Sounds like a stupid question, but how do you determine the success of an encap job. A franchisee and I did their customer's very dirty and stained carpet this evening. Almost all stains were removed, but I didn't feel that the carpet was that clean. It also appeared cleaner in some sections versus others. I'm using a Mist N Brush which I imagine requires more passes to properly agitate. We used 2.5 gallons of properly diluted spin vac to cover about 750 sq. ft.

The Mist & Brush scrubber appears to be a decent little machine. Their first version was a bit shaky - but they improved the power cord, and selecting the right brushes corrected the problems I saw with the earlier unit. The newer models that I saw at the ISCT convention were working great. Although both of the companies who sell the M&B machine have authorized me to sell the machines - I haven't jumped on board selling them as of yet. I'm not ready to commit to another machine right now. So, I'm really not an expert on the M&B machine. I have run them briefly - but that's about all I can say about these machines. On the other hand, I can comment on what we experience with the Cimex and encapsulation. Generally carpets look consistently good with the Cimex/Encap system.

With that being said: It sounds like you used the right amount of detergent. So if the results were not quite as good as you expected you would probably do well to scrub with a few more passes. Agitation is the key to this method. And since the cylindrical brush machines don't produce as much agitation as the Cimex - you might need to spend additional time scrubbing to bring the carpet up to the desired level.

Tom Rowe might be a good person to ask about this, since he's got a couple of the cylindrical brush GLS machines (similar to the M&B) and he's also got 2 Cimex machines.



Rick Gelinas

I agree with Rick about the machines. I have a GLS and a Cimex. The GLS has a place, but overall the Cimex will Scrub (agitate)better and is much faster.

We encaped a job last night using both machines... we were not happy with one particular office after doing our best with the GLS, wo we went back over it quickly with the Cimex. There was immediate improvement!

Did you use pads or brushes on the cimex machine
Thanks, John

I used Rick's pads on the Cimex and the "Green" (most aggressive) brush on the GLS.

I don't see how a carpet can be "clean" after rearranging the soil's placement, which the Cimex does aggressively. So "clean" for me is a relative term and "less soiled" seems like a safer phrase to share.

In theory, it would seem that following agitation the more soiled areas become less soiled; the less soiled areas become more soiled. Surface soil would tend to sink in most areas, too. So following an encap. with Cimex or whatever, soil is more evenly distributed on the surface, and foamed or drained down the carpet's fibers, it would seem. This would seem be the outcome of any shampooing process.

Extraction, it seems to me, remains the key. With the encapsulating shampoos, the carpet ought to become less soiled with each pass of a decent vacuum cleaner. So I think it is safe to tell customers that their carpet will become progressively cleaner following the encapsulation process.

Better not let the Porkster hear that...pure Blasphemy