Do you have confidence in your cleaning chemicals?

by Jeff Cross It’s a cleaning gamble.You purchase a carpet preconditioner. You mix it according to directions, apply to the soiled carpet… and hope for the best.No matter how many cleaning passes you make with your cleaning tool, the results aren’t up to

your expectations.Or, perhaps you have a pet odor removal job.

The deodorizer you purchased says, on the label, that it completely removes odors.You mix it and apply it according to directions. The smell is still there.

Did you waste your money?Today’s cleaning chemicals are advanced and very effective. But you need to know this for yourself, and testing cleaning efficiency is important.

We will discuss detergency, deodorizing and spot/stain removal in this technical bulletin.

After all, those are three huge issues in cleaning challenges.Detergency and cleaning resultsA detergent is defined as a synthetic cleaning or wetting agent that has the ability to emulsify oils and soils, containing surfactants that attack soils in solution, making these soils easy to rinse. Detergents contain many ingredients that perform a variety of vital cleaning chores. These can include:· Surfactants · Builders · Solvents · Suspending agents · Enzymes · Reagents · Corrosion inhibitors for your equipment · And more The most important partThe most important aspect of detergency is with the surfactant (surface active agent).Surfactants make water "wetter" and allow your cleaning agent to break through barriers and attack the soils, preparing them to be easily rinsed from fibers. A surfactant has a head and a tail.

The head (hydrophilic) is "water-loving" and attracted to water-soluble soils. The head has to be stronger than the tail, in order for the detergent to remain water soluble.After all, you use water in cleaning, so this is important.The tail (hydrophobic end) of the surfactant molecule is the part of the surfactant that removes the oily soils. These (the head and tail of a surfactant) work perfectly together.

When the detergent is applied to your carpet or furniture's surface, the surfactant goes to work, attacking both types of soils for removal.The other type of soil - insoluble - is removed with vacuuming or the physical force of your cleaning operation. Test your detergentsTo see how a surfactant works, you can do a quick demonstration.

To do this, you need four things: 1. A plate or bowl2. Water3. Pepper4. Detergent (dish detergent is fine)Put some water on the plate or in the bowl, and liberally sprinkle pepper on the surface of the water.You'll notice that the pepper will move around and act "energetic" - this is due to the energy of the water. The pepper should be distributed pretty evenly across the water's surface. Then, put a small amount of detergent on your fingertip and touch the center of the water.The pepper moves to the outer edge of the plate or bowl, due to the surfactancy of the detergent.If you do this experiment and use pure ammonia, you will see some surfactancy, but in a smaller amount. A professionally-formulated detergent will have more surfactancy, and the pepper will move faster and remain on the edge longer. Some say that you need high pH to have an effective detergent and good surfactancy, but this isn't true.

Choose a neutral or even acid cleaner and do this experiment.You'll notice the surfactancy can be very high. Pure ammonia, with a very high pH, will not have good surfactancy.With this information, test your own chemicals.If there isn’t much movement when you touch the pepper, that means the surfactancy is low. If the pepper moves quickly away from the chemical, you have high surfactancy, and a better cleaning agent.

There can be such a thing as too much surfactancy, but it's rare to see that in today's cleaning chemicals. Too much surfactancy means your cleaning agent may pentrate too far too fast into the fabric, causing overwetting. 

Test your deodorizersYou need complete confidence in your deodorizer of choice.Deodorizing results occur after the job, even over the period of several days.That makes confidence a key factor, since you will not be at the job site (most likely) to analyze the results.Let’s do a test.You need something "stinky" – perhaps an old dish rag that smells terrible, or a piece of carpet that has pet urine in it.Of course, you can make your own stinky sample. If you have cats, put a small piece of fabric in the cat box and leave it for a day or two.Yes, this isn’t for the faint of heart… but this is real-world testing.

Once you have your sample, apply your deodorizer.

Remember, you have to "recreate the crime" – this means you must saturate the sample. Of course, always follow manufacturer directions.Allow proper dwelling time, and then rinse the fabric, allow to completely dry, and see (sniff) if your test worked.Today’s enzymes used in deodorizing make for easier odor control jobs.But remember: Enzymes need time to work.The use of oxygen also works great for removing foul odors.Spot/stain removers

Testing your spot and stain removal chemicals can be fun.

Simply obtain a white carpet sample, spray it with a product like Lysol (cationic chemicals weaken the carpet protector that may be in the carpet), and add staining materials to the carpet.

Add whatever you typically have to clean: Kool-Aid, ink, wine, fruit juices, coffee, etc.

Then, after about a week (let the staining material have time to "bond" with the fibers) test your products.

If they work, that's great. If not, investigate why that is and perhaps find products that work better.Complete confidenceFor all your cleaning challenges, you want complete confidence in the products you purchase.Do some simple testing… if it makes a believer out of you, it is time well spent.