Need OP help

[diamond brian]

We're 99% HWE, so I know very little about OP. Tried OP for a couple of exercise rooms with very thin glue-down carpet, and ended up with two distinct shades of swirls. I'm guessing it's the direction that the fibers are laying due to the rotation of the bonnet. But, there's so little fiber to work with, a post-vac may not do the trick..

This is probably pretty simple stuff for those who do it often--I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Must be a super short cut pile?

I only use my shake'n shine machine on loop pile and have never seen any "swirls"

where's Chad at?
He helped me a LOT in the beginning

did you use cotton or synthetic pads?

..L.T.A.

 

[diamond brian]

Thanks meAT. Maybe swirls isn't right--just alternating rows approximately 1/2 a cleaning path high--light, dark, light, dark... Also, I used a 20" floor machine with the white/astro-turf bonnets. Not exactly OP for the purists out there.

 

[harryhides]

Brian, using a Rotary with a Bonnet is NOT the same as OP cleaning even though the chemistry is the same. Only other reason for the swirl marks is that you're not changing Pads often enough or the carpet is just too dirty.

 

[hogjowl]

Harry's right. It's not the same.

It's much slower.

 

[diamond brian]

Well, I haven't had great luck (or skill) with the encapping, so I'm hesitant to buy an OP machine. Some of the boards have before and after pics of tremendous results attained with encapsulation though, so I try again from time to time.

As for achieving the magical orbit one gets with an OP machine, I just make sure the bonnet's not exactly centered on the driver. Good 'ol redneck ingenuity.

 

[Dolly Llama]

"Only other reason for the swirl marks is that you're not changing Pads often enough or the carpet is just too dirty."

or you're not over lapping enough when swinging side to side and moving forward
Best way we've found to avoid that is by using small circular/oval scrubbing movements instead of swinging the rotary side to side.

If you've ever seen a Spirograph ( a kids dooddle toy), you'd know the concentric circular motion I'm talking about


..L.T.A.

 

[Greenie]

For crying out loud, would you remove OP from this post title, you need some "bonnet" advice, not OP.

And to make my post somewhat productive, follow Meat's circular swirl advice, I would describe it as making lowercase cursive eeeees.

and it's not encap cleaning it's absorbent pad cleaning, encap is scrub and run, you are focused on hiding the soil not picking it up and swapping out pads.

 

[Mikey P]

I'm with Greenie, why call it OP if it you're using a 175?

 

[GRHeacock]

Apparently you are not operating the machine correctly. It is NOT a "Swing machine" and should not be used with a side to side motion.

From my manual-

How to operate the roto for best results. Hold the machine firmly, and turn the motor on. Quickly find the neutral point where the machine is not moving, just turning the bonnet. Instead of lowering and raising the handle, making the machine go to the left or right, keep the handle level at the neutral point, and push it, then pull it, so the machine describes an oval. With a little practice, you can totally control the machine's movements without it getting away from you.

As you make the oval motion with the machine, overlap at least 1/3 of the prior oval. Making the next row of ovals, overlap at least 1/3 of the prior row.

Make a row to the left or right, go back over the same area in the opposite direction. This gets all sides of all the fibers for the best cleaning effort.

If you raise then lower the handle, and make wide horizontal passes, the effect is on the carpet making a heel and toe pass, and the center of the pass is not cleaned the same as the edges. This also is much harder to groom out, and when dry, in some cases there are clean then dirty streaks, which are much harder to remove in the future.

With the oval motion, the entire area to be cleaned is the same on all sides of all tufts, nothing is missed.

9. After doing about 100 sq, ft, remove the bonnet and look at the down side for dirt. If dirty, turn it over, if not, keep going. About 100 sq. ft for the second side. Then the second bonnet to finish up.

10 When done with the job, launder the bonnets in your washing machine, but not in the dryer- just let drip dry, hang on a line, etc to dry.


E-mail me if you want more info.

Gary

 

[Neil]

I run a rotary on just about every job, here is my advice-

Make sure you are using enough prespray, it acts as a cleaner and a lubricant to spin the bonnet. I clean horizontally, but I make half passes. I make a pass, then on the next pass I go over half of the last pass, this lops the pile over on cut pile and uses the same concept on loop pile, which prevents it from all being pushed in one direction. I always rake cut pile, and sometimes loop. I believe you can control the machine by raising and lowering as long as you are moving at a reasonable pace. If you raise and lower it too much then you will be swinging the machine and not slowly moving it. I agree with everything else GRHeacock posted.

 

[diamond brian]

Greenie, Mike: OP, bonneting, low-moisture, and Scrub 'N Run are all the same to those of us who built our businesses with HWE. I'm attempting to find some merit in one or another of these methods before scrapping the idea altogether.

There was a time that I held in contempt those who cleaned carpet this way. I'm more open-minded now--so give me a break with the semantics!

 

[Dolly Llama]

Brian, don't give up VLM cleaning.
It's just a matter of knowing when and where it's useful.

The best way to gain that confidence is to do side by side evaluations and judge for yourself.

I did it like this;

On com jobs that we had the place to ourselves, we'd roto scrub and extract, pre-spray and extract, bonnet clean or scrub'n run.
After dry, I'd inspect.
Do that a few times on varying soil conditions and you'll get to learn when bonnet or scrub'n run can give acceptable results.


..L.T.A.

 

[GRHeacock]

No system is perfect.

They all have benefits and drawbacks.

As someone who has used all the systems over some 40 years, I say each system is best under certain circumstances.

ALL of the systems can "Deep clean" that is-from the top of the tufts to the bottom of the tufts on light to moderate soiling.

No system just cleans the top- "Surface cleaning"

All ya gotta do, if you doubt me is take a look after cleaning with ANY system.

Check the sides of the tufts and have a look at the backing.

On very severely soiled carpets, in order to remove the maximum amount of soils, more than one system is needed for best results.

The reason is- different mechanical agitation, and different chemistry.

Gary