[Adam Eastman]

Advice please guys, I have bought a secondhand magma heater and a little unsure of what temperature is safe to use on different pile fibres?

Can I crank it up full on polypropylene?

Whats the safe limit on a wool mix?

Thanks

[Paul Simpson]

Usually have mine on maximum with 50ft solution hose, I don't think it produces enough sustained heat to cause a problem but if in doubt I reduce the temp.

[Adam Eastman]

Is that on wool as well Paul?

[Darran Pryce]

No way, would I have it on full heat on wool.  We usually have ours on between 50-70 depending on how bad the carpet is, and wool or wool mix around 30 max. 

You can tell how hot it gets just by touching your disconnect coupler on your wand.  It  gets hot!

Also, if running 50ft or 75ft, have the heater connected closer to the wand rather than down stairs near your machine. 

Above is my opinion, others might go higher/lower.  But defo on wool keep it low!

[Adam Eastman]

Thanks Darran, appreciate the advice mate.

[Paul Simpson]

As said I usually have 50ft of solution hose running from it and with the wand technique I use the heat is building up on clean passes and getting hot (not hottest) just as I'm going back for dry passes. Then when going back to clean passess its building up the heat again. If in doubt (wool) I reduce the temp.

[neil 47]

I have one and rarely gets used if I have to use it then it's on full on the areas that need it whether it's wool or poly .

As if I need heat then the damage has already occurred

[Robin Ray]

You will not get enough heat out of a magma..... or any other inline heater which will cause damage to wool at 50ft of hose.  using heat to clean carpets is a bit like walking over hot coals.... if you run, the heat is not in contact with your feet for long enough to burn them, If you stand on hot coals you will get your burned feet. How often have you held the wand in one position long enough to actually burn a carpet with the heat? If you did the carpet would also have seriouse over wetting problems.

Ask the average Truckmount user what temperature they clean wool at, considering also a truckmount has a much higher flow rate so much more, hotter water is in contact with the carpet with the fibre for a longer period of time. You will be surprised with  the heats they clean at. Without damaging the fibers!

There is of course a limit to the heat you will want to use but there is a lot of scaremainering mumbo jumbo in this industry.

[tim handley]

done loads of wool using my magma on full heat (where needed) no problem at all............

[mikey]

ive have had a magma for 4 months   done 25 whole houses  wool and wool mix   i leave the box on the floor next to the machine downstairs in the front room  fill machine turn on magma to 60c     move all furniture   then switch  magma to 110c   then i a  plug a inline hf  sprayer and preysprey at  110c  then clean with wand at 110c    ive have had no problems apart from a wavey carpet which went back to normal after a day  dont think theres anything to worry about  to be honest 

[tim handley]

and it works a treat, to think i was told not to bother with heat at all when cleaning..........

[sean oregan]

I think a lot of people have been scared off from using heat because .... Another forum says it's bad and not needed, this is because the machines they import don't have heaters in them.
As robin says truck mounters use high heat all the time with no problem at all.

[sean oregan]

I can't see how heat is any harsher (unless you go extreme) than over agitating

[Robin Ray]

High heat, like high alkalinity can frazzle the cell walls of natural fabrics making them brittle a bit like putting a wool sweater in the wash . If you wash it in cold water it will shrink but relax out again. If you wash it in too hot water it will be stuck shrunk. In a washing machine items are submersed for some time though however with carpet cleaning the extraction water is only in contact with the fibre for a couple of seconds at most before the airflow cools it.

[sean oregan]

That would take extreme heat to damage fibres like that, we are talking 70* ish this won't damage the carpet. And would mean less agitation.
Problem could occur from a quick connect left on floor not covered

[Mike Halliday]

I'm not a 100% sure but I believe wool fibres are washed in boiling water to remove all the impurities during the process of creating the actual fibre used in carpet manufacture, so any damage that could occur to the fibres at a cell level would be done then.

[Robin Ray]

I'm not a 100% sure but I believe wool fibres are washed in boiling water to remove all the impurities during the process of creating the actual fibre used in carpet manufacture, so any damage that could occur to the fibres at a cell level would be done then.

I'm not sure that's true,

A woolsafe trained boffin should know... are there any on here.

[sean oregan]

I'm not a 100% sure but I believe wool fibres are washed in boiling water to remove all the impurities during the process of creating the actual fibre used in carpet manufacture, so any damage that could occur to the fibres at a cell level would be done then.

I believe that to be true

[Robin Ray]

I have found a few links to wool processing and have tried to find somewhere boiling water  is used on the internet but can't, maybe you have one.
 
http://www.blackberry-ridge.com/prosdscr.htm

http://www.mylearning.org/from-wool-to-cloth/p-2738/

https://museum.wales/wool/about/the-process/

[Mike Halliday]

The process of wool washing is called 'scouring' the first video show this scouring process although the actual temp of the water is not mentioned you can see steam raising from the machine

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zPyrvWSv5Io

4mins 10 second of this video the women mentions washing the raw wool in hot water

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kMjx-t3tH3A

Edit..... This 15 sec video show the wool being washed in steaming hot water
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GuXa1sA7WdY