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Crystallizing Polymer: Releasit™ uses
innovative polymer technology to form a distinct crystal when it
dries. The crystal is the vehicle that enables a good encapsulator
to capture soil so it can be removed through post-vacuuming.
Although some products may claim to "encapsulate" on the label and
they may get the carpet to look good initially, (it's easy to get a
carpet to look cleaner) the real concern should be whether or
not the encapsulated soil can be removed with post-vacuuming.
Here's a simple test that you can perform to establish what an
"encapsulation" product does when it dries. It's very easy. Just
take a few drops of the product and dry it in a glass dish
overnight. Check the content the next day. Did it form a true
crystal? Does it readily release from the dish? Or did it dry
sticky, gooey? Was it not completely dried? Or was it possibly stuck
like a barnacle to the dish?
This simple dish-drying test will reveal the products soil releasing
ability. A good encapsulation product should form a distinct crystal
that will break up and release from the dish. Keep in mind that
crystallization is the medium that holds the soil in suspension
until it can be extracted with post-vacuuming. The soil can't be
vacuumed from the carpet if poor crystallizing or no crystallizing
occurs.
(Releasit dried in a petri dish,
showing its distinct crystal formation)
Pre-Vacuuming:
The first step that should be performed before any carpet
cleaning process is a good pre-vacuuming. According to a well
documented study, dry soil comprises 79% of the total soil in a
carpet. Removal of the dry soil is very important. If we were
to add a cleaning solution to a carpet filled with dry soil we
would, in effect, make mud. Therefore a good vacuuming program
should be encouraged for all commercial clients. And if the carpet
is in need of vacuuming at the time of cleaning it should be
pre-vacuumed before proceeding.
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Pre-Treating:
If there are more heavily soiled areas, pre-treating can assist the
cleaning process. Releasit™ can be mixed at 12 ounces per gallon and
applied as a pre-spray (with the double strength version mix at 6
ounces per gallon). Use a coarse tip on your sprayer. Simply spray
enough solution to dampen the carpet. Do not allow the pre-spray to
dry before you progress with the cleaning. Allowing a few minutes of
extra dwell time can help a grubby carpet clean more easily. After
allowing a few minutes of dwell time proceed with scrubbing the
carpet in the normal manner dispensing the detergent through the
solution tank.
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Scrubbing
Technique: Fill the solution tank of your scrubber with Releasit™
mixed at 8 ounces per gallon of hot water (with the double strength
version mix at 4 ounces per gallon). Scrub the carpet by working the
scrubber at a moderate pace. Make a wet pass by holding the solution
valve open – then return over the same pass without releasing more
detergent. In most cases one wet-pass followed with one dry-pass is
all that's needed (if a Cimex is being used). If the carpet needs a
little more scrubbing because it’s heavily soiled simply make
additional dry passes (just a touch more solution can be applied
during the extra passes). Each gallon of diluted (ready to
use) solution can clean an average of 300 square feet. So a gallon
of concentrate will clean an average of 4,800 square feet at a cost
of .004 per square foot (the double strength version cleans twice as
many square feet per gallon of detergent at a cost of .003 per
square foot). Note: Avoid over-wetting the carpet – only apply
enough cleaning solution to lightly whiten the surface – we just
want to wet out the fiber.
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Scrubbing
Equipment: Any scrubber with strong agitation can be used for
encapsulation cleaning. The "muscle" of this cleaning method is
AGITATION. That's why we recommend Cimex scrubbers for
encapsulation. They safely produce the highest degree of agitation
of any scrubber on the market. Their effectiveness is unmatched. The
Cimex has 3 counter-rotating brushes. The 3 brushes spin clockwise
while the drive deck turns counter-clockwise. So it’s actually
turning in both directions simultaneously (kind of like the teacup
ride at the fair). Therefore it actually scrubs all sides of the
fiber with each pass. To put this into context, the Cimex is over 6
times more efficient than a standard rotary machine. Three brushes
spinning at 400 rpm as compared to one brush turning at 175 rpm
means there's a 600% increase in cleaning aggression. In other
words, if we were to clean a very dirty carpet with 3 passes using
the Cimex it would require 18 passes with a standard rotary machine
to accomplish the same thing. And since the brushes are
counter-rotating, there's no tip bloom or damage to the carpet. The
Cimex can clean 2,000 - 3,000 square feet per hour on the average.
The Cimex can be seen at Newport Chemical & Equipment Co..
