These kind of cleaners drive me crazy!!!

CanadianRuss

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I was at a customers home today to clean 3 chairs. She asked if I could take a look at the sofa cushions. When I asked what had happened she told me they were cleaned by another cleaner in town. Not once by she had him return 3 times to correct this problem. He must of soaked these. Wow amazing that we have these guys floating around out there. Well this particular cleaner went belly up last year. Go figure. @Jim Pemberton I know your going to chime in here. Rant over.

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GeneMiller

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Doesn't look like flame retardant, looks like it was left to wet. Looks like Herculean to me. Regular prespray with some peroxide should fix it. You could acid rinse for good measure.
 
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Just flip the cushion... We actually get the calls to correct other cleaner's problems... Some cleaners just don't care.....
 
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Rick J

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Could be that there was some really large spill that is still down in the foam. Any amount of moisture will let it wick up. ?
 

Spurlington

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Im thinking he may have poured an odor treatment or something .. certainly looks like a wicking dry pattern !! Id try spray n brush then towel off at this point !!
 

steve_64

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Open the cushion and look at the foam. It may need to be soaked and dried a few times in some type of urine treatment.

I misunderstood a lady once. I thought she said tea but it was really pee.
 

ruff

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Always easier for us to see others faults. Yes, there are some mediocre cleaners. However, unless you were there originally, you have no way of knowing.

and...Lee is right.
Should have been easy, however something may have happened we don't know about.

Oh.....and as Marty's favorite guru said: Let the cleaner that this never happened to, throw the first stone.
 

Jim Pemberton

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I've embarrassed myself too many times in my life when I thought the previous cleaner was an idiot. Usually the result was that two "idiots" ended up working on the piece when I was finished....:eekk:

Did the spot never come out, or did it reappear after each cleaning? I have seen wicking occur on synthetic fiber furniture fabrics just like we see it on carpet. The above comments about checking the cushion foam are spot on.

I wouldn't hazard a guess without asking that question first.
 

CanadianRuss

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image.jpeg
image.jpeg


This is the before and the after is a week later. ( I returned the customers area rugs) The spot was a water stain from over wetting. I used an upholstery Prespray with a sodium percarbinate booster. Air movers setup for drying. Before I left I misted esteam 2 part vanish. I'm pretty happy with the results.
 

Cleanworks

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You might be pulling out the big guns before you have to. Rather than sodium percarbinate and hydrogen peroxide, (both of which are bleaching agents) you might try esteam browning treatment, spray it on coarsely and use a soft brush to agitate. Rinse with a neutral to slightly acidic detergent and light spray again with the browning treatment. This appears to be cellulosic browning which the browning treatment was designed for.
 
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CanadianRuss

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You might be pulling out the big guns before you have to. Rather than sodium percarbinate and hydrogen peroxide, (both of which are bleaching agents) you might try esteam browning treatment, spray it on coarsely and use a soft brush to agitate. Rinse with a neutral to slightly acidic detergent and light spray again with the browning treatment. This appears to be cellulosic browning which the browning treatment was designed for.
I understand the browning treatment. I have to admit, I've never really had great results. But I will give that a try in the future. Thanks for the tip
 

ruff

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First it is important to determine if it is browning or just a ring from soiling. No need to bring the heavy guns if not needed.
And many times, depending on nature of saturation, it is not really necessary (check underside of fabric and cushion.). At times a good rinse, toweling and fast drying will do just fine.

While true- percarbonate is an oxidizing agent, most browning treatment contain sodium metabisulfite (including Esteam's). It is a reducing agent, which if applied strongly and or just to a specific area can still cause a color difference and or lighten the fabric's color.

Also curious- Why the light rinse with an acid rinse? The product is already acidic.
The last misting while giving the reducing agent more time to do the job (residual, will work till it dries), will also increase the risk mentioned.
Any use of a product containing bisulfite better be brought to the client's attention (and approval) as it can trigger asthma attack to asthmatics.
 
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Cleanworks

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The liquid doesn't contain bisulfites to my knowledge, it's glacial acetic acid. Rinse with a neutral to slightly acidic solution to remove dissolved cellulose that may be present with out making the problem worse. If you use a alkiline solution, you will dissolve more cellulose. Final light misting because it takes time to work. I had a silk headboard from a yacht that was damaged by salt water. This exactly the same process I used for that. With silk, make sure you wet out the entire panel at the same time
 
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ruff

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Go to their site and check. I did and it does.

