Can someone give me your thoughts on what will do the best job , I have only done residential with a portable, I am wanting to get into commercial carpet cleaning so my question is what going to give me the best results a Prochem procaps machine or a 175 using fiber plus pads I have bid on my first commercial job a hotel and some of the traffic areas are pretty nasty,

Don't waste your time on a Procaps machine. They do not stand up at all. Out of those 2 machines, you will definitely be more happy with the 175. If you have a solution tank on the 175, the fibre plus pads will work awesome. If you don't, a good quality brush will probably give you a better result.

Rick Thode
info@goodsolutions.ca
Your Canadian Source for Releasit/Cimex

The 175 does not have a tank so I will be prespraying will the fiber plus pad do a good job or do I need to use a brush or bonnet?

Depends if you want to extract any soil or not. FP pads do not absorb soil. Tuway bonnets absorb some.

my main concern is to do a great job, this place was clean a month by a well know carpet company here in my city using HWE the stains have all come back, the traffic areas in front of the elevators are extremely nasty. will the fiber plus pads with the right product do the job?

In a word Hell Yea Ok maybe 2 words

It is so dependant on the operator and using proper techniques, this not only pertains to encap but any method used to clean carpets. This is the reason why some cleaners are more successful than others, they have taken the time to refine proper techniques with every method they use, none are fool proof.

I use a 175 for everything now with Ricks FP Max and FP pads. The best thing you can do is to buy a tank for the 175. Will make a big diference.

The only problem with a 175 machine is in commercial work it looks too much like something the janitorial co. doing the carpets where as a cimex or OP machine is more like a professional carpet cleaner on site

Wow Don, just when I don't think you can say anything else that is a dig to someone or some thing in the way of cleaning you just come along and surprise me.

I use a 175 and have been for years, commercial customers don't care for the most part how there carpet is cleaned, they just want clean carpet.

In my experience, most residential customers don't care what kind of equipment you have either. And as a further note, if you have a residential customer that runs you through the third degree about your method, that person will probably end up being a problem customer.

While some may take offense Don is rite, using a 175 machine IE buffer will make it appear you are doing just what a janitorial co would do. ( We use Buffers too) The difference is in the chemicals we use and the time we spend making sure the job is done rite.

We also run OP machine and CBM. IF I know clients are going to be around I will make sure the OP or brush machines are being used. Perception is reality if a client thinks you are just like a janitorial company You are.

Ring, ring (telephone)

Me; JM Cleaing Service, May I help you.

MFG CO in the next town; Yes Hi, we would like to have our carpets cleaned, can you come over and give us a price.

Me; ok how about this Tuesday @ 11 AM

Customer; great but first I need to know what type of machine do you use because we want to hire a company that does not look like our janitorial service.

What I am trying to say is the above never happens. Never in all my years (and I have been in business as many years as Rick) of carpet cleaning have I ever had any customer: residential or commercial ask me what my process was and or how I was going to clean their carpets.

Never.

All the customer wants is clean carpet, how you do it is your business and most of the times when I did try to explain how they would be cleaned the customer both res and comm would just tell me not to bother as long as the job was done.

The customer does not care if you have the fancy wraped van or your TM has a 1200 psi heated pump. All they want is someone that is fair, looks profesonal and does not go looking through they underwear drawer when they are cleaning the bedroom rugs.

The tools you use are yours to use and to the customer it really don't matter. All they want is to get what they are paying for, clean carpet.

Well it's good to know all I have to do is keep out of the drawers. That should be an easy fix.

Or at least don't get caught at it.