Simple Chemical Question

So I've been practicing with the Rotovac and regular wands the past two days here at my house. Obviously when I run the Rotovac I burn through water quickly and have to refill the solution tank. My question is every time I fill up the solution tank with new water, do I have to add chemicals to the new water I'm putting in the tank? Or does the water that's left in the tank still have enough chemicals to add the chemicals to the new water?

I do prespray the carpet so I'm not really sure if I have to keep adding chemicals to the new water. I have been adding chemicals to the refilling water because our capret is BEYOND trashed. It's 22 years old, and dare I say it, hasn't been cleaned in nearly 10 years...

I highly suggest: KWIK-MIX Formulations.  That's your answer...and fast!

 

Ed Valentine

Ed, thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely look into KWIK-Mix formulations. Do you happen to have a link to any of these chemicals?

Duckcountry, your advice was really helpful. I did buy rinse, but then got confused as to where to use it. From now on I guess I just prespray the carpet with the actual chemical (and don't put it in the solution tank), rake it in and let it set, put rinse in the solution tank, and then extract the carpet. So I guess everytime I have to refill the tank with new water I should add more rinse, correct?

We have a gray carpet at my house and like I said, it's trashed. So it was the perfect candidate for the Rotovac. Even though I didn't do the whole chemical thing right with rinse, the Rotovac did restore the carpet a lot. Like you said, it sucks so much water that it eats up your chemicals. That's why I was thinking about only using it on trashed carpets and then using the regular wand on carpets that aren't as bad.

lovsnow your prespray is the most important.. It has a higher pH and loosens up the grime and slime.. 7 pH is neutral .. Any pH above 7 is Alkaline (presprays/emulsifiers) and anything below are acid rinses..

Some use emulsifiers in the solution tank which are on the alkaline pH side and can leave somewhat of a sticky feeling.. Some do some dont.. it drys to a flake and can be vaced out..

Ken_Is_OK wrote: you never had your own carpet cleaned so that means you dont really value carpet cleaning. why did you get into the business in the first place?

I came back to read something and realized I missed this post. I don't know if you saw my thread in the Introduce yourself forum, but I'm 19. So the choice was never really mine as to when the carpets got cleaned. When I was younger the carpets were cleaned regularly by Stanley Steemer, but my mom swore they didn't use chemicals so she went with someone who did Bonnet Cleaning instead. She liked how the carpet came out and called the guy in twice a year. Then the guy who did it, had a stroke and sold off his business. She called the guy who bought the business and didn't like how he cleaned and for whatever reason, just stopped cleaning the carpet professionally.

Don't ask me, if it was my carpet that I paid for, I'd get it cleaned regularly. No sense in spending all that money on a carpet and not take care of it!

Always happy to help when I can, luvsnow.

Another suggestion is to consider charging more if the carpet needs the extra scrubbing power of the rotovac.  Because of the points we agree on of time and chemical expenses involved in the use of the powerwand and the end results produced - the customer should be willing to pay for what he or she gets.

You are the pro.  That means you prescribe the correct treatment and if the patient will not follow the doctors orders the good doctor informs the patient he will not be able to continue treating the patient.  When writing an estimate, you must be willing to walk away and not look back.  You will find out if they value your judgment or if they are looking for the neighborhood boy who can follow instructions and do their dirty work.

Thanks, RedStar.

It's been a tough start for me since I'm a new business and am not yet really known in the area. With the economy the way it is and snow on the ground now it certainly isn't helping matters. I bet once spring comes things will start looking up.

I seem to have an advantage over my competitors since I'm using a portable. My competitors keep trying to get commercial clients but can't because they only have a truck mount. The commercial places I spoke with had to turn my competitors away because their insurance polices prohibited the doors/windows being open after hours to get the hoses inside from the truck mount. There really isn't anybody except for Chem Dry and one other person who does VLM in my area. Everyone else just does hot water extraction with truck mounts.

I anticipated being slow since I was a new company and since winter was near. That's why I made sure I had enough money to pay for all the equipment in full and cover the expenses for insurance etc in case I didn't get customers right away. I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I still have my other business to fall back on. But my other business is only seasonal (during late fall/early winter) so that's why I was looking to get into carpet cleaning.

Being slow has been useful though. When I'm not filling orders for my other business I spend a lot of time reading up on various carpet cleaning forums and practicing at my house on various remnant carpets I bought. Just last night I was bored and wanted to fire up the machine so I practiced getting stains out of the one carpet. I learn a lot from people on here and the various boards. The guy I bought my Rotovac from lives 20 miles away and told me I could contact him if I ever had any questions so that's always helpful as well.

Edit: Can't forget all the investing advice I learn from here too. Although I can't say I always agree with it


Edited by luvsnow - 06/January/2009 at 11:08pm