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Merry Christmas!
I’m not into bashing to “other guy”, but I have a person looking into buying a franchise that has asked a lot of questions about zero-rez. I confess, I don’t know much about them, curtain not enough to inform my potential buyer. I’ve heard from a few operators speak very unfavorable about them except they spend a ton of $$$ on advertising (at least the first 2 years they are operating.) In looking into the initial cost to purchase, the portion of fees just for advertising was $100 grand! Today I had a customer that owns two I-hop franchises, when she inquired about their cleaning system, the guy told her “They only need to clean with water only.” Her biggest concern was the grease. He said “It’ll do the job.” She didn’t have him do the job. I asked her what she cleaned in her home with just water? Counter, dishes, laundry, floors, walls, teeth? She said “Nothing.” Please, What’s your Zero-rez story?Further..
I copied from their website:
“Your initial cost investments are as follows (assuming ONE mobile unit:)
Franchise Fee $25,000
Territory Fee $30,000
Equipment Package (Based on cost being financed.) $8,700-$10,700
Initial inventory and supplies $10,500
Mobile Unit (Based on cost being financed.) $4,400-$5,300
All other items (including Working Capital) $30,350-$81,500
Total $108,850-$164,400
Note that: * Royalty fees is 8% of Gross Sales”Remember: “Equipment Package (Based on cost being financed.) $8,700-$10,700 “and Mobile Unit (Based on cost being financed.) $4,400-$5,300” So, what on earth are they paying for?
Also, Note: Not mentioned is the on going advertising cost or the cost of the mobile vehicle… Ouch.
My son Ammon, is three months from getting his accounting degree. (Excepted into the masters program). He doesn’t get it either.
I hear about zero-rez from customers asking how are they different or they are flooding the airwaves with commercials. No chemicals used, they say, but supposedly leaves the carpet clean and fresh. OK, no chemicals, then what is the pretreatment they use and the sodium hydroxide they use to make their “Empowered Water”. Their pricing is 25-30% more than mine plus big trip charge. The major complaints I have heard is the carpet is wet for days and when it dries the carpet feels stiff and looks dingy (dirty). They have a great marketing campaign but are no different than the other swamp cleaners.
Ok, here’s the deal with Zero Rez from what we have been able to find out. Like any other cleaning company obviously, majority of the result depends on the person doing the work. That said, here is some info on their process. Their process is dependent on a machine that alters the water they use (http://www.orbio.com). The machine is made by Tennant and is not proprietary, so anyone who wants to shell out the money can buy one. What this machine does is raise the pH of the water from your standard neutral 7 (or roughly there about) up to about 9 give or take (not positive on final #), which as we all know should improve its cleaning benefits. It also softens the water I believe, but more so it can ionize or de-ionize the water depending on what you need (one is for disinfecting, other is for cleaning). All of this amounts to water that “cleans better” on its own than regular water would. I’ve heard/seen competitors bash it and call it “magic water”, but based on the science behind it it should clean better than normal water would (which we know many HWE cleaners just use regular hot water with no presprays). I believe/assume they still require additional pre-sprays and such depending on the situation, but I’m not positive and I’m sure for cost reasons they try to stick to just the magic water. So, in a nutshell they are a truck mount cleaner that tries to clean just with their magic water, which gives them a lot of advertising benefits when it comes to environmentally friendly/safe, etc. They did advertise heavily in our area, but for past year or so, they have died down considerably, so your 2 yr rule mentioned may be why we don’t see as much. FYI, we had to explain their system to a customer b/c their own tech that had cleaned for her prior to couldn’t explain it to her.
Here’s a link that explains the “magic water”: http://www.orbio.com/am-en/Pages/insights-and-learning/orbio-on-site-generation.aspx
Here’s the machine: http://www.orbio.com/am-en/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?item=os3 or http://www.orbio.com/am-en/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?item=5000-Sc (not sure which they use if it’s even either of these, may be more models)
Hope this helps.
Devlin,
That’s a great post. Very informative. One of the very key points you make is any results all go back to the person doing the work. I think we have very good products and a great system. However, we, just like any other system must have good conscientious technician or it means nothing. Businesses of any kind survive over the long haul by being proud to put their name on the work.Thanks for the info. Very interesting. Assuming from what I read, they don’t filter out minerals or other substances in water that “leave a residue”, just alter the Ph?
Distilled water is the only “complete residue free” water I know of. Do they use only distilled water or is the name Zero rez flawed from the start?
Does any of this really matter? None of these so called “residues” (contained in water) that I know of are “dirt attracting residues”. Which to me is really the issue anyway.So, while I’m on a high horse, a much bigger issue is the deterioration of the backing due to long drying times.
P.S. Loren, the “Chemical” name for water is H2O
Gordon,
The machine does filter the water as I believe it has a carbon filter, sediment filter, etc that remove any impurities. So, yes the water is basically distilled water and should be residue free in theory to give them their zero residue name.
Thank for the increased info.
So, we’re back to mold, mildew, backing deterioration, long dry time, but residue free cleaning!
Personally, I’m glad I’m not having to compete in the steam cleaning war of words and drama. Just a great name with dry in one hour cleaning, customer referrals, great ROI website, awesome logo, low overhead, and 99.3% customer satisfaction rate. Life is Great! Have an awesome New Year!!! 🙂 !
For information only. I decided to look at the patent and check it out. The following is copied from the on line patent search I did.
Pure water cannot be electrolyzed to any useful degree. Sodium and chloride ions (Na+Cl−) derived from the dissolution of NaCl migrate to opposite electrical poles. Thus when electrical energy is supplied to the machine, Na+ flows in a net mass manner toward the cathode (−) and Cl− the anode (+). In general overview, water is decomposed (electrolyzed) owing to the high reactivity of Na+ in the reaction where: 2Na++2H2O=2NaOH=H2. Since sodium ions are attracted to the cathode, the above reaction occurs in the cathodic channel to form a small amount of sodium hydroxide as water flows through the channel. The sodium hydroxide (NaOH) ionizes as NaOH=Na++OH−. The water from the cathode channel is called electrolyzed alkaline water which has a pH of 11.2 to 11.6 and oxidation reduction potential of about 840 to 847− mV. Electrolyzed alkaline water is an excellent cleaning solution, particularly with lipid-based or organic stains.
I recommend reading the entire patent for all the information. Here is the link I looked at http://www.google.com/patents/US6638364
Regardless they still soak the carpet, which is wet for hours on end with muddy water still remaining.
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