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Pads versus
Brushes: We recommend using FiberPlus™ scrubbing pads. These
pads are well suited for scrubbing carpets with the correct degree
of agitation. Why scrub with pads rather than brushes? Consider this
illustration – you have a greasy frying pan to clean. You could get
it clean by scrubbing it with a scrub brush, but if you scrub it
with one of those green kitchen pads the pan will clean up even
easier. Why? It’s because the pads make more surface contact. So
when we scrub a carpet with a pad the same principle holds true. We
have better agitation and we use less solution to get the job done.
FiberPlus pads will clean an average of 5 hours or 10,000 square
feet before they wear thin and need to be replaced. FiberPlus pads
are available for the 19" Cimex machine, as well as 15" and 17"
machines.
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Recurring
Spills: Releasit™ stops wicking and recurring spill stains. The
instructions for treating spills is listed on the Releasit™ label.
Here's the full description of our "never fail" spill stain remedy.
This method works! With this simple 4 step process we can now say
good-bye to recurring spills for good.
1. When approaching a spill stain - isolate the stain - thoroughly
scrub the carpet surrounding the stain leaving the stain untouched.
2. Next aggressively scrub DRY PASSES on the spot. Criss-cross the
scrubber back and forth over the stain. Scrub the stain continuously
for a full minute or two. We don't want to get the area wet with
additional detergent. In this way, the spot is being aggressively
cleaned with minimal moisture. This is not a totally dry scrub.
Moisture is captured within the scrub pad from the surrounding area
as the scrubber criss-crosses back and forth over the stain. However
the moisture is being kept to an absolute minimum. By scrubbing for
a full minute or two, the spill stain is receiving an EXTREMELY
thorough scrubbing.
3. Prepare a spray bottle of Releasit™ mixed 50/50 with water to use
as an effective spill stain treatment (with the double strength
version mix 8 ounces per quart spray bottle). After cleaning the
spot thoroughly as described above, spray the spot with a few
squirts of Releasit™ mixed at 50/50.
4. The final step is to make one more quick dry pass over the
treated spot with the scrubber to work the Releasit™ down into the
fiber.
Now the
spot won't
return!
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Wicking:
Releasit™ can correct the majority of wicking problems. Wicking is
one of the most common problems seen with commercial carpets. How
many times have we heard the sad story that goes something like
this?... Joe is a professional carpet cleaner all the way. Joe
cleans a commercial carpet and does a terrific job! It looks great
when he's finished and the building manager tells Joe that the
carpet looks beautiful as he is packing up his truck. However the
next morning Joe receives the disturbing “morning after” phone call
– “Joe something’s wrong, the carpet looks worse than before you
cleaned it”. Why the problem? Commercial carpet is most frequently a
flat glue-down construction. So there’s essentially no airflow,
hence extraction can become a bit more challenging. Commercial
carpets are often loop construction. The densely packed loops can
trap a tremendous amount of dry soil. A considerable amount of
commercial carpeting is olefin and we all know that olefin can be
difficult to clean. So clearly commercial carpet presents a set of
challenging conditions that can exacerbate wicking problems. We
designed Releasit™ to EXCEL at stopping wicking. So the disturbing
“morning after” phone calls can now become a thing of the past.
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Post-Vacuuming:
The crystallizing technology of Releasit™ was designed so that the
encapsulated soil can be extracted through routine post-vacuuming.
How can the post-vacuuming be accomplished? You could return the
following day to provide the post-vacuuming service (it takes about
24 hours for Releasit™ to cure and for the crystallization to
occur). Or if the building has a vacuuming program in place, (and
most commercial buildings do) the carpet could simply be vacuumed at
the next regular vacuuming interval. Some have asked – but what if
their vacuuming is not all that great? Not a problem. Instead of
recovering the crystallized residue with one vacuuming, perhaps it
will take a couple of vacuumings. One great vacuuming, two good
vacuumings, three average vacuumings, five fair vacuumings, or ten
poor vacuumings – you get the picture, the encapsulated soil should
eventually be removed. The carpet will continue to look good even
before the micro-encapsulated soil-laden particles are vacuumed. And
even if all the crystallized residue doesn't get vacuumed out
entirely; the crystals will resolublize during the next
encapsulation cleaning and form new crystals as it dries – hence the
cycle begins again.
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As you can see
–
this is a simple, effective and profitable method that successfully
fixes common commercial carpet problems! Encapsulation is fast
becoming the method of choice for maintaining commercial carpets. |
