Hello again members I curently use the ashbys enforcer 400psi model last week we had a call back of a customer saying her carpet in bedroom was smelling so went back redone it now has gone ect. I always tell me customers to leave the windows open ect. I'm looking for other ways to stop this happening again I'm just on with buying 2 blowers ect my carpets are always slightly slightly damp any other advice
Hi Paul,
First of all, it's great that you have recognised that you have a problem and are seeking to prevent it happening again. There is a good possibility that this isn't the first time you've had this problem but this is the first time you've been told about it by a customer. Other people don't complain, they just resolve not to use you again and the possibility of that being the case should concern you a lot.
The only time you hear about these problems is when a customer says, ' last time I had my carpet cleaned it was wet for ages and smelled.' That is either because they did it themselves with a rug doctor, or someone else did it and didn't know what they were doing.
You have almost certainly over wet the carpet as it should be dry in a few hours irrespective of what machine you are using. For it not to be and it have started to smell suggests that was not the case. Ambient room temperatures should easily deal with the amount of moisture in a carpet post cleaning, so atmospherics can only play a part if there was too much moisture for it alone to deal with, or the room was too cold, which prevents the evaporation process that dries the carpet taking place.
So to resolve this you need to look at your entire process.
How much pre-spray are you applying and how long are you leaving it on the carpet before extracting it.
If you are applying a lot and leaving it to dwell for too long then gravity will take effect and it will sink right through the carpet to the underlay, which isn't good because all of that moisture is then beyond the reach of your machine. Any good chemical will work within a few minutes, especially if you agitate it with a brush.
What pressure is your solution?
You said 200psi, you could try 175 to reduce the amount of water you are applying to the carpet. Also put a set amount of water in your tank so you can monitor how much you have used.
How many cleaning passes are you making?
If you're using an ineffective prespray and have to make multiple passes to get a result, that will add massively to the amount of water you are putting down.
How many drying strokes are you making and what technique do you use?
I've seen people making lots of fast drying passes thinking that that extracts more moisture, when in fact much slower passes achieve that much better with the wand completely sealed to the carpet so that you hear the machine labouring more, which focuses all of the suction power to the carpet.
You keep repeating that the carpet was only , 'slightly slightly damp.'
Why not clean some of your own carpets and work on the above so that you get drying times of just a couple of hours and monitor dampness levels as you change things.
Some of those little Dripod fans from restormate will certainly help with the drying process, but you can't use them to mask your problem
I've got a competitor who has the exact same problem, he charges very high charges but has a huge issue with drying times, only he doesn't know it, because like I said, most people won't complain. We have had four customers off him in the last month, all saying the same thing, 'it was wet for ages and didn't look that clean when it finally dried.' It seems you might have the same problem, but at least you now know about it and have had the balls to so publicly speak of it in an effort to resolve it, which is massively to your credit.
Simon