The calcium carbonate coating is like making your hoses narrower. If you don’t descale
on a regular basis, flow rates will drop, hoses
and other parts can even fail completely if the
build-up remains excessive. Like plaque in
our arteries, this will also raise pressure while
decreasing flow rates. One TM manufacturer
demands a water softener for their warranty
to be effective. Use of alkaline cleaning products can increase the rate at which these minerals precipitate out.
The addition of an aci d rinse agent running through your Truckmount or portable
carpet cleaning unit helps to slowly dissolve
some of this build-up or keep it from occurring in the first place. So, an acid rinse like
End Zone offers benefits beyond getting carpet cleaner and rinsing away residue.
If you make a switch from using an alkaline to an acid side product in your rinse, the
acid will begin to remove the build-up inside
hoses and plumbing. As this gunk is cleaned
out, you will find filters and jets clogging or
gunk in the water dispensed. So activate the
wand over a sink, in the yard or somewhere
other than a client’s nice white carpet until
the water runs clear. Then clean the filters.
Detergents are less effective in hot water. Soft water offers a significant savings on
chemical usage while leaving less residue. You
may find that you only need about half the
concentration of prespray or other cleaning
agents. (Label dilution rates are usually provided for “average” water hardness. So, you use
slightly more if the water is extra hard and
less for soft water.) This is another potential
savings for soft water users. Your clients will
also appreciate the benefits. With increasing
awareness of the amount of chemicals coming
into our homes and the trend toward “green”
this is an advantage you can market.
One home water softener manufacturer
promotes a study by Purdue University**
stating that fabrics washed in hard water tend
to wear out 15% sooner compared to those
cleaned in soft water. We don’t know if these
numbers hold true for to carpet cleaning, but
it can’t hurt and likely extends carpet life to
clean with soft water.
Many cleaning products have ingredients
to combat the effects of the minerals in hard
water. These may be called Water softening
agents, chelating agents or by other names.
The chelating agents bind to calcium, magnesium and other minerals to aid in taking them
out of circulation. If you are cleaning natural
stone, the chelating agents don’t know the
difference between calcium in hard water and
calcium that is part of the natural make-up of
the stone you are cleaning. Since they want
to bind to the calcium, they can make your
cleaning solution more difficult to thoroughly
rinse away. Failure to completely rinse can
leave behind a film that dulls the appearance
over time.
SUMMARY – Consider the benefits to
your equipment and chemical costs and savings in maintenance labor if you use a water
softener. A water softener may take up only 1
or 2 sq. feet of space in your van and pay for
itself in 2 or 3 years.
When cleaning stone look for products specifically made for stone and that are
known to contain no chelating agents.
By Scott Warrington
Director of Technical Support
Interlink Supply / Bridgepoint Systems
* The “grains” used to measure hard water is a weight equal to 0.0648 gram. It takes
437.5 grains to make one ounce. This is the
same grain used to measure water vapor in
the air.
** From “Benefits of Using Soft vs. Hard
Water in Laundering Operations” published
by Water Quality Research Council, Purdue
University.
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