Scott hit the target with his response. I was trying to explain to someone from our parent company whose background lies soley in the "jan-san" market a question about presprays the other day. He was asking me why
HydraMaster/Cleanmaster had 8 different presprays (along with our major competitors having almost as many or more), when a typical "jan-san" line of carpet cleaning products had one, or two at the most.
Professional carpet cleaners are asked to deep clean and restore carpets from a wide variety of installation environments exposed to a whole bunch of different soiling conditions. Many cleaners today prefer to use an ultra-concentrated "do-all" product like FastBreak HD. They are effective on even heavily soiled carpets, yet safe enough for residential nylon and commercial wool carpets. Larger companies generally like to have the same solution on every truck so they do the same.
At the other end of the spectrum are folks that like presprays that are more tilted to the specific carpet and soiling situation they are are encountering. They may carry up to 3 to 4 different presorays on their truck. Some like high ph powders with enzyme addtives for really dirty restaurants like SoilBreak. Some prefer to use high powered powders that don't need longer dwell time like enzyme presprays do. Blitz with GreaseBreaker is a new product we introduced which we see a lot of folks switching from enzyme presprays to. Then there are the traditional high Ph liquid favorites (several have been mentioned here) like Quake. Most companies manufacturer presprays with specialized surfactants to penetrate water repelling olefin carpets like PolyBreak. We just introduced a Peroxide powered, green prespray called Release with OxyBreak.
Being new to the business, asking folks here what they use is a great start. Be thinking about whether you would prefer to find one product you really love and use it almost all the time, or whether you like the idea of matching the very best chemistry to the carpet and soiling condition you are encountering. You may go from a job with a residential carpet that is hardly used at all that is cleaned on a regular basis, to a totally trashed apartment, to a shop carpet with lots of motor oil, to a restaurant with lots of food based grease all in the same day. There is no absolute right or wrong here - just find what works the best for you, makes you faster, contributes to faster drying (because you have to take less "wet" strokes), and helps the carpet stay cleaner longer. You may choose one or you may choose two or three.
