WELCOME TO MIKEYS BOARD!! :mrgreen:
Alright I'll take the civil approach.
Here is the error of your thinking..
There are two types of rinse agents designed to be run through your truckmount... detergents and acidic rinses. Detergents "typically" are alkaline side cleaning agents but this can vary as there are some desent neutral and slightly acid side detergents that exist today as well. Also detergent is really a misnomer as well.. as ther are alkalkine rinse agents that do not utilize any detergent agents but rather soap free style properties. (these would include soap free from masterblend, oxygen release from CTI, planet guard rinse by
jon don.. etc.)
In times past, shampoo was king. That is a high sudsing detergent that was intended to lift soils into the lather and then be rinsed away either by dry vacuume or actual squirt and suck extractors.
Then came the truckmount utilizing pressure and temperature. It was thought that using a detergent through the truckmount and having it super heated would make cleaning a one step process. While it works in some cases. It still was difficult to remove all of the soils and anitquated detergents left some pretty nasty residues behind to promote resoiling.
Somewhere in there somebody got the brite idea that using dwell time would help the cleaning process along and thus pre conditioning agents were introduced. This allowed for a strong mixture of cleaning agents to be applied to the carpet, agitated a little and then extracted with straight water or a rinse agent with the truckmounts. While this method was similar to shampoo.. the pre conditioning agnets were low foaming and more easily extracted with truckmount equipment reducing the need for defoamers and making the process more efficient.
Today we have several options available to us. In low soil situations, some times a good encapsulating or non residutal alkaline rinse can be used through the truckmount to effectively clean a carpet. In moderate soiling situations, often a prespray combined with a soft water or acidic rinse agent is adequate to restore the carpet. And in heavier soiling situations sometimes a prespray combined with an alkaline rinse agent is needed to pack the
punch to get the carpet as clean as you can.
There is alot of debate about whether an acidic rinse is always needed to insure the least amount of residue.
In all reality there exists alkaline rinse agents that leave just as little to no residue at all in comparison to some of the acidic rinse agents.
The biggest issue comes down to being able to identify the fiber and understanding if pH correction is needed for stabilization or to undo someone's elses cleaning mistakes.
If that last sentence about pH confuses you, its time to take a class so you can start to correctly identify differnt types of carpet fibers at very least and understand some of the cleaning challenges that surround them.
Edit: I should make mention that this is all assuming the method being used is Hot Water Extraction utilizing Truckmounted Equipment.
Other methods do exist and are still very valid in the right situation.
Iseeru
