Recommended Prespray for Apartments

[Joe Couch]

We currently use Surepass by DSC Products and it does a great job on apartments, but I am always wondering what other apartment cleaners are using and how well it works.

Is anybody using a low cost or highly concentrated cleaner that works really well?

Any recommendations would be great.

 

[hogjowl]

Good grief. You're going to get a thousand different answers from every fool posting here.

Just use whatever you can get locally.

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

I don't clean Apartment complexes but I do clean trashed rentals. I've use Judsons 02 with great results and I've used Bridgepoints Zone perfect with good results. I think you will find that what ever you have will work good as long as you have some dwell time and you are prescrubing the carpets.

 

[hogjowl]

If you're having to prescrub, then you're using a weak, pissy assed prespray.

No offense intended, panzy ass.

 

[The Cleaning Artist]

porky
better hope mikey don't read that

He'll send you nasty private message

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

If you're having to prescrub, then you're using a weak, pissy assed prespray.

No offense intended, panzy ass.

Just using what I get locally, if a little bit of scrubbing is going to keep me from putting down the thick stuff then a little scrubbing it will be.

 

[SRI Cleaning]

Enzall or grease eraser!!!!

 

[Duane Oxley]

Apartments...?

OneStep Liquid was designed with them in mind. It's an emulsifier, so it's designed to be run through the system. Very little need to prespray when you use it. So, for apartments, it saves time in a big way...


Other than that, SuperTLP is the one to use.

E-mail me your address and I'll send you samples...

 

[Scott Rogers]

I like liquid 1step, but it isnt super effective on greasy oily areas. Super TLP spiked with a little citrus works well on those areas.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Surepass is good, (like nearly all DSC products) but i think it smells awful

Prochem Powerburst at 3 scoops pre gal RTU dilution is what we use to hammer the rat nazdies.

Bridgepoint Power Break works very well too, but it stinks worse than Surepass...

if you want a cheap nuclear juice for grease pits, try some of Harbor Freight's heavy duty degreaser.
Not only loaded with butyl, but it's spiked with sodium hydroxide (lye)

hell, Simple Green will smoke a grease pit too
(it's kicks Castrol's azz all over the house)

..L.T.A.

 

[The Preacher]

mix 16oz of 30 vol clear developer from Sally Beauty Supply to a 2 gal sprayer. cost you about a buck to boost you Surepass.

 

[Jtuseo]

Pro's Choice Extreme Clean

 

[Dom Agostino]

I see that you use an HM t-mount, are you familiar with their BLITZ? Seems to be a pretty powerful pres pray, 12.5 ph. I picked up a jar today, gonna give it a try on some nasty grease pits.

Dom

 

[White Collar]

Bio-Break or power break extraction with dry slurry...

 

[Contemporary Carpet Clean]

Meat,
We like the prochem power burst too
grease eraser is up there and so is fab pros enzymatic powder

I am definitely a bigger fan of an powdered enzyme versus anything citrus including citrus spotters vs solvent type spotters

 

[Joe Couch]

The Surepass works really well. I am trying to find a product that works just as good but is a little cheaper. We clean over 3000 apartments a year and chemical cost along with rising gas prices is a major concern.

We buy 150 gallons of Surepass about every 3 weeks to a month depending on time of year and average price per gallon is $13 per gallon.

In the apartment business we are always looking for better and cheaper.

 

[tim]

CTI Extreme Clean or Powerburst or Blitz. Cant go wrong with any of these. PH around 13, will melt off the worst crap you have ever seen. I use Extreme Clean most often and boost with citrus and dirt chaser or energy on the super nasties. Amazing results. I have a client with 152 rent properties. I clean them at top dollar. People tell him he is crazy for paying that for rental property cleaning but he just laughs and says "you havent seen what my guy can do!" Aggitation with procaps or rotary tool...you are the hero

 

[Dolly Llama]

Meat,
We like the prochem power burst too
grease eraser is up there and so is fab pros enzymatic powder

I am definitely a bigger fan of an powdered enzyme versus anything citrus including citrus spotters vs solvent type spotters

Same here RJ.
The powdered chems seem to cover a broader range of soils encountered compared to the d'lime based solvents.

