I used Premium Blend and Von Schrader in my VS1 in the beginning of my cc career.
Since the vacuum left a lot to be desired,a lot
of chemical was left in the carpet.
I found low resoil rates on my residential jobs.
Aren't the dry foam detergents similar to encapsulates?
My reason for asking is that you could get through
a dirty restaurant pretty quickly using either
the Chemstractor or Cimex,in combination with a good
foam detergent........any thoughts?

Mike I agree that the better dry foam shampoos can perform well in the anti-resoil department. The two you mentioned are a couple of the better ones on the market. However take a very close look at these test results and compare how the two products you mentioned performed in resoil testing as compared to the crystallizing encapsulators.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/48271772/48275404jwgGpf

http://community.webshots.com/photo/48276640/48277958VtOPjo

BTW, we've been using Spin Vac on a couple of restaurants and it's been working fine. I don't generally recommend encapsulation for restaurants because I don't want to oversell the system. But you might want to try it for yourself and see if it might fly. You never know, it might surprise you. Although I’m not suggesting encapsulation in restaurants for the masses, the results in my business have been satisfactory.

Rick, seeing your test once again still impresses me! Probably the most thorough I've seen for brittle drying detergents. I've got to agree with Mike though. I'm currently using Premium Blend with my GLS. Seems to be working well, but still testing.
If PB or Red Label resoils slightly faster than SV or CD, it doesn't seem to be by much. And for the price, PB wins here. The most important issue would be final appearance- what cleans the best. Again, still testing.
Did you do the dish test for all nine? Did any seem to dry slightly waxy? I just picked up some Merit from DSC, they claim it can be used as a dry foam. My dish test was kinda disappointing- a little waxy.

Wes,

Thanks for the compliment regarding the testing

I agree with you. Red Label and Premium Blend cleaned the test carpet very well. Even though they don't dry as brittle as a "Crystallizing Encapsulator" both products will dry brittle (with a slight edge going to Premium Blend). In the resoil testing they positioned close behind the crystallizing encapsulators. And although Von Schrader and Bill Barnes don't claim that their products are "encapsulators" I'd have to say that these are good products and they come close. These are traditional high foaming brittle drying shampoos. That's why I included them in the testing. I only wanted to include products that warranted testing.

Yes dish-drying tests were performed with all nine products. In fact I test every new product I receive in the dish first. A few of the products didn’t perform as well in the drying test. And it was interesting to see that there was a DIRECT CORELLATION between the drying tests and the performance in the real world style testing. The ones that dried most brittle performed best. And I agree with you that Merit is not a true “encapsulator” - it’s more of a traditional high foaming shampoo.


Rick Gelinas