3 Days To Dry

[Spurlington]

Had a customer I cleaned for a couple of months ago. She wanted some other areas cleaned. She asked what she could do to get the carpets to dry faster. I asked her how long did the other areas take. She says the bedrooms overnight and the family room 3 days. Im like,"3 days !!" It was empty, high ceilings and I have awesome suction. I asked if she turned off the ac or opened windows on the humid days we had etc. She says she ran the air full blast the whole time. Im like wow I cant believe it took so long.

After I was done cleaning I go thru the helpful hints for speeding up the drying process and asked if she had a dehumidifier. She says," Oh yeah I run my humidifier all the time." Im like what !! Humidifier? She says yes the humidifier on her ac unit runs all the time to pump humidity while pumping air. Im like,"Theres your problem !!" Were trying to dry the carpets not produce a mosquito farm !!"

So add that step to your drying tips .. turn off the humidifier til the carpet drys !!!! Uggg !!!

 

[Lyman]

Something doesn't sound right. Same house, different areas drying different times. Was the carpet the same type for all the rooms.

 

[hogjowl]

I hear "three days" all the time from people talking about other cleaners. I find it hard to believe. Way back when I was a nube, I had a 33 blower system with a 200 foot LIVE reel and an inch and a half wand. I had never heard of a drying pass in my life and I was getting 12 hours dry times. (I thought I was a killer cleaner.) So, three days (usually talking about Stanley Steemer) is sort of hard to believe.

Listen to this one ... I cleaned a handicapped lady's carpet today in her mobile home. She left when we got there (her daughter referred me) and told me to lock the door when we left. She called me a couple of hours later to tell me when she got home that her carpets were dry. I could tell she was sort of questioning whether we had cleaned them or not. I asked her if the carpets were clean (they were filthy before we cleaned) and she said "oh ... yeah", as if she had just thought about looking to see just then. So, she was happy that her carpets were clean and dry, but she was so un-used to that that she automatically assumed we hadn't cleaned them when she came in and found them dry.

And didn't think to look ...

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Paul, this does not relate at all to your experience. I will make mention of that to cleaners who are dealing with mystery drying problems in the future.

WOW....talk about a customer working against you!

This story relates more to Marty's comments:

I was visiting friends in Nova Scotia about ten years ago, and they invited me to their cabin in a fairly remote area. Once there, they sort of shyly asked if I could look at the carpet and see what might be done with it...

(OK, now I knew why they invited me...LOL)

I found a place that rented Rug Doctors (head hung in shame...) in the little "nearby" village (a relative term up there...an hour away on gravel roads..) and concocted some more effective detergents and spotters than they were selling with the machine at the "general store".

With the limited power of that "Gold Standard" machine and the homemade stuff I used, I got the carpet far wetter than I wanted to in my efforts to get it clean. Even then, in a cabin without air conditioning during a humid July day, the carpet was dry the next day.

I think, short of Paul's strange experience, it takes effort to create a three day drying job. But it does seem some cleaners are able to do it.

 

[Dolly Llama]

did she opt for protectant in the fam room but not the bd rms??

I'm with Lyman .....if carpet is same, seems odd the bd rms dried but fam room didn't ???

the amount of pre-spray used has a LOT to do with dry times as well

..L.T.A.

 

[Shane T]

I didn't even know you could turn the humidifier on while running the ac. Wouldn't you have to have the humidistat pegged for it to even come on?

 

[Spurlington]

Yes bedrooms cheap thin poly carpet - no protector (good reason to dry faster)

Fam rm carpet thicker nylon more dense with added protector (shouldn't take 3 days to dry)

Fam rm heavy soiling - more prespray and more cloud of steam from extra cleaning filling the air with humidity

Not sure how the hvac system works with a humidifying system - sounds logical that it wouldn't emit humidity if it senses too much already - so I'm stumped

She could have exaggerated the 3 days

I cleaned the same type of heavily soiled carpet the other day along with a protective coating and she said she woke up to dry carpet. Which I finished cleaning around noon the day before.

I'm stumped again as to why it took too long on the first visit with the exact same carpet, same soiling and same process - and empty rooms

 

[GeneMiller]

My guess is people exaggerate. I had a lady tell me the spots had returned from the last time I cleaned it. When I asked how long she said just a few months. I checked my records and it had been over a year.

Gene.