The first job I did with Releasit was in a church meeting room, with no outside air movement. I used an air mover to help dry, and the odor was pretty strong, I was concerned about lingering odor problems, but there were none.

The rest of the jobs I have done with it, was in offices or homes or stores with plenty air movement, and the odor from it did not last long at all.

So, wondering just how long the odor did last, I did some rugs tonight and hung them. In an hour they were dry, and no odor at all, even with my nose right down on them.

So... I think it would be safe for anybody to tell a customer who might ask, the odor will be gone in an hour.

Anybody have a different experience?

Gary

Gary, the Tea Tree odor dissipates after the carpet is dry.

I thought I’d take a moment and discuss my reasoning behind including Tea Tree oil in Releasit:

The Tea Tree simply adds a fresh clean scent during the cleaning. Although Tea Tree has some really good sanitizing properties I'm not pushing the sanitizing aspect. We'd need to use a stronger dilution of Tea tree to accomplish true sanitizing. At that strength we would adversely offset the other properties in the formula. And the smell would be overpowering to work with. We only wanted to use enough Tea Tree to provide a pleasant odor. So a careful balance was required.

I read an interesting article a few years ago written by Joe Domin, old-timer chemist for Prochem. He talked about how important it is to choose the right fragrance when formulating a cleaning product. Well I considered the available fragrances as I was developing Releasit and I wasn’t impressed with any of them. I’m kind of fussy about smells in any product. I think that most perfume additives smell just like that, “perfume additives”. I wanted something that smelled better. So I went with Tea Tree. It smells natural, not like it came out of a bottle of cheap perfume.

After seeing that the fragrances that were available smelled awful I started experimenting. After I tested Tea Tree and saw that it wouldn’t adversely affect the crystallization I decided to go with it. Coincidentally, when I asked my chemical manufacturer about adding Tea Tree to the formula they went – Huh? They didn’t even have a source for obtaining Tea Tree oil. So I did the research and located wholesale Tea Tree for them to use when formulating our product. (BTW Tea Tree oil ain’t cheap, and neither is the Zonyl.)

It's all about aroma-chology: Consumers equate smells with different experiences, especially women. Case in point… Early childhood memories can be evoked by many triggers, of which one of the most powerful is a particular smell. Do you remember the smell of a Crayola?

Tea Tree has some disinfecting properties and it also has some solvent properties. But the key reason I chose to use Tea Tree was on account of what I was hoping to impart to the carpet cleaning customer. The side of our population that notices smells most is women. Women also make up the majority of the carpet cleaning customer base (even in the commercial setting). Furthermore, today’s women are buying more and more products containing Tea Tree. These products are generally all-natural health and beauty products. So there’s a great association! And the association of smell is important. We want to build a positive experience. If the client is subconsciously saying to herself… “mmmm that smells good, like that facial scrub I used in the shower this morning” then we’ve hit a positive cord.

The comments that I’ve been hearing from our carpet cleaning customers have all been positive. They generally say, “it smells clean”. “It smells clean” Perfect! We have succeeded, we’ve created a positive experience i.e. CLEAN.

So there you have it. The idea behind the Tea Tree oil in Releasit

Rick Gelinas

The name Tea Tree Oil brings to mind an oily residue for me. Any chance that the oil would contribute to resoiling?

Nope.

Too small of a quantity.

In the RTU form we're talking about a couple of drops per gallon.

That's the beauty of using a pure essential oil with a BIG smell like Tea Tree - the scent is POWERFUL even in very small doses. By comparison, a typical fragrance additive would be far more likely to attract dirt than the small amount of Tea Tree that we're using in Releasit.




Rick Gelinas

I just noticed I had mis-spelled Tea Tree in the subject line. Doh!

TEA TREE

There, now that looks better.




Rick Gelinas

Rick we go for no odor in products. When doing commercial accounts there are just too many people around. You will always find someone even if it is only one out of 25 that do not like it in an office setting. The only! I mean only! thing I have seen cleaners on this board bring as a possible downside is the odor. I would consider changing it or getting rid of it. I hope you view this as honest imput if you change nothing it is still a great product.

