The 7 Most Common Misconceptions about Carpet Cleaning Chemistry – Part 1 – MORE DOES BETTER

Whether you have been in the business for many years or are brand new, it is not hard to run into strongly stated opinions about carpet cleaning chemistry that may sound correct, but when really investigated turn out to be off a little bit or even flat wrong. There is a lot of what I call MUS (Made-up-Stuff) that inevitably makes it way to becoming “established fact” as time moves on. Sometimes, the old truism of if something is repeated loud enough and often enough, it takes on the role of being factual certainly rings true in our industry. MUS generally falls into three categories; 1) information which was based upon the best information which was available at the time, but ultimately turned out not to be true; 2) stuff that was made up by someone or  a group of people that had a specific agenda; and 3) stuff that has some element of fact or truth in it, but is written purposefully at such a higher “gobbledy-gook” level, that we often accept is as fact because we are not sure how to refute the fact(s) in it being stretched out too far for a specific purpose.

Some misconceptions simply are reinforced by a simple lack of the correct information being available. In this article, we are going to look at some of the most commonly held misconceptions about carpet cleaning chemistry, and how those misconceptions can often make a cleaning job come across as more difficult than it really is.

Misconception #1 – More does better

You ever know anyone that likes to add a lot of sugar to their ice tea? You know the type. They pour and pour. Then they stir and stir. Even after all that, not all of the sugar they have added will dissolve into the ice tea. The water can only hold so much chemical (in this case sugar). The same holds true for quality carpet cleaning presprays and extraction detergents. If you are buying from a quality formulator like CleanMaster, you can pretty much rest assured that the formula you are buying, and the directions on it, will provide you with the maximum amount of cleaning power that particular chemical is capable of. We know that the likely reaction to have when a carpet is not coming as clean as you want it to during the cleaning process is to spray more chemical or mix it stronger, but the chemistry fact is this, it is mixed at the optimum point for cleaning performance. If you have chosen the right cleaning chemical for the soiling and traffic conditions, as well as the carpet fiber and construction you are encountering. Adding more will not clean it better. If you want as strong a cleaning solution as it can come in one chemical without boosting, try Blitz with GreaseBreaker Carpet Prespray.