Did a carpet today with Hos Op and ahd alot of fuzz and small tufts come up on carpet, medium pile carpet about 8 years old been HWE before. After I vacuumed it it looked good but was wondering could it have been caused because I did not use a glide making the pad more aggressive, haven't been using OP for long but haven't came across this before. Or could it be poor carpet maintenance and carpet poor condition is in an apartment

Thatsa nice machine isn't Jeff?

Its not as nice as the guys that manufacture it though. Hey Jeff i also had that on some occasions. Even using thin tuways. I find twisted on the pad. Puff balls all over the floor. But the carpet looks immmaculant. So i would say its the normality of the carpet shedding. I've done cut pile,loop pile, some shed some don't.

Thanks
Your Servant Alex

A sign of the times!

Thanks for the reply Alex, Jim told me that its common on cheaper carpets and is filler fibers dislodged from traffic etc. Due to the deep cleaning of the OP it brings it up on some not a big deal. Say I'm soaking my pads in a bucket and when I get ready to use them wring them by hand until it quit dripping they seem pretty wet does that sound like the wet consistency I should be using? And yes nice machine color even matches my Cimex LOL

Jeff, what is a filler fiber?

This was the explanation I received.
Jeff, this is not uncommon. The fibers you see are called filler fibers they are loosely woven in to the rest of the staple fibers to make the carpet look fuller. They are not woven into the backing like the rest of the fibers, so they will more easily come out. You see this a lot in cheaper carpets. It is not a concern, tell your customer that they are filler fibers and fibers that have broken off from being wall on and that the machine pulls them to the surface. With a OP machine you will see a lot more debris brought to the surface that from a rotary. It vibrates and pulls dirt and dibris to the surface some of which is not picked up by the pad. That is why you should always post vacuum.

Make sure your pads are good and damp when you use them, that make them more slippery and they glide over the carpet easier. Dry or dryer pads cling more and make the machine harder to use also. The new gladiator pads will help a lot in this respect, and cause less fiber separation.

When we run our CRB machine over these cheap carpets it is not unusual to get tons of loose fiber balls all over the place, because the machine pulls them to the surface. So again it is not a problem and you are not hurting the carpet.. Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any other questions.

I think that explanation is correct.We discussed that at the IICRC class. The first cut pile I did with the iCapsol I thought
I was going to end up with no carpet left. Filled a garbage bag full of fiber.

Sounds like a cheap builders grade. You will always get some tuffs. If its a cheap carpet you will get more.

Just post vac and it will look good.

That explanation sounds pretty much like a John Guerkink explanation.

I'm sure glad I don't have to explain all that carpet fiber to my customers. I don't think they'd be quite as interested in buying into that excuse.

Admiralclean, I am often confused after one of your posts. Such is the case here, if the explanation given is incorrect, kindly share the correct one.

Those of us that have been on the boards for awhile have no problem understanding Martys post. I always enjoy them.

Rambo wrote: "Those of us that have been on the boards for awhile have no problem understanding Martys post"

Am I to infer that some posts are not meant to be understood by ALL of this forums members?

You will find in life that some people dont have much to contribute other then some type of smart ass answer; but by doing this it makes them feel good.

There are alot of these guys on the other boards, rather then help each other they chew each other apart. Thank God there are only a few here and on Johns board.

For the most part we all try to offer help to one another.

OP can really raise havoc on some carpets especially if you are leaning how to use it on your clients carpeting. OP machines are very aggressive and can cause damage on a carpet quicker then any other machine I have seen.

What Marty is saying is quite simple he is glad he know what machines not to use in is clients homes so he does not have to explain to them when tons of their carpet fibers wind on the carpet surface of in his equipment.

At this point in time int he carpets life 8 years old and has been cleaned before, filler fibers or any other fiber should not be coming out. I also would not want to be explaining to someone how this is normal when they have had it cleaned before and this did not occur before

When I used to clean with truck mounts, those fibers just ended up in the waste tank. Same difference, I guess with OP it's just an extra step to vacuum them up after.

Smart ass? Is that a nice thing to say on such a polite board?

You never find anywhere near the amount of carpet fiber in a hwe waste tank unless you use some type of agitation prior to extraction.

It always amazes me to read a vlm cleaner make that statement. It's like a hwe cleaner saying OP cleaning vibrates items off walls, as if that is a common occurance.

I agree that OP, CRB, Rotary or any other method that creates more agitation than a scrub want will pull out more fiber, however from quite a lot of experience, I can say that most of the time, with the exception of some berbers, that I emptied out my tank and cleaned my filter there were carpet fibres (along with a lot of other crap) in the waste water...floating in the tank, stuck to the side of the tank, all over the filter, in the lint bag, flushed down the drain or toilet....you name it, there were carpet fibers there. Every time I pre-vacuum with a good quality commercial vacuum with a beater bar...there are fibers in the bag.