We couldn't live with out citrus gel spotters though
we do use those quite a bit


..L.T.A.

 

[Blue Monarch]

Which citrus spotter you using meat? I've only used HM's. I'd imagine they're all about the same, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[cleaningfool]

apartment cleaning

pro' choice extreme clean works good for me..

 

[Dolly Llama]

Most of them work pretty well, Dirk
But some don't rinse worth a sheet.
I hate CTI's gel because of that.
It's very good, but just doesn't rinse well
(unless they've changed it in the last couple years)

Prochem's is good
Steve Smith's (Vac-a-way) is good

Lately we've been using HF Gum Gel.
It seems to be pretty much the same as their gel spotter, but you get more for the money with Gum Gel


..L.T.A.

 

[The Preacher]

if you're cleaning the same apts year in and year out, the super high pH cleaners might be part of the problem??? residue left over could be causing soils to adhere to the left behind PS???

 

[John Olson]

As stated CTI's Extreme Clean. I would add since alot of them are Olefin I would use Energy as the booster. Ultra Pak Renovate if you want to really nuke the carpet. Run All Fiber Rinse (Prochem) or Last Step (CTI) or Formula D (Steam Way).

Any of you that said something other then Extreme Clean call me and I will send you a 6.5lb Jar of Extreme Clean for the cost of Shipping to try yourself. Extreme Clean is my #1 selling chemical period. We are just little guys and we go through 8-10 55 Gallon drums of Extreme Clean a month (We re-fill buckets for the guys locally)

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

Danny,

Your post makes it sound like pH has some correlation to resoling. You do know that is untrue, don't you?

Yes, presprays do contain the highest level of surfactants, of all your cleaning agents, and residue from sticky surfactants is definitely the number one cause of resoiling.

pH is the measure of the relative alkalinity/acidity of the water based cleaning solution, and only a very select number of pH relative components would have any relevancy to a sticky residue, and none are used in any typical "apartment" presprays (i.e. citric acid).

One must not think that the acid component of any acid rinse is for removing sticky residues. The acid component is for pH stabilization, yes. But only properly formulated rinses also have another separate component for removing sticky surfactant residue. The sad truth is that many don't. In essence,, most of the mediocre acid rinses are nothing more than soures relabeled and sold as rinses, when they are actually very poor rinses. it is no wonder that many carpet cleaners poo-poo acid rinses, and rather use a clear water rinse. These guys have never even experienced a good rinse product worth a darn.

 

[hogjowl]

A Shawn bitch slap in prime time.

LOL!

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

My apologies to Danny if the inference that he made was not intended. He could have simply been making a specific reference to a particular product, and the pH clarification was simply for identification, and had nothing to do with his post, whose point was that near ANY prespray's residue is soil attracting.

 

[diamond brian]

Shawn, what's your take on citric acid metered into the rinse? Greenie posted a while back that there are better ways of rinsing--I'd like to hear your opinion.

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

Citric acid is hygroscopic(absorbs moisture, never dries), and is sticky when damp. One of the poorest choices as an acid in a final rinse. Citric acid has specific applications, such as BHT yellowing, but always should be rinsed out afterward.

Ideally the rinse should be hydroxyacetic acid or sulfamic acid, with a sulfonate anionic emulsifier to get out the prespray surfactant.

The whole idea behind a good rinse is three things:

1. Reduce water requirements when removing surfactants(rinse aid)
This reduces time, effort, and chance of overwetting, and aids dry time.
Using only soft hot water takes longer, uses more water, and dries slower.

2. Set the carpet in a condition favorable to the fiber and dyes (acid component)
Especially when an alkaline prespray is used.

3. Leave no residue behind of itself which has any detriment.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Brian, have you ever used citric acid and checked it out the next day after drying?

It's one of the most sticky residues I've ever seen


I've never met John Olson, but from reading his posts, I figure he's a straight shooter.
But i have to say, my personal experience with CTI's Last Step was less than favorable.
I found it to be a terrible rinse agent and left carpets gummy.
The remaining two gallons I had stayed on the shelf for over a year til i finally dumped them out

..L.T.A.

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

One of my strongest criticisms of CTI has been their choice of rinse acid component.