Thank you for your feedback. The scent left in the building is light. Very light. Releasit has a soft clean warm aroma. We clean a lot of stores that have their personnel walking in the store putting away merchandise while we're cleaning. I've never heard any of our carpet cleaning customers say anything but nice things about the smell. I think that most of the customers don't even notice the smell. When they have noticed the smell, the only comment that we've heard is that it smells clean.

Maybe some of you could begin asking your clients as you're working what they think of the smell. And I think that if you'll let them know that the scent they're smelling is pure Tea Tree, they'll think it's cool. I heard from one cleaner who told a prospective new client that his detergent contained Tea Tree. The new client was excited to have him come clean the carpet with his detergent with Tea Tree additive. By and large, consumers like Tea Tree. So it's a selling point. Why not using it as a selling point with your customer base?

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I appreciate hearing any and all feedback from each of you. At this point the response to the Tea Tree has been very positive. But if the consensus is otherwise, I'm listening.

Thanks

Rick Gelinas

Here's what I usually hear about the Tea Tree scent...

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Rick Gelinas

I've been using Tea Tree oil for a few years and really like the smell.
I've been told that it's not really an oil, at least not like a machine oil.
If you put some of the pure oil on your skin you will see that it looks oily, but it will dry and not feel oily.
So tea tree oil shouldn't cause a residue problem.

In 30+ years of cleaning carpet, I have had one customer complain about the deodorizer I used
The general concensus of most consumers is "If it smells clean, it must be clean". LEAVE THE TEA TREE IN, I think it adds to the overall precept of clean. In most cases( cleaning commercial carpet)the consumers are not there.
Some people would complain if you hung them with a new rope.
Just my 3 sents (pun intended)

I have to agree with what Jeff said that Tea Tree is not like traditional oils. It is very light and non-oily. It also contains a range of natural terpenes which have solvent properties. And the Tea Tree is fully emulsified in the detergent (otherwise you'd see the oil floating on the top of detergent). And as I said above, we're only dealing with a couple of drops per gallon in the end rtu dilution anyway.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Releasit and I have a fair amount of experience with essential oils. My wife and I actually used to run a Yahoo online store back in 98-99 that sold essential oils called HerbalEarth.com (lost a bundle of money). So I appreciate the value of essential oils.

Here’s our old HerbalEarth logo…

I feel that Tea Tree has many pluses. For instance, have you ever cleaned a carpet and it smelled musty like gym socks when you were done. The Tea Tree's light disinfectant properties will help to address that condition (there's enough Tea Tree to accomplish deodorizing).

The Tea Tree extract is one of Releasit's attributes. The comments I've heard about the smell of Releasit have been great. The carpet cleaners and the customers out in the field are saying nice things about the smell. There are so many good reasons to have Tea Tree in the product that I'm not likely going to consider taking it out. As I posted above SELL your customers on the Tea Tree. Folks these days, (especially women) are falling in love with natural ingredients. Tea Tree is a selling point, use it.

Thanks for all the feedback and comments. I truly appreciate it.

I say leave it in.

My only concern was how long the odor lasted. Any odor, if long lasting ccan be offensive to some, even the nicest perfume stinks after a while.

Anyhoo, I gotta tell ya a story. 2 in fact. First, the other day when I mentioned Tea Tree oil, the customer has used it in various dilutions for years, in laundry, for skin care, etc.

That day, I had a friend helping me. The lady mentioned to us that concentrated tea tree oil was a powerful disinfectant, and she had used it to cure her tonail fungus.

Several years ago, I had the same condition, as my feet are wet from sprays, etc, and fungus can grow in wet areas. I had tried several things to get rid of it, finally found tea tree oil, and it worked like nothing else.

My friend had the same problem. Tea Tree oil is available at health food types of stores in various concentrations for different purposes.

Second story.

I also found tea tree oil is available in these types of stores in some laundry products and skin care products. So, if it is OK in liquid laundry detergent, it should also be OK in Releasit.

My point? There are some folks who are already familiar with the Tea Tree oil product in other uses, so don't be afraid of mentioning it in front of the customers.

Gary