[Nick H]

Hi All
 I said a few months back that I was going to go into carpet cleaning and im now 1 month into it .
I have done the prochem and the alltec courses and I have also passed the ncca exam.
I have an air flex storm but no heater .
Over the past few weeks I have seen some fairly good results but I still have a particular job that I think didnt go so well in the back of my head  and would like to know what I could have done different ??
It was a light coloured  greasy synthetic hallway carpet with plenty of traffic near the kitchen door .
I did the full cleaning process and the products I used were ultimate pre spray and ultimate master in the tank but it didnt seem to do to much to the carpet .
I used hot tap water prespray and warm  ish water in the tank .
 I think im missing a good inline heater like a magma am I right or wrong ??
Any advice is welcome .

Thanks
 

[Robin Ray]

Hotter water will hep a lot.
Also Consider...

 The amount of product you used was it enough to get in contact with all the soiling?
Agitation. This can help a lot to disperse the product and help it work. Did you use a brush, Crb, or rotary?
Dwell time. The longer the product is in contact with the surface the more effective it will be. 20 minuet dwell is good for really nasty stuff.

[Nick H]

Cheers for advice
I aggitated with a sebo duo and to be honest I should have let it dwelled in a bit more . Most prodycts have A guidance on them with dwellung time by the alltec products dont seem to tell you .
I was worried about leaving the pre spray on the carpet too long .
Thanks

[tim handley]

agitation yes
magma heater......yes
dwell time .....yes
different product needed...maybe yes
and also, if it was just the area near the door, was it dirt or wear?

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

Try shockwave. Its one of the best prespays ive ever come across. Dwell time 15 mins. Just rinse with either plain water or for more efective results use an acic rinse.

[Mike Halliday]

Perhaps just accept you will not get every carpet clean, it's not your fault, you did everything possible the blame lies with the homeowner who made the carpet dirty & waited too long before having it cleaned.

Also you can get a phenomenon called ' apparent soiling' where a carpet can appear dirty due to wear not actual dirty, so no matter what you hit it with it the appearance does not improve

[Mike Gwilliam]

Others may well step in and disagree. I once experimented with an Ashbys Steam Mate on several heavy soiled carpets over the course of a few months and compared the results side by side, cleaning one section of carpet with cold and the other with very hot water. This was letting the Steam Mate get right up to temperature to ensure the water was coming out very hot.
One job was even on a black top pub carpet.

There was absolutely no difference in the results between using hot or cold water.
Consequently I haven't used hot water on any job for more than 13 years and I never have any problems not to mention worrying about heating water. Moreover IMO I recon it's down to the chemical and agitation on any heavy soiled carpet to get the best results as mentioned above.

[cleanability]

Also the sun can change a carpets colour over the years and make it look like its dirty.

Chris

[Jon R Burns]

I'm a newbie, done a couple of courses and know how you feel about carpets not looking as clean as you'd thought they could be.

I've found that a lot often it can be wear to the pile. I make a point of highlighting this to the customer as part of the survey and get them to look and note the difference in the pile etc. It's about managing expectations and not over promising I think, and, if it does come up well you're the hero in the client's eyes.

I agree with the dwell time and agitation comments also. I found that on the first few jobs I did I was being too quick with the wand, once I slowed down on the initial pass I found the results were better.

[neil 47]

The best step up I had in cleaning carpets was to purchase a host crb with 5 sets of different brushs .

I now vac , prespray shockwave polys, mpower/bio wool and them use the host , and I can say that the carpet is lucky to look 10 % better after extraction the host is that good that encappung is a viable option on at least 50% off carpets .

I rinse  90% of the time with cold water and have for at least 3 years .