Hi all.

I cleaned a empty home move out the other day with the cimex and realeasit. The carpet was a peach coloured Nylon or polyester cut pile and was very soiled and stained and worn in the traffic areas. I presprayed using the realeasit according to directions. It came up amazingly and looks transformed. I came back 3 days later and felt it and was disappointed that it did'nt have a soft and fluffy feel. It felt hard and crunchy. Does anyone else have some insights into this or is this one of the reasons why it is not advocated as the best way to clean residential carpets?

your thoughts would be appreciated.

thanks
Steve Roberts
Luv-A-Rug
Victoria BC
Canada

Did you go ahead and thoroughly vacuum it while you were there ?

If so, did it still feel stiff after vacuuming ?

Rick will reply and know better, but I would say that the stiffness is from it actually forming a crystal like its supposed to do.

I know everyone is getting caught up the encap craze, and I am a HUGE fan of ReleasIT, but I really can't see myself using it on furniture and residential like some are doing. It was developed for comm'l and that's where I'll focus my attention. How often do you see someone in a comm'l setting crawling around testing the carpet for softness Again, I'm a HUGE, 100% loyal fan of Rick and ReleasIT, but comm'l only is where I'll employ this latest weapon in my arsenal.

Good luck,
J.

I did not give the carpet the soft and fluffy test before cleaning.

I did prevac very aggressively.
I did prespray as per instructions on the heaviest traffic areas
The carpet was very aggressivly vac'ed days after the cleaning was done.

I did test the carpet for "soft and fluffy" in all areas.

Even the areas that I did not prespray felt crunchy.

steve roberts

so this could be an unknown preexisting condition ?

Were you using the cimex or did you just spray it from a tank ? Many have told me the first few times they've used the cimex that they applied the solution too heavily...after they got used to the machine it wasn't a factor...I know have sprayed it too heavily before also, but was on commercial level loop and I jus ran a few bonnets over it to aid in drying the excess...

Will be interesting to hear Ricks thoughts, but I have never heard anyone else ever complain of this on a residential cut pile...or any carpet for that matter...

Take care,
J.

to say you'll only use it in commercial is limiting. Nylon is nylon right? it works well on cotton,wool,polypropolene so the furniture segment is a good place for it, ya just have to adjust your diloution rates???? I use it in a bucket and brush shampoo method to clean lightly soiled furniture.

Ref

Hmmm. If that carpet was polyester, it would feel stiffer than a nylon would- before and after, that's a characteristic of polyester. Another possibility is the carpet was acrylic, which is always stiffer than polyester.

Another point- when encapping residentials- I use a 1/2 dilution- that's 4 ounces of regular strength or 2 ounces of double strength, and that seems to work fine for most. Of course, if the carpet is utterly trashed, as you said, Steve, go for full strength.

I did one polyester carpet with encapping, and it did feel stiffer than the nylon in the next room, but that's normal for this type.

Gary

For it to leave the carpet "crunchy" a considerable amount of detergent would need to introduced to the fiber. And if stiffness was a result of using a heavy amount of encapsulant, a good post-vacuuming would soften it. I think Gary's idea of of it possibly being polyester or acrylic sounds logical (or perhaps it's a blend). If it is a result of the crystallized embrittling agent then vacuuming and a little foot traffic should soften it right up, since the crystallized polymer will not remain affixed to a flexible fiber.




Rick Gelinas

I will do some more testing on broadloom carpeting that comes into my rug washing plant. I will pretest for soft and fluffy, then i will encap it with realeasit, and let it dry out for a couple of days and test again. I will do this all before i put the rugs through beating or any other cleaning so i can get a fair test.

thanks for all your insights.

steve
luv a rug
victoria bc
canada

Residential is a very different market from commercial (that's obvious, I know). I have encapped about 20 residential jobs, so far. At first, I was going at 1/2 strength because it allows the ReleasIt to stretch further and it does seem to dry "non-crunchy".

However, the last 10 or so residential jobs have been "trashed out" so to speak, so I presprayed at 12 oz per gallon of H2O and encapped at 8 oz per gallon of H2O. This combo worked outstandingly well but I knew from having tested this dilution on my own carpet at home, this would leave the capet's "hand" very stiff (it took 10 seperate vacuumings to bring the hand back to what I felt was acceptable in my home test).

So, now I simply spray a very light mist of CleanCraft's "FiberMax" on the surface after encapping a residential. I haven't had one single complaint yet and 2 of the jobs I have returned to clean upholstery so I used that oportunity to closely examine the previously encapped/acid misted carpet. The carpets looked great (the colors "popped" and the hand was s-o-f-t).

Some may say that this defeats the purpose of encapsulation, but I say no way, because if you think about it... only the tips are acid misted. The rest of the fiber is encapped and will still release its "soil load" with subsequent vacuuming.

I know Rick didn't make ReleasIt to be used this way, but he also didn't formulate it for "residential" usage per say, either.

On residential, I say, "Try it...You'll like it!"

Anyone know how safe this is for kids and pets.When doing residental with encap.opens many questions from clients.How about wools?Thx.Tony!

The Releasit detergent is safe for big people and little people as well as their furry friends. In fact the only ingredient in Releasit that requires listing on an MSDS sheet is isopropyl alcohol (which you have in your medicine cabinet). And the encapsulated soil is going to be every bit as safe (or safer) than the pre-encapsulated soil that was in the carpet prior to the cleaning. Theory holds that encapsulated soil encased in a polymer will lessen the exposure of contaminants to the building occupants; however this theory hasn't been medically tested so it's therefore only a reasonable hypothesis.

That being said. I have always been inclined to recommended encapsulation for "commercial" carpet cleaning. It's a perfect fit for that environment. Although some cleaners are having good results using encapsulation in the residential setting I feel that this is stretching its intended purpose somewhat. Ultimately though, it's going to be in the hands of each individual cleaning company to determine whether or not encapsulation fits their residential service needs.