Hey Mark,
I see a lot of talk on other bulletin boards about the Ph level or number of the water, the carpet,the cleaning product, or the spot you may be trying to remove. This is new to me. How do you test? How do I know if Ph is to high? Low? How do I correct this problem? Or is this a problem I should not be worried about? I need a little class of Ph 101.
Thanks
Steve Shimek
Hi Steve
I realize that there are a lot of wannabe chemists out
the in c.c. cyberspace. I've read some highly complex
posts on this Ph matter. The main concern is not to
have a too-high Ph (alkalinity) when working on wool
carpeting and rugs. By too high, you're talking up
around 12 or so. There are some off-the-shelf spot
cleaning products out there that are up around the 12
level, straight from the bottle. Somewhere on the
label, in tiny print, it probably says: "Not for use
on wool." Too high Ph could give wool carpet a
bleached-out look after you've worked on the stain.
Outsolve, when mixed at 4 oz. per gallon, will have
a Ph in the range of 9.0 - 9.5. and should cause no
problem on wool. If your tap water is very high in
mineral content (up around 9 in Ph all by itself) the
Outsolve/water solution could then get up into the
high 9's.
personally i wouldn't use any cleaning solution with a pH of 10 or higher. others have stated they have used a pH of 12 with no problems. still others have damaged wool with a pH of 9.
here is a couple good threads on wool and pH....tells me to use caution is all :
I would never clean a wool rug with chemical that had a Ph higher than 8. The recommended Ph level for cleaning wool is between 5.5 and 8. Can you get away with a higher Ph? Sometimes, but why risk it? If you shrink it, bleed it, or felt it, and the client has the investment textile inspected by a Senior Carpet Inspector and the lab report comes back saying you used a chemical with a Ph of 9 or 10 you are hosed! Be safe, get certified, know what you are doing and why.
