Understanding water pressure

Proper solution pressure ensures good cleaning results and prevents over-wetting with the hot water extraction method. Controlled, reasonable pressure will not blow excess vapor into the room atmosphere* where it has the very real possibility of damaging furnishings and even wall coverings. This side effect of excessive water pressure also retards drying time and increases humidity drastically where it can damage delicate instruments or a grand piano.

To prevent this problem, many manufacturers install hoods (spray retainers) on high pressure (200+ PSI) cleaning heads (wands). The hoods cause the spray to condense and form heavy rivulets of water down the sides of the retainer which soak deeper at the edges of the tool than in the center. As this extra moisture seeks air to dry, it wicks up to the surface of the carpet and causes streaking several days or even weeks after the carpet has dried.

Moderate water pressure, a well-designed cleaning tool, effective cleaning agents and especially an operator trained to use the equipment will get rave reviews from clients along with repeat and referral business. High pressure, when used by an inexperienced operator often causes the consumer to blame the carpet for their dissatisfaction and carpet sales suffer.

*External Extraction® removes the moisture from the premises.

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"Green" news events

News item #1.
Pergo, a subsidiary of Pfleiderer AG, was nominated for the Danish “Environmental Award.” The Swedish company’s “Nordic Swan,” is the official seal that guarantees adherence to green standards. The topper to this award is that the Danish architect group, Presens, chose a Pergo floor for the World Climate Summit in Copenhagen last year.

News item #2.
Pfleiderer AG, the parent company of Pergo posted a net loss of 69.8 million euros (US $95.3M) compared with a profit of 5.8 million euros (US$7.9M) a year ago. Revenue was off 20.4% to 1.38 billion euros (US$1.9B) in the financial year 2009 from 1.74 billion euros (US$2.4MM) in 2008. The company said it sees no improvement in business this year compared with 2009.

You remember Copenhagen? That's where they talked about the world overheating. Even with all that hot air from the conference, Europe and most of the USA have just experienced one of the coldest winters on record. Could the Danish/Swedish hypothesis be a money loser? Maybe the "Hot" world is catching on that we're really into a global cooling period which is cyclical.

The junk science being used in the carpet cleaning industry for testing and approving equipment and chemicals reminds me a little of the big green movement. Maybe those supporting and promoting it will meet the same fate as the Danish/Swedish masquerade when people wise up.

The good news for carpet cleaners is that less Pergo flooring is being sold.

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Security is our watchword

Everyone is concerned about identity theft, credit card fraud and privacy issues. When you make a purchase on baneclene.com, place an order on 800 428 9512, or communicate with us using your e-mail address, you can be sure of five things:

• Your credit card information is safe.
• We never sell your name or e-mail address to anyone.
• Your order is right 99.99% of the time. We double check everything.
• Large inventory means back orders are very rare.
• Orders are shipped promptly, and nearly always on the same day received.

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Web site activity

Visits to this web site are consistently running more than a half a million accesses every month. Some months have gone as high as 750,000. People look for general information, cleaners order supplies, visit our catalog and information pages, such as MSDS, Spot removal guides and Troubleshooting charts. The Cleaning Digest®, Clene-Times® and my BLOG are popular. Carpet mills, retailers, insurance adjusters, banks, plumbers and realty firms use it, too.

But, here's the exciting part for professional cleaning services to think about. Most of the accesses were consumers searching for a cleaning service. We know this because when they can't find someone in our locator directory, they call our toll-free number and ask us to recommend someone close to their home or office to work for them.

Bane-Clene® operators can link to this valuable source of business for only $99. Call Don Terry at 800 428 9512. He'll make a home page for you and link it here. There are no renewal or maintenance fees for this advertising bargain of the century.

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Homes For Our Troops

Combat veterans are coming home from war with catastrophic injuries. These brave people survived, but have sacrificed heavily for our freedom. This is the sixth anniversary of Homes For Our Troops. More than fifty homes, adapted for specific handicaps, have been built and donated for disabled American veterans returning from battle. Thirty more of these special homes are in the planning stages and will be built nationwide.

To learn more about this worthwhile cause, go to www.homesforourtroops.org. Some ways you can participate are to assist in building a home for them. You can also give financial support or offer free services such as carpet and furniture cleaning. Homes For Our Troops has created a Facebook page, with photos and videos, where you can get the latest news and learn about upcoming events.

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Going bananas # 5

A banana is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. Bananas might be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time!

The expression "going bananas" is from the effects of bananas on the brain. Bananas contain three natural sugars sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy and can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent illnesses and conditions such as:
Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school (England) were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

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Sun Belt is 40

Congratulations to Sun Belt USA, on celebrating 40 years in business. I remember meeting Ken Hines at a convention in Pennsylvania back in the late '70s. His brother Bob built the Steamex carpet cleaning machines and Bob traveled all over the country for the young company and sold them out of his station wagon. They were true entrepreneurs.

Steve Boyette, who heads the company today, said in a press release, "Sun Belt has weathered the recent economic storm and remains financially strong. We are positioned for growth and eager to overcome any business and market challenges that lie ahead." Surviving the current recession is admirable, but 40 years in business is a greater challenge and deserves cheers from their colleagues in the business. "WELL DONE!"

