One prespray for everything? Is it possible?

[wandwizard]

I'm just curious how many or if anyone on here uses one prespray for all their carpet cleaning day in day out? I keep several myself, but honestly, I know I don't need to probably keep more than 2. One for normal carpet cleaning and one safe for naturals. I also keep a fine fabric shampoo and some encaps. By normal carpet cleaning, I mean all jobs whether residential or commercial and whether light soil to what have I gotten myself into filth. I see where guys on here are mixing up their "nuke it" batch and adding a bit of this and a bit of that and then a little more of this. I am not a fan of mixing a lot of stuff together to get the job done and don't recommend it. Personally, I occasionally add a citrus or oxy booster and don't even do that very often. I have added Grout Master to Rob's Secret Formula, but I haven't even done that but a few times. Here are the criteria I'm looking at for a single prespray that may or may not need at least boosting with normal boosters such as citrus or oxy. If the booster is already in it that's even better.

1. It truly works on all synthetic carpet fibers.
2. It is suitable for use in million dollar homes, mobile homes, rentals, as well as any commercial business.
3. It will literally work on ALL soiling conditions no matter the type of soil.
4. It will not void a manufacturers warranty so it's ph is not above 10. I am unaware of any manufacturer who allows for this even on carpets where it really doesn't matter. Honestly, I think manufacturers may not be the best judges of how to clean their own products.
5. Ideally, the presrpay is already boosted and you don't have to do a thing to it, but put it in your sprayer and start spraying!
6. A health rating of zero would be ideal, but no more than 1 acceptable.
7. You have been doing this with just one prespray for at least over 1 year with pretty heavy use.

 

[mrotto]

This may or may not answer your question, but what I do is have one prespray that safely works on just about everything. I do dilute it more than directions because I use a CRB. (not to save money, but in most cases just dont need all that cleaner)

However, I do boost it accordingly to what I am cleaning. Most the times I dont need to boost it. Oxy/solvent/BioPro/Spiked, etc. but the base prespray is the same.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

I'm just curious how many or if anyone on here uses one prespray for all their carpet cleaning day in day out? I keep several myself, but honestly, I know I don't need to probably keep more than 2. One for normal carpet cleaning and one safe for naturals. I also keep a fine fabric shampoo and some encaps. By normal carpet cleaning, I mean all jobs whether residential or commercial and whether light soil to what have I gotten myself into filth. I see where guys on here are mixing up their "nuke it" batch and adding a bit of this and a bit of that and then a little more of this. I am not a fan of mixing a lot of stuff together to get the job done and don't recommend it. Personally, I occasionally add a citrus or oxy booster and don't even do that very often. I have added Grout Master to Rob's Secret Formula, but I haven't even done that but a few times. Here are the criteria I'm looking at for a single prespray that may or may not need at least boosting with normal boosters such as citrus or oxy. If the booster is already in it that's even better.

1. It truly works on all synthetic carpet fibers.
2. It is suitable for use in million dollar homes, mobile homes, rentals, as well as any commercial business.
3. It will literally work on ALL soiling conditions no matter the type of soil.
4. It will not void a manufacturers warranty so it's ph is not above 10. I am unaware of any manufacturer who allows for this even on carpets where it really doesn't matter. Honestly, I think manufacturers may not be the best judges of how to clean their own products.
5. Ideally, the presrpay is already boosted and you don't have to do a thing to it, but put it in your sprayer and start spraying!
6. A health rating of zero would be ideal, but no more than 1 acceptable.
7. You have been doing this with just one prespray for at least over 1 year with pretty heavy use.

Randy my friend, I am going to answer your question this way...
YES!! There was a time when all I used was one "prespray" (I hate the terminology) for all carpets regardless of soiling condition. If you remember Mike Vernon of Hardball Chemical Company, his Powr-Pak was the absolute best there was. It was based on highly spun pine oil serpentine and was a Ph6. It would RIP the filthiest grime your eyes ever saw right off of the carpet. To this day I doubt that any one "prespray" (I hate that terminology) could do what that did. No way. No how.

And I also used it on the gentlest of fine fabrics too. Mike was a genius and I miss him. His Power Powder was equally as amazing. I could clean an entire house with that stuff and the chemical cost was maybe .25 cents. It was that good.

