New for me Oreck Orbiter on order-Methods and experience please

[upright886]

Years ago I was a firm believer in the HOST system of dry cleaning. Many fine hardware stores that provided HOST rentals have closed in the last decade and I migrated to hiring external extraction companies with mixed results.

I borrowed a Hoover Extractor 12A model and with determination and a good workout got respectable results. Extraction was good but it took 6-12 hours to dry completely.

I decided to return to Dry Cleaning and I have a Oreck Orbiter and dry cleaning compounds on order.

I also acquired a vintage non bypass vacuum to assist in the dry cleaning process.

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?32811_4

Two gentlemen on youtube do economical apartment move out cleaning using a tide solution and bonnet methods to significantly clean up some abused low grade carpets. A low moisture method appears to have great efficacy.



As a believer in dry cleaning I wonder if a one two punch is advised. Use the low moisture approach first. Allow to dry and follow on any touch up spots with the dry cleaning methods.

I have both the premist and the stain be gone sprays oreck offers on order along with the black brush and a 4lb bucket of compound.

Please share your experience with the orbiter both bonnet cleaning and dry cleaning.

Matt

 

[upright886]

Orbiter round one the Royal 886 sidekick

The Oreck Orbiter arrived. After inspection I did 30 minutes of bonnet low moisture cleaning with good results. Tomorrow I will dry clean.

Matt

 

[luxlife]

Low moisture cleaning.

Are these chemicals from Oreck labeled as "Encapsulation" cleaners?

 

[sbakerde]

Oreck dry carpet cleaner is manufactured for Oreck by a carpet company. It really is a great product but have spare bags handy when using it. It's clogs bags up pretty fast. If you have a lowes near by you can get the same stuff labeled as capture cheaper than what Oreck sells it for. I have seen that YouTube video and I don't trust that method. To me a heavily soiled carpet needs wet extraction first. But that's just me. Oreck/ capture is an encapsulation product. But anyway you got great products. Enjoy.

 

[luxlife]

The dry carpet cleaner is great. It's made by Milliken Chemical and Capture is their own brand name for retail. They also used it in their own service company franchises under the name Millicare. These franchise cleaning services use counter-rotating brush machines (similar to Host) to brush the material deep into the carpet fiber. I recall having great success with the dry product and my Orbiter, but only when I made sure to brush it in thoroughly. All of the companies that make these CRB machines suggest multi-directional brushing of the dry product and working over small areas at a time so that the dry product gets into the carpet before it loses it effectiveness. Even though they call it a "dry" carpet cleaner, it is lightly moist with a cleaning solution. The rule of thumb given to me was to treat 1 square yard, or up to 6 square feet at a time. Some stubborn stains required repeat treatments, but it was my intention to avoid wetting the carpet while removing the stains. One of the great things I like about using encap products is that they also remove detergent residue from prior steam/extractor/shampoo cleanings, which can be sticky and attract dirt.

 

[upright886]

The Oreck dry system works very well. My first try included a bonnet clean completely dry in 2 hours. This was follower by working in the dry cleaner on 4x4 areas.

The Type A/F&G style bag did not clog up or loose flow.

The results were fantastic. This allowed for shifting furniture in the room same day and cleaning wall to wall.

Later the same day food was spilled. Everything was picked up, a quick spot treat and orbital treatment with dry cleaning powder. 30 minutes later a vacuum and done.

Very practical scale for home maintenance .



Matt

 

[luxlife]

That's awesome!

How do you think the Oreck dry cleaner compares to Host cleaning compound? Do you see advantages of one over the other?

One interesting difference is that the Oreck Dry product is made of polymers, according to the MSDS info. The Host product is made of "bio based cellulosic fibers" according to their MSDS.

I'm going to do a side by side comparison this weekend of these 2 and also the Whittaker Crystal Dry Extra, which is a liquid polymer encapsulation product applied as a fine mist spray and then brushed in with a CRB machine. I snatched up a beautiful vintage Host machine on eBay 2 weeks ago, complete with 3 sets of brushes in different grades of hardness. This should be fun.

 

[rvarley]

I have the Oreck Orbiter and haven't yet used it for carpet cleaning, but it's great for hard flooring. Mopping alone cannot compare. It's great for removing wax and buffing existing wax.

 

[luxlife]

The Orbiter....

It's probably the only thing left of Oreck that I really admire. I only hope that when Oreck divested itself of certain patents and trademarks, that at least they kept the rights to the Orbiter. Hopefully this was done in the same spirit that KitchenAid kept its product line of the stand mixers out of the talons of Whirlpool.

 

[upright886]

Scalled Down Industrial for the home

The orbiter is a quality piece of "modern" hardware, A balance of rugged construction and low weight. I view it as scaled down industrial 20" machine making it very easy to handle and move perfect for the home environment including stair treads. It has been years since I used host. This Oreck dry system is easier and you do not have to worry about left over compound going bad. This always bothered me with HOST so it would occupy valuable freezer space between uses.

Dry cleaning is convenient but bonnet scrubbing is a simple alternative for hard surfaces and light soiled carpet. Just used a 20:1 diluted Fabuloso spray PH7 on a white Berber with 10-12 years of bedroom sock traffic.. The results were amazing.

Left over spray cleaned the walls when the furniture was pulled out. Could not be simpler and completely dry in 1 hour.

Matt

 

[luxlife]

Freezing Host??

I didn't realize that was possible! So freezing doesn't affect the performance of Host?

 

[upright886]

RE: Freezing Host??

I never inquired if freezing was advised by the HOST people. They did mention in the literature mold is a concern with unsealed HOST so I treated like left over bread. I would thaw for use and store the remainder in the freezer. I never noticed a loss of efficacy. I did not store it in a self defrosting freezer so it did not cycle other than when used. The larger boxes made HOST more economical but this Oreck compound or Capture material available locally is more economic and does not eat up your freezer space.

The machine is versatile. It does not care what materials you use. I am interested in some of the new encapsulation compounds too but I am running out of rooms to clean and have plenty of materials to use.

For dry cleaning or pre-vacuuming the Royal 886 turned out to be a fine machine. I think any non bypass machine is a good idea if your plan to use dry cleaning methods.

Matt

 

[kirbysthebest]

But they didn't

"KitchenAid kept its product line of the stand mixers out of the talons of Whirlpool. "

Whirlpool owns Kitchenaid, and the stand mixers as well. They don't own Hobart, and the commercial side.

 

[tolivac]

Go to a restaurant supply place-sometimes you see Hobart bench stand mixers for sale-these would be good for home use-but the machine is VERY heavy!!And the attachments are large and heavy-but would be worth it to a dedicated cook.Also the machine does not have variable speeds-only hi or llder KA mixers were made by Hobart-just look on the nameplate.These are good and better than the WP ones.

 

[rvarley]

Hobart

I have an old Hobart dishwasher. Does a fine job on dishes and has outlast several friends new, fancy-pants stainless machines. Identical to the one in my childhood home - from the late 60's - so it's gotta be pretty old.