As far as I know alkaline does not dissolve more cellulose, it does not counteract the released brown dye.

Cellulosic browning in this case may have come from jute (not likely in this fabric) rayon (usually will not release a brown dye, unless a very alkaline solution was used in which case there's likely to be damage to fabric) or seeds of cotton (non refined cotton) that release the brown dye. Acid and bisulfite (acid boosts bisulfite) will counteract that and jute browning.

Doing the entire panel will help in avoiding rings. Still carry the risk of that panel being lighter or slightly different in color. Misting with it afterwards will increase the chance of that happening.

What works well with carpets that are much hardier and either acid or solution dyed, carries more risk with upholstered fabrics.

Sodium bisulfite or many sulfites, can still trigger an asthma attacks.
 
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Cleanworks

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The sodium meta bisulfite in liquid browning treatments is not in the same class as the bisulfites that you find in products as chemspec rx for browning, which we use for fringe whitening. It is very unlikely to cause color loss even with heavy applications as compared to products such as vanish, eliminate, stain magic etc.
 
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ruff

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Still a reducing agent that may lighten colors.
Still acid boosted.
Sill from the sulfite family and potentially triggering a reaction.

Responses

Pete Andrews hero.gif, Mar 11, 2002; 10:31 a.m.
They're actually different chemicals. Sodium bisulphite is NaHSO3, and Sodium metabisulphite is Na2S2O5. Both are available in powder form, and incidentally have the foodstuff additive numbers of E222, and E223 respectively.<br>However, as soon as you dissolve Sodium metabisulphite in water it becomes Sodium bisulphite. The addition product of Na2S2O5 + H2O is 2(NaHSO3).<br>As you may see, there's a difference in the molecular weights of the bisulphite and metabisulphite. Anhydrous Sodium metabisulphite has a molecular weight of 190 to the bisulphite's 104, but the metabisulphite will form two molecules of bisulphite with the addition of one molecule of water. Therefore 19 gms of anhydrous metabisulphite is equivalent to 20.8 gms of pure bisulphite.<br>Since pure Sodium bisulphite is almost impossible to obtain, it's easier and cheaper to substitute 91.3% of the weight of bisulphite with metabisulphite.
 
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ruff

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Hopefully, a conscientious carpet cleaner.

That tries to use the right tools in his arsenal for the right circumstances while understanding risk.

And that secretly wants to buy less of his clients' former possessions :winky:
So far successfully.
Touch cloth.

And help some cleaners, hopefully avoid potential mistakes. And be corrected if I am wrong, as I've learned much from people here.
 
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Jim Pemberton

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A few thoughts regarding my own experience with sodium bisulfite, some of which go back to ancient history in the dry cleaning industry, but also through my years in this business:

When bought as a liquid, such as in many browning treatments and coffee stain removers, as well as part of a Haitian Cotton Cleaning formulation, the stuff is pretty mild. I've seen it cause some color problems when used repeatedly by cleaners who expect it to work in an instant, especially on some of the crazy old Haitian Cottons that had dyed bands or plaid designs on them.

But for the most part, color changes caused by sodium bisulfite that I've seen (and caused!) were from mixing the powdered product in hot water, and using it too strong, or applying it repeatedly when they (or I) lost patience.

So it can happen, though rarely.

The stronger stuff used for rug fringes can be brutal, as Ron mentioned
 

Cleanworks

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Hopefully, a conscientious carpet cleaner.

That tries to use the right tools in his arsenal for the right circumstances while understanding risk.

And that secretly wants to buy less of his clients' former possessions :winky:
So far successfully.
Touch cloth.

And help some cleaners, hopefully avoid potential mistakes. And be corrected if I am wrong, as I've learned much from people here.
I'm not trying to insult you here, just trying help a carpet cleaner maybe use a less dangerous product as a first step. I have had great success with both chemspec and esteam liquid browning treatments on water damaged carpets and Upholstery. Like Jim says it does not work instantly. I have never seen color loss (i'm sure it's possible) worst I have seen if overused, it leaves a powdery residue. Don't let your customers sniff the bottle.
 

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