All around chemicals

depends on what kind of jobs you are going to do. Mostly residential? There are a lot of good pre-sprays out there for "all around" residential cleaning. I would try a couple different kinds to see what you like the best. It is a good idea to have a pre spray for olefin carpets like in offices, restaurants, etc. I've had better results for a pre spray specifically made for olefin. Also if you clean wool rugs there are sprays just for wool.

good luck

You have an Interlink Supplier in Medford. Tehy can give you advice for particular jobs.

If I wanted a limited number of products for the widest variety of jobs, I would start with
Zone Perfect prespray
End Zone rinse agent
Citrus Solv to boost for greasy or oily jobs
Boost All oxygen booster, whitener and color brightener.

Those will cover most of the residential jobs (occupied, not empty apartments) and many of the commercial jobs you will see.

Scott Warrngton

I am in a similar situation than "Blue wave carpet Cleaning". Because I am new in this I also want to know which product is the best for most residentials, one for commercial, etc, etc.(and please I don't think a Bridgepoint has the best pre spray, citrus solvent, rinse etc etc what about pro's choice, prochem, chemspec).

For example I have 10 year stripping and waxing floors and I know tennant has a excellent wet vac, but the floor machine is bad. Best floor stripper is faststrip from johnnson, best floor finish or wax is porlaris from ecolab,best backpack vacuum is pro team super coach etc etc

Which product is the best for a beginner, carpet pre spray and upholstery pre spray? carpet and upsholstery rinse? etc etc
Thanks
Locko-Fabara

I don't envy you new guys at all.

There are so many chemicals to choose from it can be mind boggling. The post about any one place having all the best is right on. Interlink has some great chems. I love their citrisolve and there Stain Zone. The other stuff in the "Zone" line up is worth trying. I just don't like usning liquids if I don't have to.

Here's what I use.

Carpet... Fibermaxx,LLC I use the higher ph product for all carpet except wool. I even use it on most upholstery I just make sure to use a souring agent as a final step.

Delicate upholstery and rugs or wool carpet I use whatever I have on hand that is neutral. Most of the delicate stuff is not that dirty so it doesn't take much to get it clean. If it is badly soiled I tell them I wont clean it. Yes that leaves the door open for my competition to get that customer. Well guess what, they can have them. I don't like working for richie rich.

Ken Raddon.

Although the sales guys I know might not want me to say so, but Boost All should not be used on every job. It does two things.
1) It brightens colors and makes whites "whiter>" just like those laundry products. The neutral colors - grays and browns- don't brighten as well. But I would use Boost All to brighten if the job is a white or nearly white carpet or a bright color.
2) Boost All is an alkaline booster. It helps your prespray cut through greasey and oily soils quickly. While almost every job has some grease and oil, I hope you are also cleaning a lot of homes where the people care enough to not abuse the carpet and have it cleaned often. Boost All should not be needed on those jobs.

Some companies, especially those with several techs, add Boost All on every job. This is for consitency. They can teach one way of cleaning carpets and keep it simple. The tech doesn't have to decide which jobs to use it on. But for the O/O who pays attention, he can decide when it is needed and when not to use it.

For heavily soiled carpets, and rental units often get that way, I would use Flex along with some Citrus Solv. I did not mention this in the first post becuase you were looking to simplifiy and only carry a few chemicals.

Every job is at least a little different from the one before. You could probably find a different combination of cleaners that would work best on every job. But you would have spent a lot of time testing to discover the answers. There are several good products available. If you find ones that work for you, I don't see much advanatge to searching for something that is just a little bit better.

Support your local distributor. Don't waste your time going to pick up something from half a dozen different suppliers. You could be spending that time marketing your business or being with your family.

Scott Warrington

Prespray
Citrus
PIG
Rust remover
and occasionally red relief.

I use Traffic slam on most jobs if there look bad. I use Zone perfect when a customer is just trying to maintan there carpet and it looks good before I even start. I am starting to use Green presprays on those now though. I know it says not to use Traffic slam on new carpet but the carept I am cleaning most of the time there is no need to worry about that... any thoughts on what I am saying...... seems to be doing good so far....... as far as Flex, I have never tried it but I kind of think if Traffic slam dont clean it ... then just replace it... its nasty....

1 important factor also is that we all have a different idea of what a good job is and what clean carpet is then you also need a happy customer at the end of the day.

Prekleen from Chemspec goes a LONG way. on easy jobs mix 2 scoops into a gallon of hot water and on real dirty carpet use more.

Prekleen is a very good starting point then from there you can decide if you need something stronger or even something else.

If you find that prekleen is total junk then you're doing something wrong LOL like you forgot to add water to your cleaning precedure or something

let me add to this that when I had a customer say prekleen was no good I went out with them one night to clean and observe their procedures and techniques.

The result was honestly they had no clue on how to clean carpet...but you know what? they have happy customers and more money than they know what to do with. so what could I say?

Upholstery Prespray

You guys seem to have everything covered pretty well for carpet cleaning, but I would add at least one more product that is a must unless you never intend to do upholstery which is almost impossible if you are doing residential work. I have used both the Prochem upholstery Prespray and the Chemspec Upholstery Prespray. I like them both, but the Chemspec can't be beat for both performance and bang for the buck. It is best mixed with hot water in an electric or small pump up sprayer. Unless you really do a whole lot of upholstery one container will last a long time. My main products for carpet are : 1. Grand Slam prespray, 2. Matrix Finish First, 3. Matrix All Fiber Rinse, 4. Citrussolve (or a similar citrus solvent) 5. Red Out (or similar food dye remover), 6. Matrix Olefin Prespray ( or similar), 7. Unduzit for pet urine (current product, was using Matrix Bottom Line) 7. Milgo SR for light residential flooding. I don't do major flood damage, but occasionally get request to handle a smaller flooded area at least a few times a year. You need a product like this on the truck just in case. By the way, although I carry it, I rarely use the Olefin Prespray as the Grand Slam works well on Olefin too. You could do without maybe a couple of these or similar type products like the Red Out, but it really makes you look good to the customer when you get things out others leave behind or that they could not get out themselves.

The Chemspec upholstery pre spray we sell in Canada is RTU.