Residues: The Enemy of Protector Performance!

        
         When you have seen upholstery protector             
             demonstrated at a class or trade show,
             did you notice that it always seems to 
               be applied to new fabric, or tissue?  

There isn't anything wrong with that, but bear in mind that you are most often applying protector to fabric you just cleaned, not something new and never used, and never cleaned.

What's The Difference?

When you clean upholstery, you are attempting to remove foreign matter from the fabric, and in your effort to do so, you apply cleaning agents to loosen body oils, spills, and general soiling that are designed to dissolve, emulsify, and/or suspend soils so that you can rinse them away.

What isn't so obvious is that if you apply more preconditioner than you can rinse from the fabric, your protector may not bond properly!  A fabric left with residual cleaning agents has a barrier that protector cannot penetrate, and thus your protector will be ineffective, or at least not as effective as the demonstration you may have given your customer might imply.

One of the most important things you could do for yourself, and ultimately your customer, is as follows:

#1. Pick up some soiled cushions from an upholsterer's dumpster or a thrift store.
#2. Clean them using the prespray, boosters, etc needed to restore heavily soiled upholstery.
#3. Rinse as thoroughly as you feel necessary to remove the suspended soil and detergent residues.
#4. Apply your protector.
#5. Test with water and cooking oil after complete drying.

You'll find that if you “over preconditioned and under rinsed”, your protector might not work!

                                                                    

This picture is of a fabric that was cleaned and not well extracted, then protector was applied.

                                                                    

This picture is of a similar fabric that was extracted more thoroughly, then protector was applied.