carpet cleaner chemical

Status
Not open for further replies.
Donald

Donald

Joined
Mar 21, 2004
Messages
33,536
Location
Near the beach in Delaware
What have people had good luck with in the steam vacs that is not super expensive. Sams Club has some for just under $7.00 a gallon, but the Hoover is several times that. (Not shampoo).

My carpet seems to get clean but then dirty again. Maybe some is soap vs detergent. Soap being made from animal fat leaves a slight grease residue and attracts new dirt. What in the MSDS would tell me its soap or detergent.

Maybe I should not have a small pack of canines and expect my carpets to stay clean.
 
Steaming hot water and a little Oxy Clean. Soap/detergent residue never gets completely removed, and will quickly attract and hold dirt.

We have mostly hard surfaces in our home, but the bedrooms are all carpeted and the carpets still look almost new even though they're almost 20 years old.
 
Your carpets are getting dirty again because the soap isn't getting rinsed out. There's probably so much built up soap.detergent in the carpet, I'd just fill your machine with scolding hot water and double clean the carpets without adding anything. That will rinse the soap out. You could probably do the next few cleanings using just hot water. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the result. And also, SLOW down and do some dry strokes (do a few dry passes without water) after each wet stroke. In the future, if the carpet gets very dirty, pre-spray the areas that are soiled. Use a pump up sprayer with carpet cleaning solution, and then use your cleaning machine with just water so the detergent gets rinsed out.

The number one reason your carpet gets dirty again quickly is because there's so much soap/detergent built up in the carpet. That's why professionals (good ones anyway) pre-spray areas that need it and then clean the carpets with nothing but steam/hot water.

I used to clean carpets professionally.
 
Good information Drew (as usual)

Could you mention again where good carpet cleaner solutions are made??
 
Last edited:
My Hoover SteamVac is almost fixed but not quite, so I have been using a SpotBot for some puppy mishaps.

Is the $7.00 stuff from Sams good enough?

The Hoover SteamVac does have a feature where you can switch it to RINSE only. It keeps the water and cleaner in two separate sides of the clean container. And a switch on the handle allows one to choose RINSE or WASH. But then under covers it gets more complex and hard to figure out. There is a small electric pump for pumping a liquid and 2 solenoid valves. While the electric pump runs all the time, the RINSE is done through the gravity solenoid valve and just runs out when the valve is open (not sprayed under pressure). The mixed solution under WASH is pumped by the electric pump and goes through the pressure solenoid valve and is sprayed on the carpet. In addition I believe the WASH solution is slightly heated by being run near the vacuum motor housing. The cover says "HEATED". In my case the solenoid and pump checked out with a ohm meter, and the pump ran when you gave it juice, it just did not pump anything.

The problem is there is no wiring diagram or general operation diagram. I got parts through a VAC parts website and the tech there had to call Hoover and ask them questions.
 
The best solutions are at Bridgepoint in Utah. A little pricey, but their green Balance line is exceptional in every way.

Drew is spot on, a clear water rinse is essential. Try this test on your cleaner: mix it to proper dilution and then boil it off in an oven or a pan. The residue is what's on your carpet.

High quality products dry to a 'crisp' and do not collect like cheap petroleum based stuff.

No offense Donald, but I would throw the Hoover junk away.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
The best solutions are at Bridgepoint in Utah. A little pricey, but their green Balance line is exceptional in every way.
OK it was you that mentioned these products. Thanks
 
Try 50/50 Simple green and water. I promise it's works better then anything and the price is far less for a gallon. People are amazed when they try it!!

Hoover, rug Dr and off the shelf cleaners are garbage and will take more money and effort to get any type of result.
 
Last edited:
I've been dealing with carpet cleaning for 25 years. Including the Gulfstream aircraft carpets.

As mentioned above, use only water in your machine. Spray the solution with a pump sprayer, prior to extraction.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
I've been dealing with carpet cleaning for 25 years. Including the Gulfstream aircraft carpets.

As mentioned above, use only water in your machine. Spray the solution with a pump sprayer, prior to extraction.


What do you suggest for carpet cleaning solution in the pump sprayer.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
The best solutions are at Bridgepoint in Utah. A little pricey, but their green Balance line is exceptional in every way.

Drew is spot on, a clear water rinse is essential. Try this test on your cleaner: mix it to proper dilution and then boil it off in an oven or a pan. The residue is what's on your carpet.

High quality products dry to a 'crisp' and do not collect like cheap petroleum based stuff.

No offense Donald, but I would throw the Hoover junk away.


Hoover machine or chemical?? What machine besides a Hoover or Bissell in the $200 - $250 range?
 
