Ken Harris and his Quick Dry Idea

[TConway]

Okay I want to say that most of you know Ken and this is no way to bash him but just a view of his idea.
Today I had a job that needed to be cleaned and dried as soon as possible. The carpet was a nylon fiber and was NOT very soiled so I started with a quick lay down of ps and started my cleaning I did the 3 upstairs rooms and landing. As soon as I was done with each room I opened window placed fan at each room as I finished, did the stairs. Vacuumed living room laid down ps and went to check how the carpet was drying the first bedroom was pretty close,close enough to pull the fan and bring it down stairs to start the drying process.
This is where it starts when I was done I had already placed the fan when I started my rinse but the carpet was still a ways away, I remembered Ken talking about his process of using the blower like a blow dryer to help dry the carpet so I why not give it a try so I ran some odo ban (my cheap deo) down the hose after sucking some clean water to help rinse the inside of the hose, ( You would really need a true dryer hose to be used if this were to work)
On my TM I have my tank to blower set up for fast disconnect with 2.5 cuffs my blower is 2.5 x 2.5 intake/exhaust so I took them apart so my blower could pull fresh dry air.Hooked/slipped my starter 2.5 hose female over my blower exhaust set temp to high to keep my motor exhaust from being diverted out with blower exhaust so ONLY FRESH air could be blown back into house.
DOES IT WORK????
I would have to say YES it does the amount of air coming out of my wand (EVO 16) was enough to almost make it float I had to hold it down to the carpet like a air hockey table. It did seem to dry the carpet very well.....
BUT you have no idea how much shiznit is in a wand till you reverse the air flow HOLY CRAP I now know how to clean out a wand!!!!
Also the amount air was enough to blow deep embedded sand and hair out of the carpet with enough force that I could feel it hitting my legs. very noticeable in higher traffic areas and by the front door. This is the crazy thing I did 2 TWO passes over the carpet and not real fast as I was wanting it to dry but what I noticed was as it was drying it was making the room VERY dusty no joke there was hair and lint shiznit that blew out of the carpet and stuck to the walls,so much came out of the carpet that I did a dry vac pass to suck up all the loose sand and ?? what ever else came out of the carpet.
Now some of this may have been prevented with a good prevac but it had already bee done by the cleaners before I got there so I didn't prevac.
Ken's idea may have some merit and I can see his idea working but it would really need some way of keeping the dust down because as you dry the carpet the pet dander and just plain fine particulate really start to become airborne and No customer would be happy with that.
The best way I can explain it is like the videos of the guys using air to blast dirt out of rugs on the net if you have seen them you know what I'm talking about they are covered in a cloud of dust and by no means was it even close to that it still made a lot more dust than I would have thought would be possible. It was a lot of air blowing and it may have just stirred up the air in the room IDK.
Just thought I would share my boring day cleaning this was the last job of the day so I thought I would play a little and experiment a bit. I can say it really did dry the carpet though.

 

[Zee]

