I host & administer the Challenger Forum here. My service business - Drysdale's All-Natural Carpet Care - is all padding, all the time. Never owned an extractor of any type in 17 years in this business. My company (www.drysdales123.com) has been selected as the best carpet cleaning company in metropolitan Boston (population 3,000,000 plus) by BOSTON Magazine. Drysdale's maintains a straight - A rating in all categories on AngiesList (www.angieslist.com).
Time to stop doubting and get started. (I am familiar with the brand names you mentioned, but have not used them. We use Orbit Natural, distributed by Challenger Pad Systems, and carpet cleaning and protection products manufactured by Bioforce-Envirotech) (www.bioforceinc.com)
I use their Outsolve for most carpet work. I use their Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner where I think a neutral cleaner might be the safer choice, such as on white or light-colored upholstery fabric. And I use their Fabric Protector as well.
Mark,
I own a Challenger machine. I currently use Hot Knife, made by Vacaway because it is a heavy duty cleaner.
I am interested in advertised all natural cleaning solutions, but have had reservations about the power of an all natural cleaner. Can Outsolv really dig down and hit the traffic areas hard like Hot Knife?
IMO, your answer is No. I only used 1 gallon of outsolv and tried a few other "natural" products with similar results. You can get close if you're willing to keep pulling pads until they are no longer dark brown.
I have compared Surround Green to Hot Knife and I thought they worked similarly well.
My favorite "natural" products are the CCS Abstraction line, particularly UR Out for severe odor control and Vacaway Bio-smash, though I think they just changed the name to Quantum or something like that.
I have used Orbit Natural, Out solve, Procyon, and Abstraction, I think they all have strong points, and week points. I have found Orbit Natural and Abstraction to be about the same, they do very well on spots like pet stains,oil and grease, I wonder if they are made the same way(they look the same color). Procyon has worked wonders, but the quality of product seems to varey from gallon to gallon. I have found outsolve to be the best overall cleaner as far as soil removal, but I am not sure one should advertise it as "All Natural Chemical Free" as it has some chemicals listed on the msds, but I am sure it is still safe. All of these products clean very well.
The main advantage of encap, is that it is faster. Just my opinion for what it's worth.
