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Hey guys. Can someone help me out with a good response to this?
“If your cleaning solution is akaline and you combine it with a deodorizer that falls on the acidic side, wouldn’t that produce a neutral ph product. A preconditioner that is ph neutral has no emulsifying properties. How can you effectively clean with a neutral ph?”
~Lauryn
If you are introducing a deodorizer that is equal strength to our cleaner than you are making a nuetral PH (i.e Orange Deodorizer is PH of 5 which is 100x greater than neutral of 7 and our 101 is 8.5-9.0 which at 9.0 is 100x greater than 7). Each jump in PH is a jump of 10. If you are adding citrus boost, it is a PH of 6.5 which is not enough to neutral out the PH of solution with our 101 (5x vs 100x basically). Even if you add Orange deodorizer, depending on how much you add, it may not neutralize it. That said, quick boost is PH of 10 (1000x), so adding a little of that will easily bring it back to overall alkaline PH. This is all “in theory” though IMO, especially if you read an article like this http://www.cleanfax.com/carpet-cleaning/article/ph-points. I’ve seen other articles from “experts” that say PH isn’t a big deal and the chemistry of your cleaning solution plays a bigger part. You can buy PH strips that will help you tell what your cleaning solution PH is if you are worried about this or just want to know in general. I’ve never looked for them on HB site, but if we don’t have them there to purchase, they should be on Amazon or at any pool supply store.
That said, who is asking this? Remember that cleaning encompasses more than just the cleaning solution and it’s PH. Heat, agitation and dwell time of cleaning product all play a part in the “cleaning process” as described by the cleaning pie chart. If you decrease one, you better increase another. A high PH cleaner does no good if it has no dwell time, no heat, and no agitation. Also, I know many people say high PH cleans better because most soil is acidic, but I’ve also read a few articles that say this may not be the case. I think PH is definitely a good thing to know in our industry, but I don’t live by it and just use it as one of the many tools in our toolbox to get the results I need. Good general intro article to the PH scale below for anyone out there that is not familiar with it and how it works (or was, but then chose to forget their high school years for many reasons).
It is true that the PH of the fibers are the most important part of PH cleaning. For example: I’ve lifted the first pad after cleaning, and I could hear the crackle from the soap residue in the pad, from previous cleanings. Usually from their home machine. Kirby suds and Bissel – “green machine” leaves the most sudsy soap residue. This residue in the carpet is very high PH, Usually cleaned without a rinse. To counter the residue of high PH, I add Orange Deodorizer to my cleaner to balance the high PH. Therefore no longer leaving a dirt attracting residue in the carpet. It’s not always easy to balance the PH. As stated before PH 5 and PH 9 do not always equal PH7. Most the time you just have to get the feel for things.
To answer the persons question, I clean with a higher PH and finish with a lighter addition of Orange Deodorizer to finish with a balanced non dirt attracting PH.
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