Okay I want to say that most of you know Ken and this is no way to bash him but just a view of his idea.
Today I had a job that needed to be cleaned and dried as soon as possible. The carpet was a nylon fiber and was NOT very soiled so I started with a quick lay down of ps and started my cleaning I did the 3 upstairs rooms and landing. As soon as I was done with each room I opened window placed fan at each room as I finished, did the stairs. Vacuumed living room laid down ps and went to check how the carpet was drying the first bedroom was pretty close,close enough to pull the fan and bring it down stairs to start the drying process.
This is where it starts when I was done I had already placed the fan when I started my rinse but the carpet was still a ways away, I remembered Ken talking about his process of using the blower like a blow dryer to help dry the carpet so I why not give it a try so I ran some odo ban (my cheap deo) down the hose after sucking some clean water to help rinse the inside of the hose, ( You would really need a true dryer hose to be used if this were to work)
On my TM I have my tank to blower set up for fast disconnect with 2.5 cuffs my blower is 2.5 x 2.5 intake/exhaust so I took them apart so my blower could pull fresh dry air.Hooked/slipped my starter 2.5 hose female over my blower exhaust set temp to high to keep my motor exhaust from being diverted out with blower exhaust so ONLY FRESH air could be blown back into house.
DOES IT WORK????
I would have to say YES it does the amount of air coming out of my wand (EVO 16) was enough to almost make it float I had to hold it down to the carpet like a air hockey table. It did seem to dry the carpet very well.....
BUT you have no idea how much shiznit is in a wand till you reverse the air flow HOLY CRAP I now know how to clean out a wand!!!!
Also the amount air was enough to blow deep embedded sand and hair out of the carpet with enough force that I could feel it hitting my legs. very noticeable in higher traffic areas and by the front door. This is the crazy thing I did 2 TWO passes over the carpet and not real fast as I was wanting it to dry but what I noticed was as it was drying it was making the room VERY dusty no joke there was hair and lint shiznit that blew out of the carpet and stuck to the walls,so much came out of the carpet that I did a dry vac pass to suck up all the loose sand and ?? what ever else came out of the carpet.
Now some of this may have been prevented with a good prevac but it had already bee done by the cleaners before I got there so I didn't prevac.
Ken's idea may have some merit and I can see his idea working but it would really need some way of keeping the dust down because as you dry the carpet the pet dander and just plain fine particulate really start to become airborne and No customer would be happy with that.
The best way I can explain it is like the videos of the guys using air to blast dirt out of rugs on the net if you have seen them you know what I'm talking about they are covered in a cloud of dust and by no means was it even close to that it still made a lot more dust than I would have thought would be possible. It was a lot of air blowing and it may have just stirred up the air in the room IDK.
Just thought I would share my boring day cleaning this was the last job of the day so I thought I would play a little and experiment a bit. I can say it really did dry the carpet though.

Does this make you feel like going back to all those jobs you HACKED out without a proper prevac and ask if you could redo them? Just to clear your concious...

I personally never take someone's word for it, that "it was just vacuumed"


I'm certain the drying step works if done right but I'm also certain that no more than 1% of anyone's customers will pay for the additional labor and effort by the carpet cleaners, just to get a carpet dry quicker....since we can already achieve pretty fast drying with proper wand/re technique and airmovers.

 

[dealtimeman]

I think if you want to get better or faster drying results just get a bigger machine with a bigger blower as the technique you are describing has more cons than pros, in my opinion.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree Sir Michael, you have less of a chance of grain depression and more of a chance to elevate the grains in the home. Not to mention the MVOC's that you're adding to the indoor environment.

Great idea that will unfortunately never be possible without a large investment in an air drier (desiccant) and HEPA filtration system (replacement filters will be necessary). Who wants to pay thousands of $ extra for something the client will expect to be a part of your regular cleaning rate.

 

[Zee]

Instead of this ken harris hokuspokus drying method, I'd challenge the manufacturers to come out with some of these great low amp blowers that would have a heating coil integrated. Like a dripod with a heating coil underneath the moving blades. It could be set to only reach a certain temperature and couldn't heat without the blades running. That way no chimp will burn a carpet or wood floor accidentally...

I know its an amp draw issue but could be made possible.

If there is sufficient airmovement in the home, then the forced grains should exit ok.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Good idea Zee but you'd need to generate some serious heat to get the moisture to jump, which will most likely mean 220 or 240.

But also what client really wants to be in that Santa Ana wind environment?

 

[Zee]

Good idea Zee but you'd need to generate some serious heat to get the moisture to jump, which will most likely mean 220 or 240.

But also what client really wants to be in that Santa Ana wind environment?

Ok we don't need that much heat...maybe just a bit of temperature rise at the blower...since blowers dry faster- heated blowers would dry even faster.


btw, I'd rather be in a santa ana wind than have my house filled with the aforementioned mvocs, and dust, hair, dead skin, forced out of the carpet with a wand because it wasn't cleaned properly...AND have me pay more for the carpet cleaner to spend twice as much time in my house.

