Solar Seal, New product Anyone know much about it?

A new product is out now called solar seal. It is basically a solvent based carpet protector with UV protection in the chemistry. It sounds like a pretty cool idea so I bought a gallon to test it out on my own carpet first.

I found first off, it smells very strong when you first spray it. Smells like coconut-paint-suntan oil X 10. The carpet has an oil residue on it for the first several hours after applying it. If you walk on the carpet and then step on to tile or hard flooring you are likely to slip its that oily. We had to ventilate heavily for a few hours till it started to settle down.

The next morning the oilyness had subsided and the carpet started to feel normal and dry again, however, there was still a fairly strong "coconut oil" type smell. Its not a bad smell, kind of like you used a good dose of coconut carpet fresh on the carpet.

Between 24 and 48 hours after application the odor was barely noticable and certainly not unpleasant. And all "oilyness" had disappeared as the product had finished completely curing and adhering itself to the carpet fibre.

So, my question now is:

1. Does anyone have any more info about this product than what I have already read on their website? www.solarseal.com

2. Is it viable to try to carry this product for its new "sun fade resist" properties as a new cutting edge, something your competitors dont sell and if you become an applicator, cannot sell in your area?

3. IF you were a customer and I told you all this was going to happen when I applied it to your carpet, would you still want me to apply it?

Thanks for the feedback Scott, interesting!

I have seen many living rooms with sun fading damage on the carpet in front of the big bay window, or even on furniture that is placed in front of the big bay window. Problem is, the customer isnt really aware or concerned about it until after the damage is done.

We are going to try to test market it, and see how it goes, but the customer has to be well educated as to the odor and oilyness they are going to experience for a few days, especially if it was applied inside a vehicle, they may not be able to drive it for a few days until that all settles down.

I certainly wish they would design a water based model, it would solve a lot of issues. Everyone seems to think water hurts fabric, but even on delicate silks and wools, you can get them a little wet, as long as you dry and neutralize them properly.

Just touching back on this thread from a while back. I've been advertising the solar seal all over the place and nobody has shown any interest in sun fade protection in their fabric protector. Either the sun fade has already happened and its "too late" or they dont plan to live there or keep the carpets long enough to care about it.

After the product fully cured into my carpet, the smell went away and it actually worked superior to a regular application of scotchgard. When my infant daughter spilled some juice from a bottle onto the carpet, the liquid actually beaded up just like in the commercials. I've never seen scotchgard make water or juice bead up, even though they have pics of it. Who knows how much product was in that rug before the pic was taken? Its like the car wax commercial where they show a shiny car but fail to tell you there is 52 coats of this wax on the car as well as special lighting applications.

The company behind Solar seal wasnt really on the ball either. They failed to respond to my email inquiries and the jugs they sent me had poorly fixed labels which peeled off on their own over time, revealing.. some other product label underneath. Reused jugs? Getting 2 jugs of this stuff shipped to Canada cost me over 200 dollars by the time the dust settled and they are still sitting in my storeroom six months later. The only one to try it was me, I made brochures, distributed to all the flooring stores, put ads in paper, talked to customers about it, and still nothing.

Ah well, we keep trying new ideas and not all of them will work out.