Prespray Residue

[Farenheit251]

Some of the talk a few nights ago about ph after rinse got me to wondering how much we don't rinse out.
Today I tested an arm cover off two expensive white,floral wingback chairs that have tiny brown spots(similar to bleeding seeds on natural cotton). I pretreated with a pungent Green seal peroxide/citrus cleaner 6.5 ph similar to h2orange. Rinsed it thoroughly in the kitchen sink and hung in my dining room to dry. 2 hours later wife comes in and says that thing stinks. Checked and the odor of the chem is very strong. Now I'm thinking if I rinsed it all out shouldn't be anything to smell. Then I'm thinking if I can't rinse a thin fabric under a sink how well am I flushing a plush carpet with my machine. Fortunately this isn't a chem I usually use but it has me wondering how much prespray is left behind.

 

[TimP]

I think the idea is to clean with stuff that rinses easily....evaporates....and leaves residue that isn't sticky so that it vacuums out once dry.

Odor shouldn't be a concern.....you can get an odor on you and wash it off and still smell it. Doesn't mean it's leaving a sticky soil attracting residue.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

I think many cleaners over prespray and underextract. I was one of them, much to my embarrassment.

Because you see the dirt disappear and feel confident in your rinse (acid/soft water/DI etc), its easy not to check and see if you've left too much "stuff" in the carpet.

A guy that presprays too heavily and rinses inadequately can easily leave more residue than the guys who run a detergent through their unit, but run it at the proper level.

Check some jobs that you clean on a regular basis, and do a residue test. You might be surprised.

I was.

 

[Farenheit251]

Any suggestions on residue testing? I do alot of vacants where I have access to go back. I've checkked the feel of the fiber with my hand for stiff or sticky.
I have been experimenting with a pump up getting good results with little spray but I hate using it.

 

[Greenie]

This would be a good test area for RO water, I'm pretty sure you would see an RO/DI rinse that prespray faster, and more thoroughly, rinse agent, or not.

 

[DRScrivner]

Any suggestions on residue testing? I do alot of vacants where I have access to go back. I've checkked the feel of the fiber with my hand for stiff or sticky.
I have been experimenting with a pump up getting good results with little spray but I hate using it.

I would simply poor a small cup full of warm water on the dried carpet and then rub somewhat vigorously with my fingers and see if it foams up or not. That and of course just a dry feel for some stickiness first.

 

[Guest]

If you spot and pretreat properly you should be rinsing with clean water Period. Washing clothes has many similiar aspects!!

 

[Rex Tyus]

If you spot and pretreat properly you should be rinsing with clean water Period. Washing clothes has many similiar aspects!!

Washing clothes doesn't even vaguely resemble cleaning carpet. Submersion cleaning rugs would be more simular but even that is a stretch.

 

[Willy P]

Take a car mat, spray it down and rinse it with a garden hose. You will be amazed how long and how much water it takes to rinse it out.

 

[Jim Martin]

Some of the talk a few nights ago about ph after rinse got me to wondering how much we don't rinse out.
Today I tested an arm cover off two expensive white,floral wingback chairs that have tiny brown spots(similar to bleeding seeds on natural cotton). I pretreated with a pungent Green seal peroxide/citrus cleaner 6.5 ph similar to h2orange. Rinsed it thoroughly in the kitchen sink and hung in my dining room to dry. 2 hours later wife comes in and says that thing stinks. Checked and the odor of the chem is very strong. Now I'm thinking if I rinsed it all out shouldn't be anything to smell. Then I'm thinking if I can't rinse a thin fabric under a sink how well am I flushing a plush carpet with my machine. Fortunately this isn't a chem I usually use but it has me wondering how much prespray is left behind.

there is a lot of different factors in this... did you use hot water or cold water and if you are holding that cloth under the sink and rinsing it out ..then you did not do a very good job...did you rub it together..agitate it ..even a washing machine agitates and spins as much water out on a rinse cycle....if it just filled with water and dumped then we would all be walking around scratching ourselves smelling like Tide

you can get the same effect on a carpet when a cleaner over wets and under extracts...

or to put it another way.......over rinses and under extracts....Its a balance....it don't matter what you put down..its all in how you remove it....and if you are running a 45 blower and using 18 flow...you are not going to remove everything you put down.....

 

[Chris A]

If you spot and pretreat properly you should be rinsing with clean water Period. Washing clothes has many similiar aspects!!

Oh for Christ's sake....and our businesses should all emulate McDonalds. :roll:

 

[hogjowl]

I don't have a bone in this fight, and since you're all a bunch of nimrods, I can't listen to anything you say either.

Rinsing with a neutral rinsing agent makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[Jimmy L]

Thas why I use half the dilution ratios for my emulsifier and prespray.
Spend more time rinsing and drying with the wand.

Buy high quality emulsifiers that leave residue that can be vacuumed out after it dries.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Any suggestions on residue testing? .

best if it's a place you clean regularly and often.
try difference juices in different sections of same area

To expand on what JimP mentioned.
I discovered by accident on a low loop olie just how little of the fiber is actually cleaned.

The lady had a big gob of Silly Putty get tramped into her carpet.
I used citrus gel and scraper to get the bulk off the top.
Then ran the wand over it to flush/rinse.. It "looked" like it was gone.
When I parted the loops to look, there was still a TON of Silly Putty still there :shock:

I eventually used an enclosed floodjet hand tool to scrub 'n flush the gunk

I know silly putty and pre-spray aren't the same, but the SP below the surface was softened from the gel and mega heat and it still took a ton of concentrated hand tool flushing to remove it 100%.

I'm sure we're leaving mucho pre-spray in the carpet.
'least the dudes that use fire hose quantities on some type of carpets are


..L.T.A.

 

[DavidVB]

This is a question I don't think we ask ourselves often enough. I was taught by the Steamway people to prespray at about 6 - 800 sq.ft per gallon and then rinse with a rinse surfactant.

I dried Ultrapac in a petri dish a few years ago. It was a sticky mess that didn't dry for weeks. Then I dried Dry Slurry and it was a dry crisp residue. Unless we're cleaning olefin, even synthetic fiber is absorbent. First thing in is last thing out. How can we expect to rinse out whatever prespray was absorbed into the fiber?

For this reason, I only use prespray that dries down to a friable residue. I also think this may explain why many who use VLM cleaning with encap products claim these carpets stay cleaner longer.

 

[Jimmy L]

A rinse surfactant can be either an acid rinse or alkaline product.

 

[Raedan]

Thas why I use half the dilution ratios for my emulsifier and prespray.
Spend more time rinsing and drying with the wand.

Buy high quality emulsifiers that leave residue that can be vacuumed out after it dries.

Right On Jimmy.
That's the first thing my buddy and mentor taught me when I started doing residential.



Joe