[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I am doing some tests at present on curry removal. It is the tumeric which causes most of the problem and all shop curries will contain it as they are made from a 'massala gravy' which is like a thick stock.

You can of course make a nice curry with cumin, corriander, cardoman, cloves, pepper and chillies which will hardly leave a stain!!

It's easy on PP but much more difficult on wool.

I won't say too much at present because I don't want to mislead anyone.

Cheers

Doug

[peter maybury]

Very often several treatments are required with oxidising agents. With oxibrite - buffer solution it is quite gentle so one treatment will not be sufficient on a lot of stains. Hydrogen peroxides and sodium metasulphate  are  more aggressive and need to be practised with in order to become proficient with their use.
Hydra master solution a + b are very good and a lot safer but are much more expensive than the hydrogen peroxide that you would buy from say a hairdressing wholesaler but they do take out a lot of the risks. Solution a + b is very good on red wine and a lot of other stains.
There are very few stains that will not come out but some do require a little trouble and patience, the other thing is that some times things need to be mixed to different dilution rates than manufactures recommend.  It also takes judgement to mix small quantities, for instance you will not need a pint of oxibrite to treat one stain so you need to practice what strenths you can use on what stain and which fibre.
One thing which I do use a lot of is host powder,  leaving this on stains over-night and telling the customer to vacuum off the next day. It does have a lot of success in a lot of cases it is safe and I have even left small quantities of the powder with the customer to do multiple treatments if the stain is reducing, this is a safe treatment that you can leave the customer to do themselves.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

This is why I am such a firm advocate of learning the active chemicals and the processes by which they work then you can experiement much more effectively.

You don't need to know the chemistry but some knowledge does help.

Cheers

Doug

[mark_roberts]

Doug

Problem is I havent the time to practise in my garage at night so if you put all your findings together in a training day I will be happy to pay to come along and learn how to remove curry etc from white wool.

thanks
Mark

[derek west]

and lilly pollen after its been rubbed in, some one mentioned white spirit but we had no luck with that, or sod mets or anything else in our armoury, pierre from art of clean has a good video of how to remove pollen before its rubbed in, sticky tape. but its usually to late for that by time we get the call.

[james roffey]

Doug

Problem is I havent the time to practise in my garage at night so if you put all your findings together in a training day I will be happy to pay to come along and learn how to remove curry etc from white wool.

thanks
Mark

 Me too 

[adimarsh]

Derek

Lily pollen is an oil. After taking some advice a while back (from Paul Pearce) I now use citrus gel, works every time, but let it dwell and be gentle.

[John Kelly]

Derek, Solvex or Citrus Gel usually sorts lilly pollen.

[colin thomas]

or p.o.g.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Lily pollen can be easily removed with white spirit if the customer has not tried to remove with water in the past.

The water disssolved stain is harder to remove but I have found a combination of white spirit, isopropanol and pog will remove almost all pollen stains.

Cheers

Doug

[derek west]

note to self.

must try harder.

[Thackley Cleaning Services]

judging from the replies on here it our success might have more to do with luck than skill or knowledge !

For the guy who said it was impossible to get out curry (turmeric) stains fro wool, i dont know what to say other than i did it.  Turmeric can be awkward because its still used to dye clothes in india and the eastern world.

The types of neat chemicals we use include

Ammonia 5%, Acetic acid 5%, hydrogen perixide 10 - 30 vols, sodium hypochlorite, sodium perborate, sodium percarbonate, titanium sulfate.

There are some others that are specific for certain things like mould but its no big secret really but you have to be trained to use them because if used incorrectly they can literally disolve fibre on contact.

But at the prochem training course when i mentioned basics like oxidising bleaches and stuff they started to go all wierd but i know that some of them are not easy to handle and can cause a lot of damage including bleaching etc... but we carry all of these as standard.

thanks

[peter maybury]

If you do not have the time to experiment then pay the price and buy the solution a + b from hydramaster which are far more stable than the raw products. It is not new technology many of us have been using these product for 20 years and a lot longer than that.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[Thackley Cleaning Services]

we have  been using those raw / neat chemicals for years on all sorts of stains but as the poster above says the key thing is to experiment as much as possible.

thanks.

[elliott cleaning]

I have a dry cleaning business so we carry a range of pure chemicals which work on curry and red wine and most other really difficult stains.

Thackley - although I agree that many curry stains can be removed from pure wool carpets - your above quote indicates you have the knowledge of stain removal from fabrics.  Why therefore, whenever I take  garments to my dry cleaners, do they always come back with a printed rider stating "The remaining stains have been examined. We feel that any further attempts to remove could result in damage" -   And that for someone who doesn't touch curry - although the odd red wine stain, maybe

[JandS]

Why did you go ,back??

John

[Thackley Cleaning Services]

I have a dry cleaning business so we carry a range of pure chemicals which work on curry and red wine and most other really difficult stains.

Thackley - although I agree that many curry stains can be removed from pure wool carpets - your above quote indicates you have the knowledge of stain removal from fabrics.  Why therefore, whenever I take  garments to my dry cleaners, do they always come back with a printed rider stating "The remaining stains have been examined. We feel that any further attempts to remove could result in damage" -   And that for someone who doesn't touch curry - although the odd red wine stain, maybe

Are all carpet cleaners brilliant and do a great job every time leaving most customers happy ?

Every industry has its cowboys and the dry cleaning is no exception.  The common perception is that if you have a machine you're a carpet cleaner and its exactly the same in dry cleaning.  If you have a dry cleaning machine people assume that you must be able to dry clean clothes but we all know its not quite as simple as that. 

To be fair some fabrics are tricky to clean effectively (mainly silk) and there are a lot of variables but in our business we can remove 99 stains out of 100.  But the overriding factor is not the stain but the fabric.

If all you send in are suits, trousers, jackets etc with normal food / drink stains then the cleaners really have no excuse.  Its normally down to either a lack of care, a lack of knowledge, a lack of ability or a lack of time.

Some of its down to types of equipment and solvent set ups.  Some dry cleaning solvents are much worse at getting stains out than others but again a high degree of knowledge can negate to some extent that handicap.

Just out of curiosity its not one of the multiples is it?  But a tip for you, if you have a food stain remaining on your clothes (mainly wool, polyester etc) buy a 5% dilution of ammonia and treat the stain with chemical.  Leave to dry and the stain should disappear.