 

[The Great Oz]

Good for you doing all that work as an experiment. There is some value to blowing heated air through the carpet nap to accelerate drying, just like waving a hair dryer at your head for a few seconds will cut minutes off the time it takes your hair to dry by evaporation alone.

The critics are correct though, there are easier ways to accomplish the faster drying in this circumstance. Given your example of lightly soiled carpet, use a glide so you aren't getting any water past the surface of the carpet anyway, then set an Airpath and the carpet will be completely dry in five minutes.


You've accomplished something terrific though. The blower powered dirt digger will give the obsessive vacuuming guys inferiority issues.

 

[Jim Martin]

unless you use your wernervac and are there all day long...you are still not going to get all that crap that in imbedded down into the carpet.....

But...a good flushing with a rotary...and you will see a huge improvement....

The filter doesn't lie........and with the filters you have...it should be a piece of cake.........

speaking of filters...where is my lid............????

 

[steve_64]

i think all the debris is coming from the hose. you cant flush it all out, and when it dries it becomes airborne.

just a thought.

 

[Larry Cobb]

The heated drying system concept does work, as we demoed 3 years ago.

It used a rotary extractor, clean high-temp vac hoses and had an inlet filter for clean air:

http://mikeysboard.com/forum/showth...ystem-Question&highlight=carpet+drying+system

Larry

 

[Desk Jockey]

How many have you sold Larry?

 

[The Great Oz]

A guy at a tradeshow several years ago had a little Rotovac-looking tool that had two hair dryers blowing through perforated slots in the rotary heads. It was a prototype and he was looking for interest and possibly a manufacturing partner. The downside to his presentation was that he didn't hide using off the shelf hairdryers as the source of hot air, and the choice of purple and white hairdryers probably didn't help either.

Still, a much simpler way to go about speed drying a family room.

 

[TConway]

Guys, I only tried it because I had the time, and I had remembered Ken talking about it, so why not see if it had any truthfulness to it at all. I do place fans to help dry carpet when it needs be done, and really fans do a fine job.
But haven't you ever just wondered about something? So I thought I would give it a shot.
I do believe that a good prevac would have helped some but you will never get all the sand and crap out of the carpet. The air blowing down into carpet really seems to get the trapped debris to come out.
The truth is it does work but is it doable IDK. The drier you get it the MORE debris will be more likely to become airborne. To me this would be the # 1 issue as I do believe a system could be made that could be fairly efficient. Also even a smaller machine would be able to create plenty or air to dry with.
But like I said I was just seeing if there was any truth to this idea is all. I would not want to use it every day that is for sure.

 

[steve frasier]

I would put the carbon monoxide meter in the house just to make sure, to much liability for me

 

[Desk Jockey]

I wouldn't want you testing in my home. If you had a particle counter that thing would have pegged with the environmental bomb you set off in there.

I'd save your testing for your own home, you might stumble upon someone thats sensitive to allergens. Too much liability in this day and age for stunts like that.

 

[Ron Werner]

you might not get ALL the soil and crap out of the carpet with a good prevac, but if done right, you'll get enough that you wouldn't be blowing it all over the house!
I would think that a heater on top of an airpath would be more efficient. And if you needed more directed air, the airpath just needs some shields to drop to the floor so the air doesn't go under the bed and blowing up dust bunnies.

 

[Mardie]

You guys can save yourself a lot of grief in getting carpet to dry faster if you explain and ask the home owner to turn up the thermostat while your air movers are drying the carpet. I have done this on occasion and the home owner seem very helpful and do not mind at all for any thing that has to do with getting their carpets dry faster.

 

[GCCLee]

I thought of doing this to blow the leaves outta the yard : )

 

[Ron Werner]

thats the beauty of the Airpath, turn the heat on in the room and it draws that heat and blasts it across the carpet surface. Just close the door so it warms up.
When everything is running right, not much moisture left to evaporate anyway.