new guy looking for product advice

[sarrik]

I see a lotta years of cleaning experience out there, so I'm really glad I found this forum! I spent 3+ years cleaning for a franchisee that only used products that sported the company's name. Went to several IICRC classes taught by Craig Jasper and I quickly caught the fever. Anyways, I'm on my own now, and having a blast!

My question is, what are the most important products on your truck and how do you use them? I've been using primarily ProChem products, but I see y'all talking about many others that I don't know.

Looking forward to picking your brains and reading about your pissing matches for many years to come When I'm not cleaning carpets, that is !gotcha!

 

[Nate The Great]

You'll get many different responses. If I was you, I'd use what your local distributor has in stock. Prochem presprays seem to have a good rep except for there soil filtration remover from what guys have said. I just either Bridge Point products or Chemspec. Being in Hawaii, we have a very limited amount of choices to choose from. We also bring in Chem Max chemicals and some Materblend chems too.

Imho, all chems are good. Finding out what works for you in your area and being easy to get. Follow "TACT" and you'll be fine with most of what you choose. !gotcha!

 

[TimP]

Truth behind cleaning chemicals is most work just fine.

A smart business minded person finds the product that works best for him at the lowest cost ready to use. Not meaning not only the cheapest but it has to work and not make you work extra to get the finished product. Something that works great and costs the least is what I'm getting at.

Prochem makes good chemicals and they are pretty well the industry standard for quality and cleaning ability. However they cost more than some others that work just as well if not better.

I've found Judson O2 prespray to be the best for me in residential use. I prefer a liquid (reasons being easy to mix saving time) and at $40 a gallon and it compares at RTU for ultrapac at 20 a gallon (in other words ultrapac would have to cost 20 a gallon to be at the same RTU cost) and I think it cleans better than ultrapac. Not everyone feels the same way about the product because dirt in carpet varies across the nation. The best thing to do is get a jug of everything you're interested in and give it a go.

A good thing for you to do is research the hundreds of Pre-spray threads on here and compile a list of ones you can get economically and are interested in, and try them on various jobs to figure out what you want to use.

 

[Dolly Llama]

My question is, what are the most important products on your truck and how do you use them?

Besides the guy doing the work??
pre-spray is probably the most important product cause it can make or break any job that's more than light soil conditions .
a few good spotters, after that

as Tim mentioned, most pre-sprays are pretty good when used in sufficient quantities .
Prochem is top shelf stuff with very few dogs in the whole line.

focus most of efficacy of the juice
Resoil issues second
price should be the least concern..... cause a 10 cent steak ain't worth a dime if it isn't edible

The "best" why to evaluate juices is with side by side evaluations on heavy soiled carpets.
Empty apts or rental homes are an excellent proving ground for such evaluations .
Do your own homework there, and you won't have to take anyone's word for what's best for "you" and "your" equipment, soil and technique


..L.T.A.

 

[Jim Nazarian]

What equipment are you using & what do you primarily clean? Are you apartments, commercial etc...?

Besides your pre spray & rinse the next important chems would be your spotting kit, I like Vacaway or CTI's spotting kits

http://vacaway.com/vaSamplePack/ (The sample pack is FREE . . . You just pay the UPS shipping!)
http://www.jondon.com/catalog/product_i ... s_id=14758

 

[TimP]

focus most of efficacy of the juice
Resoil issues second
price should be the least concern..... cause a 10 cent steak ain't worth a dime if it isn't edible




..L.T.A.

I agree with you that cleaning quality should be most important. But price plays more of a concern than you say because most cleaning detergents clean about the same. There are other factors that can be deal breakers like smell. But those should be obvious to the person using them and testing. I can understand those who justify paying more for chemicals because it don't cost much more per job or whatever. But when you look at things as a whole year worth of cleaning you could be putting a good chunk of change in your pocket. By my figures even the smallest operation could save 3-400 a year just buy picking up a different jug and doing the same job in the same time period. Because if you think about it, if you can get 2 steaks that taste and look, weigh, and have the same exact nutritional values and one is 10 bucks and the other is 5 bucks.....which one does the smart business man chose?

Also my example stating what I chose wasn't based solely on price. Judson O2 isn't the cheapest juice RTU on the market by any means. But compared to the industry standard it cleans just as well if not better (that's debatable) but it is quite a bit cheaper. There are much cheaper powders out there. But I don't find wasting time to make sure they mix properly is worth the cost savings.

 

[Ron Werner]

those are some of variables in that steak.
What does the jug cost?
How well does it mix?
At what dillution does it need mixing to be effective? ie cost per use.
How well does it clean?
Does it meet your needs/desires for safety? ie environmental, health, etc
(Ramsey made a product, Premulsion, pH of 7, cleaned fantastic, decent price and cost per use. BUT the stuff made me and my clients choke, the smell would catch in the back of the throat. So all the benefits were nullified by one negative)
How safe is it on the material you're cleaning?

I've gone through some really good products,
Prochems Traffic Lane cleaner- too strong butyls
ZEP Prep - butyls (still carry it for a spotter-very cost effective)
Magic Wands Powdered Power - safe, cleans well, didn't mix too well.

Currently using:
Judsons O2- mixes well, multiple uses - works well on upholstery also, good cost per use, safe
use the Hot Sauce and Orange Punch as boosters and there isn't much it won't clean.
Cleanco Attack for restaurants- strips grease


I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you to vacuum well first shiteatinggrin

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Dont forget about getting a good quality toliet paper, it saved my ass a couple of times. shiteatinggrin

 

[sarrik]

No worries about vacuuming, Ron. I'm a stickler there, though I may not go quite as slowly as you do in your YouTube video !gotcha!

I've been using UltraPac for a pre-spray and rinsing it with Dry Slurry. I've collected a variety of spotters, but usually start with ProChem Pro Spotter if I don't know what the spot is.

Jim, I decided to start out with a nice portable... http://www.edic-usa.com/index.php/produ ... cx-hr.html ...and I've got the external heater... http://www.edic-usa.com/index.php/heat-n-run.html I hope to get into a tm in the spring. So far I'm pretty impressed with the Judson C-4, but I'm most familiar with the HydraMaster cds. Thanks for the link to the free samples.

 

[MicahR]

Eirik,
I'll keep it short and sweet.

Your using Ultrapac....Good that's all you'll need. Make sure your getting the S712. Odor is better and I found the solvents used worked better as well.

Get away from using slurry. Go with Heat Wave. Think of it as slurry's replacement. For your run of the mill residentials go with All Fiber Deep Clean. Not only do you have the benefit of an acid rince but get detergency like slurry and have a built in encap residual that will help with resoiling.

For those nasty restaurants get yourself some powerburst.

Oh, and make sure your prescrubbing with a 175 rpm machine with a carpet brush.

 

[alazo1]

Man, you did'nt ask and everybody's got an opinion...I know.

It doesn't look like you have one but a rotary type of tool (rx, 360) to hook up to your portable would make any prespray much better.

Albert

 

[sarrik]

I'm definitely gonna get a rotary tool soon. Speaking of which, how do you all charge when using it? :?:

 

[TimP]

I don't charge extra for a rotary.

I probably should but I don't like selling. I charge one price and get the carpet clean. I'm happier getting the carpet cleaner so it's self rewarding using the rotary extractor. Not to mention I'm less tired. It just might take a little bit more time.