OP Cleaning

FreshAire wrote: Methinks Mr Steamer is steamy by personality -dam but he gets hot under the collar doesn't he? Oh well, I'll keep to my opinions formed from 22 years working my carpet cleaning business, same as you, based on training I have received  and now pass on to other guys, as well valuable info I have received helping to do research...

I answered your question...didn't I

PadMan wrote: So then loving it means you are doing it right?

YUP because if you don't love what you do...you wouldn't care... loving is caring and taking the time to make sure you do it right.

The main difference between you and me Steamer is that I'm willing to investigate and learn, you're quick to give an opinion and then not budge from it because it is your opinion. You're entitled to it and I used to be on a similar wavelength to you having been a dedicated T/M HWE guy for 17 years, and then Encapsulation cleaning came along, which let's face it, when you break it down simply is a modernised extension of the old Wet Shampoo method.

I started using it because a couple of gallons was given to me for free to play with - and blow me down if I didn't start getting some amazing results with!! That is my experience and I have done a lot of research into it chemically and procedure-wise and it is now an integral part of my service as I have found it a more than valid weapon in my arsenal. I am also curious by nature ands sceptical of claims made by others trying to sell me something, so I have to prove it for myself, one way or the other.

Try using it more and come to it with an open mind and you too, like me, may even change it. Just because it didn't work for you on one or two jobs is no reason to write it off. If you had used your truckmount with no knowledge, overwet or otherwise damaged your first two jobs because no-one had ever trained you properly, does that make HWE invalid as well? I have seen that happen many a time before and a lot of people are wary of HWE systems because of prior bad experiences with so-called carpet cleaners that damaged their precious carpets using HWE.

If you understood the chemistry and what happens post-clean with encapsulation cleaning (and then there's OP which is another step up the scale of effectiveness), then you probably would retract a lot of what you have said thus far. Instead all you have shown thus far is ignorance on the system, as I probably would have done 5 years ago as well. All I know is that after much trial and tribulation (no-one was there to train me either, I was the first one in my State to start using it!), I find myself with a cleaning system that works, one that my customers are happy with, is easier, faster to do and not to mention cheaper than pushing a wand around especially in a commercial situation and earns me a lot more money.

As for the case of that customer that went from monthly cleans with someone else @ $60 a shot to my yearly clean @ $440 a shot - because I love my job too and am prepared to put 110% into every job I do but demand to get paid for it - well I suppose I can say that I am technically $280 worse off per year as he was getting $720 in the same time frame on that one job. But, I only go there once, not 12 times, and I have a happy customer who has referred me quite a bit of work because of the difference in result. And further to that, in those 11 times I didn't go there, I was free to find 11 others who are willing pay the same amount and in some cases based on my customer's good word, so that's over $5000 in the same period the other guy earns $720.

So, who's the fool?  By the way the "fool" comment is not aimed at you Steamer, but at the "other guy". I'm not here for a slanging match but like you said, I piped up cos I hate Bull$hit being slung around, whether it be because someone is misinformed, unaware or has hidden agendas i.e. someone peddling something and feeding suckers like us incorrect info.

So I challenge you, go find someone who knows about the system, open your mind and then make a value judgement on it. You may even be as surprised yourself as I have been over the years since starting with this system...

Never too old to learn

PadMan wrote: So then loving it means you are doing it right?

never said that you didn't

I coined the phrase many years ago, "that you can NEVER totally clean a gravity fed medium".

Ok now that we're settled down and actually communicating, I'm curious as to the conditions where you state that the stain "keeps coming back" if you HWE after OP cleaning. Having never had that happen to me I'd like to know under what circumstance it was that you've seen this.

Could it be an operator error - previous guy's, not yours? Or could it have been a chemistry issue - let's face it, some of the cleaning agents being sold out there are far from true encapsulants and make things worse rather than better! Could that have been the issue in your scenario? And what was the staining medium to start with? It's quite possible that the OP system effectively cleaned the face yarns, but obviously cannot draw through from below the primary and/or secondary backings of a tufted carpet. Hit it with moisture tho, especially at high pressure and particularly on a 100% polypropylene carpet, and you have the potential for migration of the original staining medium from the backing, as the top surfaces may possibly have been wet through right through to the backings. If you'd have OP'd it again you'd probably have been none the wiser, but HWE does have the potential to create such a problem.

So, was it OP not effectively cleaning, was it operator error, was it inferior cleaning agents or a combination of any one or all of the above...?

Blaming it all on OP not cleaning effectively is a long bow to draw, I'd like to draw on all evidence possible. Prove my thoughts wrong Steamer and I'll thank you cos I'll have learnt something, but if you are simply stating an opinion devoid of fact, then I'll challenge you to look at it further yourself.

Either way it's been a great debate so far lolz

I say "it will look alot better...than what it is now"