After the recent thread re WD40 & the Wiki, I e-mailed WD40 direct to ask the following question (verbatim);
"Is WDE40 safe to use on rubber & plastics?"
The answer from them;
"Rubber - OK with most rubbers on light surface spraying, some rubber will swell with prolonged exposure or immersion. Plastic - Mostly OK, but polycarbonate and polystyrene may stress craze or crack in contact with WD40."
I was in Isaac Lord yesterday and saw a few shelves with various products from the WD40 company. Each product had its major claims printed on the pack - and for WD40 itself, it does NOT use the L-word "lubricant". The 3-IN-ONE oil and White Lithium certainly do (and I can't remember what else was there).
BTW - I had not realised they own 1001 as well. Mr Medway, how does that rate in the carpet shampoo stakes?
Their web site describes it as "The world's number one multi-purpose lubricant".
I didn't know either. 1001 is just a dry foam shampoo. They have been around for donkeys years.
They are high foam crystallising detergents used either with a rotary floor scrubber with soft brush & feed tank (and skilled operator), or in a dry foam machine which generates foam using a blower.
The idea is that the foam is only perhaps 5% water, so a numpty can't over wet the carpet. The scrubbing action loosens the dirt, which is trapped by the detergent - as the detergent drys it crystalises into a powder & can be vacuumed up.
More a maintenance method than a deep clean, but much better than corn husks or fizzy water systems. Problem is, its a two stage method. Claen carpet, wait for it to dry, vacuum out residue. No use to a contractor.
Has its place, but largely replaced by spray extraction cleaning.
5 litres of pro quality dry foam shampoo is around £15, 450ml of 1001 is around £3 and it probably doesn't dilute as much.
Don't worry - I agree their website goes on about lubrication! :-) Which is why it seemed such an omission on the can. Maybe they are de-emphasising that aspect since they acquired 3-IN-ONE (and appear to be extending the range of products)?
So what about using Head'n'Shoulders for emergency carpet cleaning?
I suspect it's all mostly the same stuff inside anyway. A few years ago I bought a Ginormous Bottle of shampoo, found I didn't like it, and being too mean to throw it away used it for washing dishes. Conversely Ecover coconut-based dish-washing liquid makes very nice bubble bath.
first UK soapless detergent - pretty much everything's based off it.
My grandfather, Fred Watts, was a Barrister's Clerk specialising in patents - and he helped prepare the Teepol patent. Consequently my grandmother, Amy May Watts, was one of the first housewives to use something akin to fairy, courtesy of some free samples.
Apparantly she was somewhat suspicious of this new fangled stuff, but after trying some, was a convert.
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