Anyway, that's my answer.

 

[wandwizard]

Randy my friend, I am going to answer your question this way...
YES!! There was a time when all I used was one "prespray" (I hate the terminology) for all carpets regardless of soiling condition. If you remember Mike Vernon of Hardball Chemical Company, his Powr-Pak was the absolute best there was. It was based on highly spun pine oil serpentine and was a Ph6. It would RIP the filthiest grime your eyes ever saw right off of the carpet. To this day I doubt that any one "prespray" (I hate that terminology) could do what that did. No way. No how.

And I also used it on the gentlest of fine fabrics too. Mike was a genius and I miss him. His Power Powder was equally as amazing. I could clean an entire house with that stuff and the chemical cost was maybe .25 cents. It was that good.

Anyway, that's my answer.

I would likely have tried the Hardball stuff years ago except for one little thing. They absolutely do not answer their phone. I tried several times on different occasions with the same result. They also don't reply to messages. It's also useless to try and contact them on their website. To put it bluntly, they have no customer service. I know nothing about them, just relating my personal experience. I won't give them another shot and I won't order from a company that appears to not answer their phone or even return a call. This was several years ago btw on separate occasions. I had heard good things about their carpet protector and wanted to try it and would likely have tried their other stuff as well. I simply wanted to talk to a living person first. Didn't happen. They still have the exact same website up with the exact same contact info and phone numbers I think I saw a number of years back.

I like the word prespray. I might even have invented it! I use it all the time even though it's not a recognized word in the dictionary. I actually have thought about trying to get it entered into the dictionary believe it or not! It's easier than typing out traffic lane cleaner, pre-conditioner, or abbreviating TLC! So what do you call "presray."? Gotta call it something. Pre means before and spray is self-explanatory!

 

[Jim Davisson]

The answer is yes IMO, but dilution ratio matters. Can you do it on your own super simple, yes. Will you be uncomfortable trying it out, yes. Will you be blown away at the results, yes. If you ever go down that path I will help you.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

It's TLC, or cleaning solution. Plain and simple. Yes, "Pre" means Before. So you're SPRAYING, or applying. No need for PRE as it makes no grammatical sense. Just like PRE vacuum. NO. You just simply vacuum. Do you drink a PRE beer? LOL. You know I'm just having fun with ya pal.

As for why Hardball dont answer the phone....Mike passed away I believe. Not sure they're in business anymore. Mike would be near 90. years old now.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

The answer is yes IMO, but dilution ratio matters. Can you do it on your own super simple, yes. Will you be uncomfortable trying it out, yes. Will you be blown away at the results, yes. If you ever go down that path I will help you.

Jim, Ive said for years and years that no one needs all that different crap. Manufacturer's lead people to believe they do. I've been super successful with just a handful of products. And that's for carpet, rugs, upholstery, draperies, fabric wall coverings, tapestry, partitions and more. Right On Brother!!!

 

[Jim Davisson]

Jim, Ive said for years and years that no one needs all that different crap. Manufacturer's lead people to believe they do. I've been super successful with just a handful of products. And that's for carpet, rugs, upholstery, draperies, fabric wall coverings, tapestry, partitions and more. Right On Brother!!!

I'm glad I took the plunge and investigated what matters. I can build as slamming prespray between ACE hardware and Walmart if I needed to and a great extraction formula as well. Does that mean I know more than a chemist, not by a long shot.... What it does mean is that I know exactly what is in what I'm touching, breathing and using daily and have a choice in it's performance.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

I'm glad I took the plunge and investigated what matters. I can build as slamming prespray between ACE hardware and Walmart if I needed to and a great extraction formula as well. Does that mean I know more than a chemist, not by a long shot.... What it does mean is that I know exactly what is in what I'm touching, breathing and using daily and have a choice in it's performance.

Knowledge is the key. Knowledge is power. If I may steal the slogan from the U.S. Air Force Academy....
"Mans Flight Through Life Is Sustained By The Power Of His Knowledge".

 

[Jim Davisson]

I will say this, regardless of what you are spraying, please work your way out of the room quickly from the furthest point to the door and spray stairs from the bottom up.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

I will say this, regardless of what you are spraying, please work your way out of the room quickly from the furthest point to the door and spray stairs from the bottom up.

