Part-Timer Looking to go Bigtime!

  Just dropping by to say hi and that this wonderful world of carpet cleaning has supported me through high school and university.  Throughout the years I have been in and out of the business but now have a renewed desire to build it beyond a one man operation.

I know, I have a long way to go.  Just looking to get a few pointers from the masters on this site ( whomever you may be)!  And offer my two cents whenever I get inspired. 

Gmoney: Happy to hear from you! I also notice you appreciate the value of getting carpet dry fast. That is a good thing, as long as you beleive in getting them clean first! I have been working on this area for 7 years now, just shortly after getting my Cleanco TM. If you are interested in learning how to clean carpet well and dry it fast, using HWE(hot Water Extraction), I beleive I can help you.

The first thing you need to know is how to loosen the soil in the carpet without using alot of water at the preconditioner stage. Too much water added here without the use of vacuum will cause you to over-wet the carpets primary backing. Once you do that , you are in for 24 hour dry times. This can be avoided for the most part by applying a high strength pre-conditioner to the carpet at 100 psi or less and then working it into the fiber with a grandi-groom brush. I'm assuming of course that you have already pre-vacuumed the carpet before this step, cause if you haven't, you are going to be making mud, and all subsequent steps taken after that become less effective. When finished raking in your preconditioning solution, let it dwell for 15 to 20 minutes for optimum results. If you want to use a TM and be able to have the carpet dry to the touch within 2 hours using a wand, you are going to need to use a glide with that wand.

Here is why. Modern TM have blowers in them that are capable of moving 300 to 400 cfm of airflow at 12" mercury(HG) lift, but they dont. The reason they dont is because the vacuum system they use is only as strong as it's weakest link, or area of greatest restriction. That place is where the wand lips meet the carpet. We call this area the wand/carpet interface. WCI for short. Because a wand has very narrow SS lips on it in most cases, when these lips are sucked down to the carpet under vacuum load, not much air makes it through them. How much you say? In my testing of this with an anemometer, I have found this to be 100 cfms or less most of the time at a 12" HG lift, even when used with a TM with a 400 cfm rated blower! The net result of this is carpets average close to 8 to 12 hours to dry in the GTA.But there is a way to improve this dramatically.

The glides I developed for wands(Superglides)are designed to double the airflow that can get through the wand lips while cleaning to close to 200 cfms. They do this through a wider surface area of up to 4 sq inches on the surface that comes in contact with the carpet. Compare that with the .5 sq inch of surface area that SS wand lips have. The increased area means they can not lock down onto the carpet and choke off most of the airflow.But because of the slot on them being placed at the lowest point of the curvature of the glide face, they actually remove more water from the carpets back. Because you see, that except in the case of wool, the face fibers of the carpet hold onto very little water. Most(over 80%) of it lies on the carpet backing. A conventional wand has the least airlow when the lips are on the carpet, and cannot get alot of this out. Why does that matter? Because it is actually the cfm (airflow) that carries the water away, and it has a saturation point. Onced reached, the available air cannot carry any more water out. The only way to overcome this is to letting additional air in to carry additional water away, or make extra vacuum passes. Doubling your available airflow up to 200 cfm from 100 cfm to do this makes more sense than having to use double the vacuum strokes.

You should still do 1 dry stroke for every wet stroke of the wand to get the best extraction however. After doing this, the payoff will be a carpet much cleaner than the competition can deliver, and a carpet that will feel dry to your customer in 1 to 2 hours most of the time. Your customers will be thrilled with results like these. You will get so many referrals that you will be forced to raise your prices to keep up with all the new work you will have. This happened to me. From .10/ft I was charging in 1997, I was forced to move the price up to .50/sq ft by 2002. In my case I was using a RX with specially designed skids that both cleaned the carpet very thoroughly while drying it in 1 hour or less, but the same can be done using a wand today with the use of glides on a wand. The end result is the same, with slightly different routes to get there is all.

Today I still clean part-time during the warmer months out here in Calgary, both to test out the equipment I develop and to look after some of the customers I have been cleaning for for over 20 years now, but most of my time gets spent designing equipment to improve the businesses of carpet cleaners still working out in the trenches. My job is to help make there job an easier and more profitable one. Anytime I can be of assistance in this regard, just ask. I will post my answers on this board so as many cleaners can be assisted with the answers as possible.

Regards,

Superglide Ken

Get it clean, and get it Dry!

Had a teacher that taught me that about 20 years back. Still true today.

Welcome aboard gmoney...  most times I have nothing of substance to say, but a forum without any post is very dull.  Hopefully you'll feel comfy posting your interest and Ideas.  Don't take anything anyone has to say to heart, you have to make your own choices.  GREAT to have you aboard, any help I can provide don't be afraid to ask

Mr. Steamer Carpet Cleaner

Thanks for the welcome Mr Steamer.  You always entertain me with your posts and I have even learned a bit from you by reading between the lines. 

My first question for you and anyone else on the forum is: what your take on the superglides?  Do you use them and if you have you noticed any improvement in terms of effort and drying times.

Not that I don't believe you Superglide; I would just like to get a cross section of feedback from those in the field who have used or are presently using it. 

Hello gmoney,

I see by your picture that you use a Hydramaster Jetless Rotary Machine. This means you are already cleaning a drying well above the national average compared to wand cleaners. Not bad for a part-timer.

We will be watching your company expand.

Congratulations!