I have read every post here and I was wondering how the encapsulation process works on coffee/tanin spots or paint?? Is that something that still falls within the HWE realm or will this process take care of that too? Also, is it common to come back the next day to vacuum, or do you leave it up to the regular janitorial staff? If so, does the crystals left by the encapsulation process fill up the vacuum bag or leave any other noticable trace? I am very interested in this process and have heard some great testimonials by cimex users. Thanks for your input, Tom
P.S. One more question....does this process allow for the application of protectant or will it hinder the cleaning?

Hi Tom,

Coffee stains and other stains:
Treat the stains with the appropriate spotting agent. If the spot is large you should rinse the spot with HWE. If it's a moderately small spot and you've used a small amount of spotting your agent you can blot up the spotting agent with a towel, and then proceed to perform normal encap cleaning.

Post-Vacuuming:
Most folks will leave post-vacuuming for their building staff to perform. With average routine vacuuming the encapsulated soil-laden particles can be recovered with a few vacuumings. The carpet will look clean immediately following cleaning and will continue to look clean throughout the subsequent post-vacuuming process. The recovered soil in the vacuum bag will look like dirt. If it were examined under a microscope you would be able to see the crystals.

Protectant:
Protector should not be applied until after the carpet has been post-vacuumed. A protector will inhibit the crystallization process. Applying protector on a commercial carpet is not as common as a residential application. Releasit has always contained a fluorochemical and we recently made a change to an even better fluorochemical in our formulation. So Releasit has some added soil resistant properties built into it. It's soil resistant property is now better than ever!

have never seen a difference in the appearance whatsoever.

I even put in a new bag and after vacuuming 24 hours post encap cleaning, cut the bag open expecting to see a ton of crystals or something, but nothing. The only thing in the bag was a small amount of sand, very small amount.

Now after all my research on this system, I'm a believer, albeit a skeptical one, but the empty vacuum bag really surprised me, and the fact that a post encap vacuum has never made any improvement on the already good appearance.

Dear Anonymous,

As stated above, if you examine the recovered dirt under a microscope you'll be able to identify crystals; as seen in the following picture...


Photo courtesy of Steve Smith

However, you will not be able to see the crystals with the naked eye.




Rick Gelinas

a bit of sarcasm, but my point was that even under a microscope, the amount of "soil, crystals, whatever" that I vac'ed from a 2k sqft job was about the size of a half dollar...seems like a very small amount of 'crystals' being removed, imho...but my main point was that a post vac seems as though its a "procedural event" rather than an "appearance improving" event. As I said, even after vac'ing, it doesn't LOOK any better...looks good already...

Take care Ricky baby

Jerry,

Please don't take offense, but if you're only recovering a SKINNY amount of soil after encapping then you might possibly be needing a FATTER vacuum.

I’d recommend a Hoover Conquest or a Sebo/Windsor-Verasamatic. These are both excellent vacuum cleaners.

You really should be able to recover the encapped soil with some decent post-vacuuming. Because that's how the product works. Anyway, it's good to hear that you're pleased with the results you're seeing.




Rick Gelinas

Post vacuuming should be left for a few days, there is a cure time required for these encap products.
Remember if you pre vac you should have removed a lot of the dry soils before your cleaning process, and I agree post vacuuming does not improve appearance, and as to the amount of soil recovered, that also does not mean a whole lot.
Heavy traffic lanes should get at least 10 to 12 passes with a good upright beater bar vacuum.
In our operation I can tell this, after we encap cleaned a heavy traffic area 48 times [ once every week for 48 weeks] we decided it should be HWE. We used a Steamin Demon so we could see exactly what was being extracted from the carpet, and we where amazed to see that the extracted water was not all that dirty, if we compare this with our prior bonnet cleaning methods on this same area, we would be extracting every 12th cleaning and the extracted water would be black and muddy in nature. I no longer worry about a lot of your concerns, the system works great and that's all we care about.
Our buildings look better than ever, and we accomplish this with less man hours.

Some time ago I asked for advice on a very soiled restuarant carpet. I appreciate the helpful comments. It was so heavily grease laden that I prescrubbed with the Cimex and an enzyme chemical and hot water extracted. It stll looked dingy so the next day I used the Cimex with ReleasIt and it looked very good. The next day I did a thorough vacuuming and I could see a definite improvement with each pass of the vacuum. I am convinced that the post vacuuming makes a definite improvement in appearance perhaps less so on lightly soiled carpets. A few days after the cleaning the manager told me that several customers asked if they had put in new carpeting. I want to thank all of you for the advice and experience you have shared.

My experience is pretty much the same as Don's. I am specifically referring to loose rugs I have in the shop, so I can monitor everything right in front of me.

1 specific case. The amount of soil picked up in my vac's dirt cup was negligable- for a fairly dirty 6 x 9 wool rug, the amount I collected afterwards was about enough to cover a quarter.

So... between vacuuming prior to cleaning, and the cleaning, the process was very effective.

Gary

My question was thoroughly anwsered about the vacuuming......but what about the spotting? What process can you incorporate using the encapsulation process with spots such as urine, coffee, blood, ink, etc.....? Tom

I replied to your question about spotting and encapsulation in the post above...

http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/message?forumid=228309&messageid=1078353285

Did that cover what you were asking? If not just holler.





Rick Gelinas