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Consumer Reports tests carpet cleaning equipment

Consumer Reports said professional carpet cleaning is a $3 billion dollar a year industry. That's pretty exciting news for those in the business. The thought that Pros are getting rich, must have prompted them to test eight DIY carpet cleaning machines that are available for rent or purchase. They did a report on equipment, vacuum cleaners, cleaning solutions and spot removers.

For the cleaning tests, they spread top soil, wet it down and then used a heavy roller to mash it in. When dry, the carpet was vacuumed and then cleaned with 20 passes by each machine. They even hired a professional service for comparison and, happily for all of us, reported that none of the small machines did as good as the Pro. They concluded that it's a dirty, tiring job. Anyone in the cleaning business could have verified all of the above and not charged them a dime.

But, this is the part that really puzzles me. Instead of going to all that expense and trouble, why didn't Consumer Reports just call the CRI? CRI has tested hundreds of machines and cleaning agents. Could it be that Consumer Reports knew that the fake dirt used in CRI tests just doesn't measure up to the real soil we find in the carpets we clean for a living every day?

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Chemicals can cause harm

Several years ago we did a multi year study of replacement parts ordered for Bane-Clene® equipment. It revealed some very interesting statistics. Equipment owners who use Bane-Clene cleaning agents exclusively, ordered very few replacement parts for their machines. In fact some owners ordered no parts at all during the five year study period.

However, those owners who did not use Bane Clene cleaning agents exclusively ordered many more spare parts and much more often. These parts were nearly all involved in the movement of water through the system. They included pressure regulators, nozzle tips, pumps, pump parts and quick coupler connectors.

Bane-Clene's cleaning agents contain lubricating ingredients to help protect moving parts in those components which handle water movement. Some popular chemical products do not. In fact there are some cleaning agents that contain abrasive ingredients used as filler to add weight. Abrasive fillers cause excessive wear simply by moving through the system.

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Insurance question

A cleaner called who was upset about a water damage job. He had been called by a customer to clean up after a pipe had broken, but an insurance company got involved before he got started. He said he thought the adjuster hinted for a bribe when he was asked to bid on the job. He worked up a bid but didn't know what to do about a bribe so he didn't do anything. And sure enough, he was asked to leave and someone waiting around the corner got the job.

We had a motto in our company when we did a lot of water damage work back in the '70s. "If they stick their hand out for a payoff, shake it, but don't put any money in it." Insurance people aren't the only ones. Building and office managers are sometimes on the take. If you succumb to their level of society, you're the one who has to live with yourself. I think this is one of the reasons insurance rates are so high.

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Latest on Stainmaster®

Lowe's® home improvement stores struck a landmark deal with Invista™, the owner of the Stainmaster trademark, to be their exclusive carpet outlet among the "big box" stores. The Stainmaster line will have an expanded selection in more than 1,700 Lowe's stores in the U.S. and Canada. Menards® and Home Depot® will no longer have access to Stainmaster branded carpet. Independent retailers will still be able to access the line through authorized mills.

Stainmaster was introduced in 1986, and is claimed to be the most recognized brand name in carpet. Over the years, I've published periodic reports on the original test carpet that was installed in my family room by L. S. Ayres & Co., a department store in Indianapolis. The store is gone, but that old carpet is still there. For the latest report on Stainmaster, go to page 6 of our Winter 2003 Cleaning Digest®:
http://www.baneclene.com/cleaning-digest/Winter2003.pdf

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Carpet mills expanding

Looptex Mills has applied for $5 million in bonds for an expansion project. Their parent company, Dobbs Mills, has manufacturing facilities in Chatsworth, Georgia and a distribution center in Whitfield County. Dobbs is reportedly planning to buy another mill and consolidate both operations in Dalton. The company employs about 115 people.

As I reported a few weeks ago, Beaulieu of America® has applied for tax credits for $21 million in new equipment for a plant expansion. And they're adding fifty new jobs in Dalton. These are encouraging signs that the carpet industry may be coming out of recession

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One grasshopper

A physics teacher told students "One grasshopper on railroad tracks won't slow down a train in climbing a steep grade. But, a billion of them would make the tracks slick enough to do it." A friend told me he was in a big box store looking at hose attachments and noticed they were made in China. Later he saw some at Ace Hardware that were made in the USA.

He went on to say, "GE light bulbs are made in Mexico and are more expensive than bulbs made in Cleveland, Ohio. The fabric softener Bounce® is made in Canada and costs more than the Everyday Value brand which is made in the USA". He said "Hershey’s® candy bars and Colgate® toothpaste are made in Mexico, too." Are you beginning to understand what he is saying?

Start reading labels while shopping and look for products that are made in the USA. Every thing we buy affects someone's job somewhere. Let's start with light bulbs. One light bulb won't matter much, but if a lot of us look at labels and buy products made in America, it can and will make a difference. The job you save may be your own or that of your neighbor!

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Carpet cleaner caught dumping*

A citizen In Thousand Oaks, California saw Ryan Edlestein, a 24-year-old carpet cleaner dump his dirty water into the city’s sewer system through a manhole. He recently pleaded guilty to unlawful dumping of materials into a sewer, a misdemeanor. It’s against the law to remove manhole covers to gain access to the city sewer system.

The defendant was ordered to pay a fine of $250 and an additional $100 to the state restitution fund. He was placed on misdemeanor probation for a year. Any subsequent violations could be charged as a felony.

Would it have been OK if he were to be using CRI approved chemicals in the water?

*As reported in the Thousand Oaks Acorn.

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