I've only had a chance do some dish drying tests with it so far. I've been very busy working on our new products and getting ready for Connections. The dish drying test allowed me to see what manner of polymer the product was built with.
On the positive side, the product releases from a dish well. On the flip side, I have some concerns about the density of the polymer. I have spoken with chemists who are much smarter than I am about crystallization chemistry, and it's imperative that the polymer crystal has sufficient mass to hold up well maintaining it's integrity under foot traffic in the carpet, and likewise it needs to have enough mass to insure that it will not become airborne.
Also in resolubilization testing the polymer failed to maintain its integrity and turned into a very fine dust. Resolubilization testing is where we reintroduce water to the dried crystal to see if it will re-crystallize, as would be the case in a secondary carpet cleaning application.
So my initial observation is that the polymer may lack sufficient density. I want to emphasize that I am NOT bashing this product in any way. I am only basing what I'm saying on the performance of the products crystallization. I feel it would probably be a better product if Steve and John could adjust the polymer's performance.
I haven't had a chance to run cleaning and field-testing yet. I'll get to that after we're finished with Connections. Formulating this type of chemistry is unbelievably CHALLENGING. Working on our new products was further proof of that to me. I went through sample, after sample, after sample, after sample, from our chemist before we arrived at a balance that would work (and my chemists already had experience working on our original formula).
I wish Steve and John the best of success with their endeavor. I am NOT trying to undermine their efforts toward producing this new product. I am simply making an observation about one important aspect of its design. I hope that they are able to make adjustments to the polymer and that the product is a success. I would have to say that they’re on the right track. The polymer’s crystal structure is close, but it would benefit from some further tweaking. And in the end, raising the level of awareness of this method of cleaning is good for the entire industry. So my hat is off to the both of them for their efforts.
Rick Gelinas
