My new UV light

Do you take them in with you when you estimate?

I got the UV Phazer from Jon Don and the very first job I took it paid for itself. I had a customer want some cleaning, it was a small job....$120   She said she only wanted the rooms cleaned she showed me and I was playing with the new UV light (showing off lol) anyway one of the rooms she didnt want clean was an off white and the UV looked really cool on it....she asked what it was and as I was telling her we seen where the cat has been marking....we could smell it and she assumed it was from the three rooms I was cleaning....she thought the cat stayed out of that room because its afraid of a statue.......I think the cat was marking because of the statue being urine was on it as well LMAO......anyway, I pulled pad and replaced it and cleaned the carpet from back side to front....add on $125 to a $120 job. I only had to go three blocks to get some pad.

UV lights are great tools, but I find a simple moisture meter more effective is bright day light, for selling pet odor removal.

I have a moisture stick but if urine is dry you cant easily pick it up right?

UV light is a great sales tool. Im too much of a wuss to pull carpet off tack strip.

It seems like the guys that have been cleaning for a long time also do carpet repairs, re stretching, pulling pads for damage etc.

I wonder if there a lot of carpet installers that transition to cleaning carpet?

Devon07 wrote:I have a moisture stick but if urine is dry you cant easily pick it up right?

That is not the case.

Urine has salt in it, and even long after the liquid from the urine has dried that salt is still there, which is what keeps that spot damp enough for years for our moisture meters to detect it......the salt attracts the moisture in the air/humidity, so it stays damp.

Try it.

Good to know...The UV will still help locate and be a tool for showing ...SHOCK n AWE is always good.

UV lights are a great tool, but remember that there are many things that will fluoresce besides urine. You don't want to embarrass the customer in the process.

That hydro shark helps separate the urine deposits from the "other" things.

Thats true Mil. And not all urine illumination is removed with cleaning.

I like know what im getting into....if they dont tell me what im cleaning I dont care much to do it....I once was asked to clean a sofa.....it looked fine except for a couple odd stains/spots.....she wanted it cleaned so she could sell it....turns out a lady died on it and she laid there for some time before they found her.....the fact she didnt tell me OR the fact she wanted to sell it was WRONG! I got very mad at her and left.

Devon07 wrote:I like know what im getting into....if they dont tell me what im cleaning I dont care much to do it....I once was asked to clean a sofa.....it looked fine except for a couple odd stains/spots.....she wanted it cleaned so she could sell it....turns out a lady died on it and she laid there for some time before they found her.....the fact she didnt tell me OR the fact she wanted to sell it was WRONG! I got very mad at her and left.

Oh man thats crazy Devon. I would have been ticked too. She probably called someone else and didn't tell them what happened and then sold to some poor sapp

milspec6 wrote:UV lights are a great tool, but remember that there are many things that will fluoresce besides urine.  You don't want to embarrass the customer in the process.

That hydro shark helps separate the urine deposits from the "other" things.

That's also a great point, and something that I forgot about.......thanks, Rob!

Another reason I prefer to use the moisture meter most of the time, and just the simple fact I've never had much luck with UV light, unless it's totally dark, which normally doesn't happen on most of my jobs since I do them in the daylight hours........unless I sched an appointment after it gets dark, which I've done before for worst case urine inspections. Sometimes it's helpful to see that contamination on other things besides the carpet (it happens, esp. when it's a male pet), so the problem can be completely dealt with.

Devon07 wrote:Good to know...The UV will still help locate and be a tool for showing ...SHOCK n AWE is always good.

Trust6 me, there's plunty of "SHOCK n AWE" in using an audible moisture meter, when you tell the customer that what you're using is detecting urine deposits every time it beeps.

For this simple no or no go/ beep or no beep test I like using the expensive Dri-Eaz WetCheck.
The more expensive digital reading meters I use where needed, like testing the moisture content in materials for water loss jobs, but not need for urine..

Devon07 wrote:Do you take them in with you when you estimate?

To answer your question........

As you have prob already figured, I take my moisture meter in rather then uv light most of the time when giving a quote to a new unfamiliar customer. Esp. when the customer has mentioned they have pets, or pet odor problems on the phone........or of course if I hear a noisy pet in the background while on the phone.

I like the hydro sharks a lot, they beep with even a bio hazard light on the top lol

the wetter it is the faster it beeps.

some urine also wont beep keep in mind, depends how diluted it is or if the customer put some oxi-clean type product on it.. will still look yellow but the urine is a bit neutralized so the moisture meter wont go off.

Also don't ever tell the customers that after the cleaning those bright spots you showed off before the cleaning with the UV light will disappear because most likely they will not, even though you got the yellow stains out.

Anybody ever try cobbs uv light. It's supposed to be powerful enough to illuminate it full day light

Also don't ever tell the customers that after the cleaning those bright spots you showed off before the cleaning with the UV light will disappear because most likely they will not, even though you got the yellow stains out.

That,s right DP then they,ll try and play the gotcha game with you with their blacklight

Mo wrote:Anybody ever try cobbs uv light. It's supposed to be powerful enough to illuminate it full day light

No, but you should. So we can all know if it's true.  

I looked at the light and it's just an amazon special, that I hear he tweaked, to make more powerful?
I'm not willing to pay 20x the price to see, are you?

yes, cobbs light is actually amazon's light, they're the same thing, I bought some from Amazon and they're great, just make sure they're fully charged for daylight use.

time to BOOST Those rep points!!

Davey Cracker wrote:time to BOOST Those rep points!!

As soon as you start posting something more useful than trashing my awesome android phone

Link please

LOL minus 1 for you.

Well I see it as a great tool and when I only had it for a couple days it paid for itself. I imagine over a year it will really come in handy.