I'm thinking I made a baddddddd decision. Feel free to rip me a new one.
I got myself a VLM system & it's ok on carpets that aren't to bad in the first place. I could be at fault here but I'm finding on trashed carpets it gets outperformed by a rickety rotary & 15 year old porty.
Here's the scoop. I cleaned carpets about 15 years ago using a 17 inch rotary prescrub & porty to rinse. Most of the carpets came out pretty dang good. I got out of the business & I sold the rotary in there somewhere, just keeping my porty. I realize the porty by itself isn't going to do a very good job. This time around I wanted to add to my aresenal so I got a VLM system. Dropped about 7K on it. Uggh!!
I'd cleaned a few carpets since I've started back up but they weren't that bad in the first place & things turned out ok. I did a friend of mines carpet a few weeks ago. As a matter of fact, it was Bill Mason who's now registered on this board. Based on how well he thought his carpets came out w/ the VLM method he's looking to get into this business also. So he truly was impressed. I just felt the area in front of his kitchen should have looked better. He was only comparing it to the job I did w/ my porty a few years back. Plus his sister in law & one of his wife's friends commented about how nice the carpets looked w/out being prompted. So he did have good thoughts about the VLM. I just felt the area in front of the kitchen should have looked better. He may or may not wanna chime in here.
I had done his carpets a few years ago w/ just the porty & truthfully it didn't look that great. The one thing in my defense is I had warned him to not expect much. My machine is 100PSI & I had gotten rid of my rotary.
This time around, I had gotten the VLM system & did it again. This is like 4 years after I had last cleaned it w/ the porty. It was looking pretty bad. He was pretty happy when I finished because it looked a lot better than when I had just used the porty. I'm guessing he had about 800 sq. feet of carpet & I used 19 pads both sides. I went over the area in front of the kitchen like 5 or 6 times & got it about as good as I could. He was happy, figuring because the carpet was so bad to begin w/ maybe only so much could be done. Plus, as I've mentioned, he was comparing the results I got w/ the VLM to the results w/ just the porty a few years previous.
Remembering trashed carpets I had done before, I felt it should have came out better.
So I go back down there w/ a lil 12 inch rotary I bought (I wasn't planning on getting back into the business, I just wanted something to do my own house, my folks, & a few friends) & my porty. I do the area in front of the kitchen again & DAMN!!! This is how it was SUPPOSED to look the first time.
In going over it w/ the rotary (just water, no shampoo) & porty, I noticed a ton of shampoo (technically Whamm, but might as well be shampoo) in my recovery tank. I thought that crap was supposed to come out when the custy vacuumed & make the carpets look better. So much for that theory, at least in this case.
I'm open to maybe I didn't do something right w/ my VLM cleaning. So it could totally be on me. I saw it in action for a day & it did fine on "somewhat dirty" carpets. So I thought I did my homework, but I guess I didn't. I didn't see it on trashed carpets, I just figured it would work because it did a pretty good job on an apartment (though not trashed) carpet.
Steps I took w/ VLM:
1) Prevac (btw MeAT, thanx for the Bissel suggestion, that thing kicks some tail)
2) Pre-spray w/ Whamm (I could be wrong but this crap is shampoo w/ a fancy "encapulation" title)
3) Go over it w/ the HOS machine.. this is the thing that even if it did a great job, I didnt like the way it rattled the china cabinet
4) Pre-spray the tough spots w/ ZBomb
5) Go over it w/ the HOS machine again
6, 7, 8, 9, 10) LOL!!! went over that kitchen area a ton of times. 19 pads/2 sides. Plus 5 pads both sides on the steps w/ a stair tool. Ugggh
11) Counter rotating brush machine. It does a great job of grooming but the jury is out on how well it CLEANS.
12) Sit & listen to Bill say how good it looks when I'm thinking to myself that it should look better.
Steps when I came back a few weeks later:
1) Watch the Liddell/Ortiz fight
2) Rotary scrub
3) Rinse w/ porty
4) Think to myself this is how it should have looked the first time.
A few questions here.
1) What did I do wrong w/ the VLM cleaning that it didn't come out right in the first place?
2) Are my observations that it's going to leave to much shampoo (or Whamm or encap or whatever ya wanna call it) in the carpet correct?
3) That it's really NOT going to look even better when the custy vacs after I leave?
4) If you do VLM, what situations do you use it in besides commercial. I'm thinking of berber here because I have gotten out soil filtration lines on a berber w/ VLM. At that time I was pretty stoked about it. Now I'm having doubts.
5) Would it be better to use encap juice as a shampoo w/ a rotary & use the porty to rinse/vac it up?
