Approximately 2 years ago the boss got a Brush n Clean TM Pro machine. He/we never or rarely clean it, and have no policy/procedure established for how/when it is to be cleaned. Occasionally when the recovery/renovation trays are overflowing they will be emptied, but the brushes, undercarriage, etc. rarely get touched. It seems like it has been 4 -6 months since I did it last. Also, despite having level loop CGD everywhere we haven't updated the brushes to the more aggressive "hard" brushes, which I think might work more quickly, effectively. How often should counter rotating brush machine brushes, under carriage, etc. be cleanedreplaced?
You really should clean the brushes after each cleaning. At least that's what is recommended.
I was generally in the habit of cleaning and flipping the brushes daily or after every use with other places.
Reverse the direction of the brushes after every couple of cleanings so that you can extend the brush life.
The last 2 times I cleaned the machine(most recently 4-6 months ago) I had to soak the brushes in degreaser/hot water solution for about 30 minutes before spraying them out as they were black with built up soil. Also, had to use a light duty scouring pad to get the built up soil off from the underside.
If you'll address cleaning the brushes and the underside of the machine on a routine basis, a buildup will be less likely to occur.
Also, after the consuming the encap cleaner that came with the machine and a case of Releasit DS; all the boss orders is Nilodor "Structured by Nature" hot water extraction(HWE) encap cleaner for use with the Brush 'n' Clean. Liking that it is available locally from the jansan house, dilution ratio is 2 oz. per gallon, and is priced under $18 a gallon.
They get what they pay for. Sorry but it's true.
To me when it indicates chemical is for HWE as opposed to brush or bonnet that means the chemistry is different and the encapsulation of soil and soil removal is different. To the point, for an extractor not a vacuum cleaner. In doing the "dish test" with diluted product the dish seems a little sticky but not overly so, but no evidence of 'crystals" that can be vacuumed.
They get what they pay for. Same as above.
The local jansan dealer doesn't offer the "Structured by Nature" brush/bonnet cleaner but I fear with the dilution ratio being more like 10-12 oz. per gallon the end use cost would be an issue for the boss. Additionally, we typically clean our high traffic area carpet weekly.
The purchase price is not the ONLY factor to consider. Performance measured in relation to the cost should dictate which products will provide the best service.
We are a church of approximately 85,000 sq. ft(not all carpet) which besides being a busy church(4 services on Sunday am) also house a preschool(Mon-Thurs) approximately 60 students, a parent day out program(Tues-Thrus) approximately 80 participants, and a private K-9 school(Mon-Fri) approximately 170 students/teachers. The school lunch room is all carpeted and cleaned weekly or more frequently. Is the encap chemical not helping us, it seems like we clean carpet an awful lot.
Yes it sounds like your chemistry is delivering poorly. And you've already established the reason for the poor performance when you did your dish drying test.
I know we probably should HWE more to flush soil load, but all we have is an Advance Aquaclean (self contained unit)(which I think is only rated at 65-75psi) and the spray jet (?Tjet?) on the underside is gone, to where it just squirts out a stream water and leaves wet/dry streaks everwhere. Also, with that amount of psi, etc. the amount of time it takes to flush/rinse out soil seems to take forever.
It doesn't sound like that extractor will benefit you very much. It might be time to consider a machine with just a tad bit more horsepower.
I'd appreciate suggestions, advice on how to improve the situation. Or are the operational things common and I'm just overly picky? My apologies for such a long post.
You're not being "overly picky" - it sounds like you care about what you are doing. Perhaps you could meet with the powers that be and express your concerns. It sounds like you know what you need to do in order to provide better service to the facility. Now it's just a matter of getting the head honcho to come online with you.
I hope some of this info this is helpful to you. I feel your pain.
Rick Gelinas