Unless the carpet is very lightly soiled...you are going to be pulling out some fiber...especially if you've got some agitation going on. Heck...I even pull out fiber when grooming the carpet.

You can rake, vacuum, hwe, even use a 175 rotary with a bonnet on it and not remove the amount of carpet fiber that you do using OP.

The fact that these other methods remove fiber in no way excuses the sheer volume of fiber that OP ripps from the pile.

Running a brush through my balding scalp removes hair from my head, but it doesn't even compare to the amount of damage using a car buffer would do to my head. This doesn't mean I shouldn't brush my hair. It just means I'd be foolish to use a car buffer.

Please...keep your hair out of this. LOL.

Good comparison though, and you are right. However, isn't this problem of LARGE amounts of fibre loss with OP a rare occurance? I personally don't use OP, however I personally know a couple of people who do and the only place I've ever heard of this problem is on these boards.

It seems to me that if OP is as bad as some people say it is, John G. and others wouldn't be in business right now. OP will over time become a larger part of our industry, as well as other alternative to Truck Mount ways of cleaning carpets.

I have yet to experience that. It read very very funny though. being from Alabama, it is just the kind of thing I might try and get back to everyone.

However, since this comparison was used, let's expand;
MY balding scalp is already loosing fibers...something has gone wrong on my head. (genetics of course)If the object were to clean what hair is left, a brush alone would not suffice. A car buffer with the appropriate cleaner would work much better.

It would be hard to explain to my family though if I were caught using such a tool on my head......then again, maybe not.

Go to any gathering of the cleaning industries successful businesses, like SFS or Connections, and count the number of OP cleaners that are there, and how many successful mult-truck cleaners using OP are there.

Heck, for that matter, count the number of multi-truck OP cleaning companies there are even on the internet. We have plenty of cleaners claiming to be 50 cents per sf cleaners here, but nobody has tried to pull off claiming to be a multi-truck OP company yet.

The draw to OP cleaning is simply the fact that it's a cheap and different way of entering the carpet cleaning business. Cheap when you look at the initial cost of the machine, but after you factor in the costs of the pads, how often they need replacing, and the opportunity costs, as well as actual costs, associated with washing the pads, you soon learn that OP cleaning is really not all that cheap, after all.

If numbers are what you want to count. you win.

Now, here is my thoughts; so far, I have captured every one of the big-dogs clients I have cleaned for. why? Because my carpets are cleaner, dry faster, stay clean longer and without all of the noise-related issues that go along with TM or Porty's.

I am but one man.....but how many like me are out there right now....and how many will there be next year?

All the steamers have left to compete on is price. How low will they go? They simply cannot provide the service I do at the price they charge.

I get the picture. I understand. you do not like OP for residential. Heck, you might not like it at all. But we are out there..and we do great work .....plan ahead.

OP cleaning has it's place in the market. Even in residential cleaning. It's not that I have a general problem with the method, the problem I have is with those cleaners who take the method, accept it's abilities, but then choose to ignore it's limitations.

I no longer use OP in my business, because with the advent of glided wands, the drying time differential is almost none, and I really think the rinsing ability of hwe makes it the best choice in those situations in which it works well. I do; however, keep a 175 rotary and a GLS machine on my truck for use in those situations where either of the two will work better alone, or in conjunction with hwe.

In fact, here is my real take on carpet cleaning. There is really no single system that sufficiently cleans carpets when used alone. HWE comes the closest, and thus is the most accepted, but even it leaves wicked soils on the surface of the pile, and never gives the agitation needed to really emulsify soils for removal by the rinse. I use a rotary with either a brush or a bonnet (depending on the type carpet) to prescrub my prespray into the pile and then rinse. By the time I get to the end of a whole house cleaning, my carpets are dry enough for me to be able to find any wicked areas, or missed areas, and then I'll bonnet those areas with the rotary. (I use encap. presprays in all cleaning situations, even with HWE.)I almost never have to do the third step, but I have it if needed.

Now, if I was an OP cleaner, I'd still think I needed the rinsing abilities of HWE, so would I still be a OP cleaner? No, of course not. I'd be a multi-tool cleaner and that is really what we allshould be.

I just give you OP cleaners a hard time because it's fun, for one, and because I think you, of all cleaners, have been brain washed the worst into believing your paticular method is the bomb.

There is no panacea, only tools to an end.

I am so impressed with your last few post. And I must say, they are right on target. I have even enjoyed your last boxing match with that padder from Kentucky on Mickeys board.