[John Gregory]

Hi all 

I've messing about with a piece of 100% wool tufted carpet . I've sprayed blitz on it soaked it in ultra pac , diluted at 60ml to a litre and I can't see any visable signs of damage Is it a complete myth that we need to use woolsafe products
Bearing in mind I'am extracting with truckmount at 300 psi

Thanks John

[markpowell]

I maybe wrong John but i think it is to do with the dried product, i think it leaves it soft and cuts out the risk of browning problems.
mark

[Mike Osbourne]

It only goes to mush on paying customers very expensive carpets.

[Deep Clean Newcastle Gateshead]

Good Point John
I usually stay in a PH safe range if I can, but used some really harsh stuff on pub carpets which are wool, and went back to one 8 months ago, for a pint, and the carpets still looked great?
Been told its browning is usually on cream carpets but that browning prescription can get rid of it. Also used High PH on a trashed 80/20 wool with great results no browning!
Look forward to hearing feedback from all
Aidan

[markpowell]

Browning is a problem normally caused by overwetting on woven carpets with jute backings.
Can be caused also by using solutions with a too high PH, it has never happened to me i have cleaned many wool carpets in restaurants and pubs that were absolutely trashed and i have used Powerburst and Doubleclean and got amazing results with no problems. Saying that i wouldnt fancy using same method on a customers Brinton
Sometimes to get a result you have to go out of "the woolsafe" range of solutions.
Mark

[Deep Clean Newcastle Gateshead]

yip same here Mark used Powerburst and Doubleclean on the pubs with out problems

[markpowell]

I have tried all different solutions on this type of heavily soiled commercial work and these two products used together with heat have never let me down, i dont think that Powerburst gets the credit ot deserves on these forums.
Mark

[Dave_Lee]

Sir Ken is the one with the more eloquent answer on this, but the thing is, you dont see the damage straight away, or even on drying. The wool fibres will have been damaged to a certain extent by the high alkalinity, even if finished off with an acid or neutralising rinse. The amount of damage will obviously vary. This damage will in a reasonably short time will lead to a breaking down of the fibre and this may be noticable as wear on your next visit or the visit after. Our problem is, what do you do when faced with a filthy ingrained wool or wool mix carpet. Using woolsafe products on lightly soiled, well looked after carpets, is perhaps the ethical thing to do, but when faced with minger, we have to revert to stronger solutions, simply to get the desired appearance, allbeit at the cost of damaged wool fibre. Either that or it remains in an unnaceptable condition.
Dave

[Ken Wainwright]

Typically, about 0.4% of the lanolin from sheeps wool remains in a wool carpet fibre. This plays an important part in keeping the wool fibre soft to the hand and resilient, but still allows an efficient penetration of dye. It also offers a small degree of spill resistance.

Elevated pH can remove this lanolin instantly. Even a highly buffered but lower pH can cause the same damage.  An acid rinse will not correct this damage, merely neutralise the alkaline residues.

The dye in wool carpets is typically pH4 but can be as low as pH2.5.  I'll take a simplistic view of a carpet dye of pH 4. Clean with a pre-spray of pH10 and you might on completion have brought the dye upto pH5. Next time you clean it'll end up at pH6 and so on until one day it will bleed. As I said, this is a symplistic view and doesn't paint the whole, more complex picture. But you'll get my drift.

Even the most heavily soiled carpets can be cleaned effectively with Woolsafe products. The problem is that it could take several cleaning cycles to achieve the desired result, which in turn could lead to overwetting. For this reason, Woolsafe training suggests that cleaning with products outside the Woolsafe Approved spectrum could be the most viable solution. Naturally do all your tests first and discuss it with your customer before proceeding. It's THEIR fault for allowing the carpet to become trashed. So THEY must make the decision to take the responsibility for THEIR OWN inaction in the past. It's NOT YOUR problem that they couldn't be bothered or able to afford it sooner.

I personally feel that it is foolish to clean light to moderately soiled wool carpets with the more aggressive cleaning solutions available to us.

SAFE and happy cleaning
Ken

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

This is a classic case of where judgement comes in, we should always clean on the basis of using the least aggressive chemicals which will give a decent job.

However other issues such as time / price come into play and make that judgement more difficult.

Cheers

Doug

[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

Totally agree with Ken's comments, the wool cuticle magnified is covered with a waxy layers making the sheep's coat waterproof. High alkalinities will strip this.

Qualify with customer you have safely gone so far without risk.

Realistically most will opt for a clean carpet no matter what, but you have qualified the consequences.

paul