Cleaning By Color

This was originally posted by Joe and one of the few things I printed out. I'm glad I did because almost all of the posts from RC are gone forever. I hope this helps someone as much as it did me.

Coffee, Tea, and Pee - these are all Organic stains, with organic dyes.

It's easy to teach cleaning by color:

Blacks & grays are soils & oils.
Use your favorite prespray.
Match the concentration to the degree of darkness. For example:
S/O in not so dirty areasuse 2oz/gal.
Really black areas mix as strong as 3:1 in a trigger sprayer, 3 parts water, 1part S/O.
Apply sparingly out in front of you as you wand. Rinse.

Yellows and Browns are likely to be Organic stains, so use an Oxidizer.
Liquid Peroxide is your most effective, and most cost effective oxidizer.
Examples: Sally's, Stain1, White Knight, Oxyclean, STPP, TSP=powdered peroxide, etc.
Apply it, let it work, Rinse.

Rust is that special yellowy-orangey colored stain that's easy. Just dribble a few drops of your favorite acid.
Oxalic is mine.
These should lighten up in seconds if it's rust. If they don't, then it's not rust. It's probably a furniture stain-
get out the knife.

Reds and oranges might be synthetic food coloring.
The most common is Red40 (orange has red in it). Red40 is not just in Koolaid, it's common in pet food too,
thus the rad that doesn't come out when you oxidize pet barf.
You need a reducing agent for Red.
Apply it, let it work, you may need heat, get it to turn yellow, rinse.

Most other inorganic dyes like blue or green Koolaid release best with oxidation, not reducers.

If it's red fingernail polish, that is a pigment type dye - Paint. For that, use a solvent and extract as you apply.

The older an organic stain gets, the darker it gets and the harder it is to get out.
Thus the White Knight Sprayer.
It's so convenient to use, just leave it by the stain so the lady can stare at the Bronzed Warrior while you work away.
Shoot it several times during the jjob, about every 10 minutes, rinsing inbetween applications and you will be her Hero.
There's no organic stain that survives the White Knight when applied this way.

Great post Eric! Very helpful even to those who have been in it for awhile.

Thanks for posting that. I printed that off also from previous board. Very helpful stuff.

Thanks for that. Great post.

Thanks for bringing that back Pro Touch