Originally Posted By: Al
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
The best solutions are at Bridgepoint in Utah. A little pricey, but their green Balance line is exceptional in every way.
OK it was you that mentioned these products. Thanks


http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...rue#Post2069955

I had mentioned in that thread of using a high PH or PH balanced emulsifier; you can find them at carpet cleaning supply stores. The standard home carpet cleaning detergents are all right; they are soap though. The main thing is to rinse the carpet so soap/detergent/pre spray emulsifier gets rinsed out.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
The best solutions are at Bridgepoint in Utah. A little pricey, but their green Balance line is exceptional in every way.

Drew is spot on, a clear water rinse is essential. Try this test on your cleaner: mix it to proper dilution and then boil it off in an oven or a pan. The residue is what's on your carpet.

High quality products dry to a 'crisp' and do not collect like cheap petroleum based stuff.

No offense Donald, but I would throw the Hoover junk away.


Hoover machine or chemical?? What machine besides a Hoover or Bissell in the $200 - $250 range?


Does yours have the rotating brushes? I wouldn't throw it out at all. It obviously won't have the suction of a 40 horsepower gas engine like a professional has! But if you slow down and make sure to dry stroke the carpet after wet strokes, it won't leave the carpet saturated and possibly wick down to the floorboards.

If you have dogs, make sure to vacuum before using the machine so it doesn't clog up with dog fur.

Also, the way you described it with the gravity feed rinse, I'd just fill the machine with nothing but hot water for the next few cleanings because there's probably still a lot of detergent left in the carpet. If you want to use a cleaning solution, use a pump sprayer and pre-spray areas that need it. I know it's a lot more work, but it works much better and rinses out cleaner.

Using a consumer type carpet cleaning machine often and not rinsing out the detergent is one of the best ways to destroy carpet because dirt sticks to that detergent and breaks the carpet fiber down when you vacuum or walk on it.
 
If you have puppy mishaps and you get to them right away, you probably won't need anything but hot water, especially if your machine has a hand wand. If that won't get any stains out, I've had good luck using Spot Shot carpet cleaner. Spray it on, rub it into the carpet with your shoe, wait 5 minutes, and rinse it out cleanly with the machine.
 
I am looking at Bridgepoint's website. They have a number of carpet cleaning chemicals and rinse chemicals. Never knew there were rinse chemicals except for dishwasher.

Should I get one of their rinse chemicals since I am sure I have a lot of soap residue?

Then if still not clean, what to pre-treat with?
 
For a simple and easy to use "soap" go down to Homeless Depot, Walmart or your local hardware store that rents "Rug Doctor" and pick up some of that Rug Doctor brand "Oxy" carpet cleaner solution.

Since you will be rinsing it right out, your results will be excellent.

Some carpets do well with a citrus cleaner similar to the Zep brand sold at HD, (not berber or wool carpets though, as it will "brown" them).
 
I have the Bridgepoint rinse and preteat chemical. The rinse gotes in my Hoover SteamVac and the pretreat I spray with a garden sprayer. But I cannot seem to get the carpet clean. I do have 2 Mastiffs that just seem to be dirty doggies. I have used a SpotBot on spots and it seems to leave too much water and a day or two latter I get a dirty area where I used the spot bot. Like it pulled up dirt from down in the carpet as it was drying.

I am thinking I need a more powerful cleaner. The Hoover SteamVac I have is a pretty good one of theirs, but not the newest called the Platnium. The Platnium has a long warranty unlike the cheaper Hoover SteamVacs. I don't mind spending $300-$400 for a better machine. I do see two on EBAY. One from Bissell and one from RugDoctor. Still upright machines but much bigger and boxier. I would hope they are better machines. not just machines with larger tanks.
 
Just remember you will never get too much performance from anything that runs on one outlet at 115 volts. There's just not enough juice to make the kind of DEEP extraction power you want.

So you can compensate by adding temperature, solvency, or agitation. Agitate the areas in question both after prespray and again for a second rinsing. A good orange based solvent like D-limonene based stuff will really help with doggies, as their body oil confounds many soaps.
 
All you're doing is throwing more chemical residue on top of the existing chemical residue. If you can't get it clean with all of the garbage you've thrown at it so far, then I suggest it's time for hard surface flooring.

Given that, by your own description, you have two large, filthy dogs no amount of carpet cleaning is going to fix what is wrong.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

M
Thoughts soap/foam better vs rinsless
Replies
3
Views
374
The Critic
F
  • Locked
Understanding grease, incl. compatibility, application, chemistry, and history (deciphering the zillion lubricants)
2
Replies
25
Views
3K
MolaKule
W
Making my own less toxic brake cleaner with acetone, IPA, denatured alcohol, maybe heptane?
Replies
8
Views
3K
facility1
9
AMSOIL Signature Series 10w30, 6.8k mi; 2008 Chrysler 3.5L 123.9k mi - used oil analysis
2
Replies
28
Views
2K
4wd
9
Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Graphene
2 3
Replies
58
Views
34K
nicholas
Back
Top Bottom