I'm sure you've seen videos of some guys spraying their TLC in front of themself while walking forward. I'm like WTF are you doing?? Completely illogical.
Me...I have a system...a method. One that makes sense.

 

[Jim Davisson]

I'm sure you've seen videos of some guys spraying their TLC in front of themself while walking forward. I'm like WTF are you doing?? Completely illogical.

Since I have gone low pressure high volume and use an adjustable cone jet on the hydroforce sprayer I can use higher dilution ratios with big droplets coming out of the sprayer. That sounds fanciful until you get the right sunlight coming in the room and see the difference in the air. At 500 PSI and an 8006 jet it almost creates a fog in the room when you can see it with the right light.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

Since I have gone low pressure high volume and use an adjustable cone jet on the hydroforce sprayer I can use higher dilution ratios with big droplets coming out of the sprayer. That sounds fanciful until you get the right sunlight coming in the room and see the difference in the air. At 500 PSI and an 8006 jet it almost creates a fog in the room when you can see it with the right light.

I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm a big cone jet guy too.

 

[wandwizard]

It's TLC, or cleaning solution. Plain and simple. Yes, "Pre" means Before. So you're SPRAYING, or applying. No need for PRE as it makes no grammatical sense. Just like PRE vacuum. NO. You just simply vacuum. Do you drink a PRE beer? LOL. You know I'm just having fun with ya pal.

As for why Hardball dont answer the phone....Mike passed away I believe. Not sure they're in business anymore. Mike would be near 90. years old now.

Ok, so I'll just call it pretreatment then! Anything but traffic lane cleaner. That takes an extra second to type out you know. No wonder they call it traffic lane cleaner. They couldn't figure out anything else to call it!

 

[wandwizard]

Since I have gone low pressure high volume and use an adjustable cone jet on the hydroforce sprayer I can use higher dilution ratios with big droplets coming out of the sprayer. That sounds fanciful until you get the right sunlight coming in the room and see the difference in the air. At 500 PSI and an 8006 jet it almost creates a fog in the room when you can see it with the right light.

What cone jet are you using? I have seen one sold for Hydroforces, but never tried one. Where do you get it? I might be willing to give this a shot. The one sold for Hydroforce is advertised for use with carpet dye which I've never done. Is this it? https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=NA0827B

 

[wandwizard]

Amount of PRE-SPRAYS at just 3 of the major players.

1. https://shop.truckmountforums.com has at least 63 just for carpet! Take your pick.
2. Interlinksupply around 60. There are some of the same ones sold at both sites.
3. TMF appears to only have 5, but I'm sure that will change in the next few years!

 

[Jim Davisson]

What cone jet are you using? I have seen one sold for Hydroforces, but never tried one. Where do you get it? I might be willing to give this a shot. The one sold for Hydroforce is advertised for use with carpet dye which I've never done. Is this it? https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=NA0827B

It's an adjustable tee jet hollow cone tip, you can also use a pump sprayer adjustable cone jet with some Teflon tape. Even at low pressure like I use, the back pressure exerted on the hydroforce block by adjusting the jet spray dramatically affects the siphon output. A fine mist = more back pressure and less injection. A much bigger droplet pattern = less back pressure and more injection. This does afford you on the fly adjustment for more prespray as needed or less in lightly soiled areas.

If you choose a fixed full cone jet they are numbered just like fan jets, pick a #6 to "not" affect dilution like you are used to. Tee jet also sells a back up figure 8 "looking" strainer device you would use directly behind the jet in place of a top hat strainer that does give you the best full cone pattern vs not using one. Farm boom sprayer guys know about this, your interlink counter guy is going to just look at you funny lol

 

[OldCarpetVet]

Ok, so I'll just call it pretreatment then!

Nooooo. You would simply call it Treatment. There is no Pre.
Arrrrrrrg.

 

[OldCarpetVet]

Amount of PRE-SPRAYS at just 3 of the major players.

1. https://shop.truckmountforums.com has at least 63 just for carpet! Take your pick.
2. Interlinksupply around 60. There are some of the same ones sold at both sites.
3. TMF appears to only have 5, but I'm sure that will change in the next few years!

Exactly!!! That was always my argument as was Mike's. Completely unnecessary. Good job buddy.

 

[scuba455]

Prochem Ultra Pac LVC