I just made a new Blog entry comparing Encapsulation with Hot Water Extraction cleaning. We spend a good part of our day talking to customers who ask the same question. "So what's the benefit of Encap as compared to HWE"? It's a valid question. So I decided to publish a concise breakdown of the two methods (as they relate to COMMERCIAL carpet cleaning). Take a look...

http://www.excellent-supply.com/Comparing-Encapsulation-with-Hot-Water-Extraction_b_10.html





Rick Gelinas

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Good job Rick!

You did hit HWE a little harder than I would but in the commercial setting Encap does deliver superior results to HWE.

I didn't mean to "hit" HWE. I tried to be as accurate as possible regarding the methods - in the context of commercial carpet cleaning. Do you really think it was a harder "hit" to HWE? HWE clearly has its strengths (as I mentioned). And it also has some shortcomings in the commercial environment. I spoke highly of HWE's strengths, and I also acknowledged its limitations for commercial carpet care. I thought it was a fair appraisal. But I'd certainly value your feedback. If we should take a different approach - I'm interested in your viewpoints.







Rick Gelinas

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Thanks for your feedback





Rick Gelinas

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I think the comparisons are fair, a lot depends on the technician and more so in the HWE mode. A combination of both is a must in a good maintenance program

Your analogy of red paint was slightly off. With HWE you aren't just adding more and more. You are removing and adding water. With proper chemical selection, HWE chemically is no more enviromentally damaging than encap Procyon Plus (all 0's) calls for a clean water rinse. The biggest chunk of commercial work around here wants closed doors meaning portables. You could mention the slower production with portables over TM's or encap.

Everything has it's place - THAT is what many people fail to remember.

Good point about adding and removing water. Hot water extraction is a process of addition and subtraction. Add water and remove water. Dilute and suck. The thought presented here is that it's nearly impossible to add enough water to fully dilute all of the detergent. At some point you leave a diluted quantity of detergent behind (hence the example of the red paint). Of course, as you mentioned there are always variables.

I also liked your thoughts comparing production with portables. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the article.





Rick Gelinas

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Rick
I all points were valid points, it's not as if they were stretches of the truth, they were not.

However it seemed as if the negatives of HWE were exposed a little more to validate the choice of Encap.

Kind of as if HWE was a redheaded step child. You love him (because you have to)and care for him, but Encap is your baby and he might just get a little better care!
LOL

I truly believe the results speak for themselves. Encap cleaning leaves you with better end results, and for CGD carpet should be the first choice of methods.

I agree - I am a bit biased. And for good reason. I banged my head against the wall for too many years trying to clean commercial carpets with HWE. So I searched, and I searched, and I searched. And after cleaning countless thousands (probably millions) of sq ft of commercial carpet, I finally discovered a system that works. Man was I relieved to find a way to finally get some consistently decent results with CGD carpet. And it's with that experience that I base not only the blog entry, but everything I'm doing here at Excellent Supply and Releasit.

Keep in mind - the blog entry was related to commercial carpet only. In the article I attempted to make a fair assessment of both methods and to present the positives and the negatives (as it relates to the field of COMMERCIAL carpet cleaning). There's no doubt that HWE is the king of the hill when it comes to the residential arena! But HWE crashes far too often when it comes to commercial carpets. Yes, there's a place for a periodic HWE rinse on commercial carpets, and for doing a flush of contaminants, and for doing restorative cleaning on very heavily soiled carpets. But when it comes to performing the lion's share of commercial work (the stuff most of us do every day) encap is the winner. Each method has its place. They both have strengths. And I think the blog entry reflected that.






Rick Gelinas

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HWE used to be king of the hill. OPE is the new king for residential (and commercial :P for that matter). HWE is good for large urine jobs and removing bulk crap to save pads, but, OPE is faster and gets at least as good of results.

On commercial, encap is faster, but, when it is really dirty OPE is faster than HWE and it minimizes wick back like encap. the only real drawback is I can only padcap (OPE and encap in one stroke) about 1000-1500 sq ft an hour of nasty carpet. I can padcap a "normal" CGD at 2000+ with a 20". Haven't tried a straight encap with white/fiberplus pads with the 20" OP machine yet. Might try that tomorrow on a church I'm doing quarterly.

Hey George. I'm glad to hear that OP is getting the job done for your company. I agree that OP is an excellent tool too! We've been promoting OP products for years. However the majority of cleaners are still using HWE for residential, and for most cleaners it's working well for them. The blog article was not comparing all methods of cleaning. The article only compared Encap to HWE (in the commercial setting), since this is a common question that we receive at Excellent Supply - asking about the differences between these two methods.


P.S. And you're right... I am nuts





Rick Gelinas

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Well, I did it. Too lazy to empty and clean the sprayer so I used a pump up (that was the dumbest thing I did today). Remember the don't spray more than you can clean in 10 minutes rule? Well, I can encap more in 10 min than I can spray in 10 min. Did 1750 sqft in 45 minutes a third of that was spent spraying. Took another hour to do between the pews - I really need to rig up a sprayer on the little OP machine it is twice as fast as a 13" rotary with a tank between the pews.

I learned one more reason to use a VCT style pad vs a glad style pad when doing a straight encap - the VCT pad will hold a LOT more glitter.

HWE is still KING OF THE HILL, if you think OP is equal to HWE, please show me the data to back up your statement. There is more carpet HWE cleaned in one hour in the USA than there is OP cleaned in an entire year in the world!!!!!!!!!!

And in that hour of HWE there is probably only 1/10 of a second in time that is cleaned properly?

pHil:)

So? What does volume have to do with quality? Drys faster, carpet softer, less operator dependent for final results.

Still waiting on your data to prove your statement!!!! Or maybe you don't have any.