[john martin]

  Has anyone made a DIY cleaning product thats worked well for them ..

  It would only make sense if you buy the main ingredients in bulk .

  Im thinking of getting 50kg of sodium carbonate from Mistral  as the starting ingredient ,  then perhaps 10kg of  percarbonate to add as desired . And a dash of Alcohol Ethoxylate when its mixed as prespray .
  I also have some fels neptha bars i could grate and add to the powder mix . As i dont think il use them as is .
  Sodium carbonate is about ph 12 ... i have some citric acid powder i could use to lower the PH a tad when necessary and it would help prevent any powder precipitation .

Any other suggestions  ?
 

[dek]

John
I hear on the grape vine Lever are crapping themselves !!

[Derek_Walker]

Chemical costs are such a small part of the actual cleaning process, that unless you weren't happy with any of the major manufacturers products, is it actually worth making your own?

[john martin]

Chemical costs are such a small part of the actual cleaning process, that unless you weren't happy with any of the major manufacturers products, is it actually worth making your own?

Im really not sure , thats why im thinking there is only one way to find out  .
I will keep the branded stuff for high end places but sometimes i like to lay it down thick and heavy and it would be good to think im not wasting it on some places .

And the purity would be high , as in if im reading it right most of these products contain 30% of this 10% of that ... never adds up to 100 anyway so is there bulking agents involved in the branded products .
So high purity and bulk buying may = a low cost product that cleans good .

[john martin]

John
I hear on the grape vine Lever are crapping themselves !!

  and well they should   

  Let the mixing begin 

   

[Robert Watson]

 

[Robert Watson]

That was in a nice way. Good luck.

[Brendan (chem2clean)]

  ;DNICE ONE JOHN......John, any chance i can give you a bell........

[Frank pole]

Go for it John!

Sod carbonate is the base product of most powdered chemicals, what other ingredients have you got there??

[john martin]

Go for it John!

Sod carbonate is the base product of most powdered chemicals, what other ingredients have you got there??

You are looking at 2 x 25kg of sodium carbonate
10kg of Sodium tripolyphosphate
The two 5kg plastic containers are sodium percarbonate
There is 5kg of Sodium xylene sulfonate
250ml of concentrated spearmint fragrance
some fels naptha bars to grate
not in shot ...bags of citric acid  

 I will try a few different mixes ... if i like some mix then i will buy ingredients in larger bulk to reduce price significantly .
Brendan , you could get me at j-martin@live.com  ?

[Carpet Dawg]

remember to deduct all that faffing about to your hourly rate John. 

Would be interesting to know how much you saved though. Even better if your able to make some handy stain removers i,e gels, dye removers etc 

[Kev Loomes]

Hi John

Are the 5ltr containers Sodium Percarbonate? I thought it could only be bought in powder form?

[Steve. Taylor]

Kev it would be powder after 20 minutes it starts to break down after 4-5 hours useless really

[Mike Halliday]

How will you know what percentage of each to use? Is it not like making a cake, you might have all the ingredients but without the cooking instructions you won't get the required results. I think holding the chemicals in a uniformed solution will be a problem,  if each have a different solubility you might get a lot of separation  or settlement. It's an interesting experiment but is it really practical.

Whose carpets will you test each batch on?

[wynne jones]

Wasn't there some guy doing this a few years ago and caused a small explosion? He lost part of a hand and is now partially sighted. Obviously had no insurance for this.

[john martin]

  Yes , the percarbonate is in powder form in the plastic containers , extra protection from moisture i suppose .

These ingredients are the very common ones used in most of the carpet powders including all of the non detergent powders . 
Mike , i dont think mixing ratios are critical as in your baking a cake analogy ... more like making a stew ... even if there is more of one ingredient than another it will still taste good .   And i am confident they remain in solution once dissolved .
I will make slight mistakes ... like the xylene sulphonate is in tiny pellet form , so i will have to crush it to a powder with a morter and pestle so it dissolves quicker , but thats of little hassle.

Jeeze im not going to blow myself up with this lot    although if anyone sees me through the window weighing bags of powder they might suspect dissident republican activity or drugs cutting .

Price wise , i can make about 75kg powder with this lot ... so it works out at about the equivalent £23 incl vat and shipping for 10kg of the powder mixed

I will probably try my powder out on customers houses   

[wynne jones]

Sounds a bit iffy to me John. You have obviously done your research but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Personally I would put my prices up 2 percent and just stick to top brands from suppliers who rely on sales of prespray to stay in business.

[stuart_clark]

Think I will stick with Chemspec, as someone has already said chems are such a low outlay why wouldyou bother trying to mix your own ? Not for me anyway




Stuart

[Kev Loomes]

Ah ok, thanks John. It's just that I've never seen it in 5ltr containers before - they are usually for liquids! (and so looks a bit weird). Normally they are always in tubs or bags.

[David Ware]

Think I will stick with Chemspec, as someone has already said chems are such a low outlay why wouldyou bother trying to mix your own ? Not for me anyway
Stuart

+1
David