To add to Ron's quick chem lesson. Alot of manufacturers carry didn't rinse products that you can add to your rinse water to "condition" the water. Some presprays and traffic lane cleaners work best when used with its companion rinse product. Alot of residential prepray, rinse combos are going to be an alkaline prespray and either an acid or neutral rinse.
For example:
Prochem Ultrapac and All fiber Acid Rinse. Judson O2 prespray and neutral O2 rinse.
When you get into heavily soiled areas, were the prespray alone may not remove all of the soil, then you can add a rinse detergent. This often happens in restaurants and heavy greasey areas to help emulsify the oils.
pH becomes important for the carpet for a couple of reasons: First most soils, not all, but most are often acidic in nature. So we use alkalinity in the form of our presprays and detergents to seperate and suspend the oily molecules and crud away from the carpet fibers to be rinsed away. Alot of Nylon carpets, almost all wool carpets and some polyester carpets go through a dye bath to get their color. This dye is acid based and fills in microscopic holes in the fiber often called dye sites. In most of your cleaning of synthetic carpets, you will very rarely find a carpet that will beed color but wools and some nylons when they are cleaned repeatedly (or sometimes once in wools case) with high alkalinity, you can open up the dyes sites and the fibers will release color.
depending on the chemical make up of the dye used, some dyes will change colors when they subjected to the wrong pH.. usually high alkalinity. This is why alot of peopl will use rinse agents to keep the pH of the rinse water towards the neutral to acid side. Especielly on Wool. Also natural fibers that are prone to browning, when treated with acid rinse will often prevent the browning. Same with carpets with Jute/woven backings. However, there are alot of detergents that can be used in your cleaning water that will not cause a huge shift in pH and will not leave a residue behind.
Popular ones include: Prochem Dry slurry,
Chemspec formula 90, Masterblend Soapfree, or Masterblend RAGE for wool. And the O2 rinse has emulsifiers and surfactants that help clean as well. As was stated above, pH alone does not usually contribute to resoil or wicking. But using high pH products that have heavy residue if not rinsed all the way out can leave a pH shift when tested. To clarify: Wicking is when the soil/foreign matter is not completely removed from carpet and follows the moisture up the fibers as the carpet drys to reappear. Resoil is when a residue has been left behind to attract soil quicker thus making the carpet look dirtier faster.
Feel free to ask as many questions as need. Knowledge is a valuable asset.
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