Thanx for your time,
Danny
I got myself a VLM system & it's ok on carpets that aren't to bad in the first place. I could be at fault here but I'm finding on trashed carpets it gets outperformed by a rickety rotary & 15 year old porty.
Here's the scoop. I cleaned carpets about 15 years ago using a 17 inch rotary prescrub & porty to rinse. Most of the carpets came out pretty dang good. I got out of the business & I sold the rotary in there somewhere, just keeping my porty. I realize the porty by itself isn't going to do a very good job. This time around I wanted to add to my aresenal so I got a VLM system. Dropped about 7K on it. Uggh!!
I'd cleaned a few carpets since I've started back up but they weren't that bad in the first place & things turned out ok. I did a friend of mines carpet a few weeks ago. As a matter of fact, it was Bill Mason who's now registered on this board. Based on how well he thought his carpets came out w/ the VLM method he's looking to get into this business also. So he truly was impressed. I just felt the area in front of his kitchen should have looked better. He was only comparing it to the job I did w/ my porty a few years back. Plus his sister in law & one of his wife's friends commented about how nice the carpets looked w/out being prompted. So he did have good thoughts about the VLM. I just felt the area in front of the kitchen should have looked better. He may or may not wanna chime in here.
I had done his carpets a few years ago w/ just the porty & truthfully it didn't look that great. The one thing in my defense is I had warned him to not expect much. My machine is 100PSI & I had gotten rid of my rotary.
This time around, I had gotten the VLM system & did it again. This is like 4 years after I had last cleaned it w/ the porty. It was looking pretty bad. He was pretty happy when I finished because it looked a lot better than when I had just used the porty. I'm guessing he had about 800 sq. feet of carpet & I used 19 pads both sides. I went over the area in front of the kitchen like 5 or 6 times & got it about as good as I could. He was happy, figuring because the carpet was so bad to begin w/ maybe only so much could be done. Plus, as I've mentioned, he was comparing the results I got w/ the VLM to the results w/ just the porty a few years previous.
Remembering trashed carpets I had done before, I felt it should have came out better.
So I go back down there w/ a lil 12 inch rotary I bought (I wasn't planning on getting back into the business, I just wanted something to do my own house, my folks, & a few friends) & my porty. I do the area in front of the kitchen again & DAMN!!! This is how it was SUPPOSED to look the first time.
In going over it w/ the rotary (just water, no shampoo) & porty, I noticed a ton of shampoo (technically Whamm, but might as well be shampoo) in my recovery tank. I thought that crap was supposed to come out when the custy vacuumed & make the carpets look better. So much for that theory, at least in this case.
I'm open to maybe I didn't do something right w/ my VLM cleaning. So it could totally be on me. I saw it in action for a day & it did fine on "somewhat dirty" carpets. So I thought I did my homework, but I guess I didn't. I didn't see it on trashed carpets, I just figured it would work because it did a pretty good job on an apartment (though not trashed) carpet.
Steps I took w/ VLM:
1) Prevac (btw MeAT, thanx for the Bissel suggestion, that thing kicks some tail)
2) Pre-spray w/ Whamm (I could be wrong but this crap is shampoo w/ a fancy "encapulation" title)
3) Go over it w/ the HOS machine.. this is the thing that even if it did a great job, I didnt like the way it rattled the china cabinet
4) Pre-spray the tough spots w/ ZBomb
5) Go over it w/ the HOS machine again
6, 7, 8, 9, 10) LOL!!! went over that kitchen area a ton of times. 19 pads/2 sides. Plus 5 pads both sides on the steps w/ a stair tool. Ugggh
11) Counter rotating brush machine. It does a great job of grooming but the jury is out on how well it CLEANS.
12) Sit & listen to Bill say how good it looks when I'm thinking to myself that it should look better.
Steps when I came back a few weeks later:
1) Watch the Liddell/Ortiz fight
2) Rotary scrub
3) Rinse w/ porty
4) Think to myself this is how it should have looked the first time.
A few questions here.
1) What did I do wrong w/ the VLM cleaning that it didn't come out right in the first place?
2) Are my observations that it's going to leave to much shampoo (or Whamm or encap or whatever ya wanna call it) in the carpet correct?
3) That it's really NOT going to look even better when the custy vacs after I leave?
4) If you do VLM, what situations do you use it in besides commercial. I'm thinking of berber here because I have gotten out soil filtration lines on a berber w/ VLM. At that time I was pretty stoked about it. Now I'm having doubts.
5) Would it be better to use encap juice as a shampoo w/ a rotary & use the porty to rinse/vac it up?
Thanx for your time,
Danny