
 
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ruff

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Just confiscate her vacuum. As far as I am concerned she lost her vacuum rights.

Reminds me of a client that called me the day after the cleaning and told me (I kid you not) that- "she woke up in the middle of the night and looked with a flash light under the bed and saw brush marks."

After a short stunned silence (does not happen frequently here) I regained my senses and told her that- "She should not look with a flash light under the bed in the middle of the night."

She's still a client.
 

Johnny

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What does the residue on the vacuum look and feel like? Can you replicate it with something? A back of a spoon rubbed on the carpet? Scrap the residue off the vacuum and see if it can mix with water? Do the brush rolls have residue? Does she use any spotter heavily?
Residue is a grey powder. Dissolves in water. Residue on brush roll.
 

J Scott W

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I can't imagine Flex Ice or any other rinse, when used properly, leaving enough residue to be seen on a vacuum brush roll. The strongest rinse dilution calls for 1:320. Flex Ice (and many others) is 1:640. After extracting most of the rinse out, there should be a small fraction of a spoonful or less left behind on the carpet.

If the carpet is rather new, a year or so, Steve's comment about loom oils is valid.

Something is probably getting on the carpet from a source totally unrelated to cleaning. Pollution or dust in the air or such or the powders she claims not to use.
 

Ron K

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I'd wash off the residue from the brush roll and see how long it take to come back?
How do you really know it's from the carpet? Does your brush roll have the same effect?
Also "grey" "lady thats my hair and if you keep calling me about this I'll loose the little I have!"
 

Johnny

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Carpet is less than three years old. Mine was the third cleaning. Customer vacs every two days. The volume of scum is less with each vacing. Spotters have been used in a couple small areas. No powder.

The loom oil theory might fit. The first two cleaning were probably quick rinses. Then I spray Flex with Citrus Solv, which emulsifies or partially emulsifies the oil. But wouldn't Ice rinse the emulsified oil?

Customers are good people. She's a retired cop, and a friend of another retired cop friend. He's a retired fire captain. They have funner things to do with their time than harrass the carpet cleaner.
 
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Johnny

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I've cleaned this carpet four times now. Loom oil theory fits the evidence. Loom oil in / under the backing or on the fibers is emulsified, creating the scum. Scum forms on her vac after every cleaning. She called the carpet store, who asked what products I used. I showed her the Flex with Citrus Solve and Flex Ice. The carpet store told her I should have used water only and sent a rep who collected a sample of the carpet and the scum to send to Mohawk for evaluation.

Scott W.: Can I send you a sample of the scum?
 
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J Scott W

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I've cleaned this carpet four times now. Loom oil theory fits the evidence. Loom oil in / under the backing or on the fibers is emulsified, creating the scum. Scum forms on her vac after every cleaning. She called the carpet store, who asked what products I used. I showed her the Flex with Citrus Solve and Flex Ice. The carpet store told her I should have used water only and sent a rep who collected a sample of the carpet and the scum to send to Mohawk for evaluation.

Scott W.: Can I send you a sample of the scum?

You can send a sample. Our lab equipment is not really equipment for testing and identifying random material. (No mass spectrometer or gas chromatography) But we can look at it.
 
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Tom Forsythe

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You can send the scum to me and I will look at it in the lab. A couple of other things to check. I would make sure the last step chemical injection is metering properly. Some truckmounts have check valves that prevent backup into the heat exchange system. I would look at that possibility as well. I would also double check my vacuum and psi.

There also can be wicking from backing. Remember that the Triexta fiber does not absorb water so any rinse will go deep into the carpet and backing so extra dry passes are important. I would lower my usual psi for these fibers. Flex Powder is great as breaking up oils so if loom oil is the issue then residuals of the pre-spray or rinse not vacuumed away could be wicking to the surface with some of this oil.

On a technical note clarified by my attendance to the IICRC science conference this summer. I need to point out why cleaning with water only is invalid. The surface tension of water alone is around 70 dynes/cm. The surface energy of triexta is around 40 dyes/cm and for oils it is around 25 dynes/cm. The point is that the fiber is not properly wetting for efficient cleaning until the surface tension of the water is below the surface energy of the surface or soils. Heat helps as the surface tension of boiling water goes to 60 dynes/cm. Alkalinity or acidity do not change the surface tension. Solvents will drop it further but the volume necessary to make an impact is no longer possible under VOC laws. Most surfactants as low as .1% will drop the surface tension of water to a level where all surfaces we clean can be properly wetted. In short, water is incapable of properly wetting triexta fibers, let alone dissolving oils that love to bond to an oil loving fiber. In short, the water only cleaning method can be used (ignorance would be my primary reason) to move responsibility from the manufacturer to the cleaner.
 

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