Foaming cleaners and dwell time. How long should I dwell or wait? From an Abilene Texas ProfitMax Chemical environmentally sensitive cleaning FAQ.
Foaming cleaners and dwell time. How long should I dwell or wait?
Foaming products create more “dwell time” or a longer length of time for the chemistry to work before using mechanical action to complete the action.
Ahhh, foam! Wondrous foam! Sounds so luxurious and so…, clean!
It is true that foam, or suds for all of us sighted individuals indicates a cleaner occurrence when washing or cleaning just about anything. It is also true that letting foaming products “work” before you go to “work” with your elbow grease typically works very well when given the time to for the chemistry in the foam to act for a few minutes before scrubbing and rinsing away the different soils that are to be cleaned.
Foam does suspend both acidic and caustic chemicals beautifully, holding the chemical in place on both vertical and horizontal surfaces.
As for time, letting the foam to just begin running down or flattening out provides adequate time for the chemistry in the foam to work.
Another way to let the foam have time to work is to apply the foaming product and while it is working, pick up anything such as trash or debris and move equipment that needs to be moved out of the way before tackling the foamed area. Since those actions must be done anyway, the foam will have adequate time to have done its job during that activity. Then, the scrubbing with any tools to finish up the cleaning process will be more effective. Whether you are cleaning in Abilene Texas or beyond, it can be that much more effective and make things that much easier.
Though foam holds the chemistry to the soil longer, suds and smell of the detergent really assist in selling the product, almost any kind of detergent product can be made to foam.
It is in the dispenser where the foam is created.
A trigger spray bottle with a tip designed to create foam is a common means, but a pump-up sprayer with a foaming tip will work as well. Considering the amount of surface space when choosing a foaming cleaners dispenser as ease of dispense of a larger area will require a bigger container for the chemical product. A small space, a trigger bottle size while a large production area such as a meat cutting room might use a dispenser like Sunburst Chemical’s Master Blaster unit.
The Master Blaster creates a foam through a Venturi mechanism within the unit. The unit is manufactured to hold a solid degreaser product like Sunburst Chemical’s degreaser, Score and to hold Sunburst Chemical’s solid quat ammonium sanitizer, Sentinel on the unit. By turning two knobs to point at the product needed, the necessary foam will be created for degreasing and sanitizing that area.
Places where foam is not necessary is inside a running dish machine, washing machine, swimming pool or hot tub. That’s why products used to clean dishes or clothes have no foam or suds and their detergent is formulated to prevent suds.
The Foam, the whole foam and nothing but the foam
A caustic or alkaline chemical when combined with grease (salad dressing included) of many kinds will create wonderful foam that will keep on creating more foam or suds. In those instances where a lot of grease is present, removing as much grease as possible by wiping into the trash or grease disposal is important prior to washing.
Therefore, application and types of soil is key when determining when and where a foaming cleaner is to be used. We dig a little deeper in to the concepts of time chemistry and mechanical action in cleaning in the sensitive cleaning FAQs. This also including addressing why do bacteria cleaners take longer and how bacteria-based cleaners work naturally.
At ProfitMax Chemical, we believe foam is wonderful to work with when it is given the time to do so. When applied as directed, the dramatic effect on labor reduction is palpable. Not letting the foam do its job lengthens the physical cleaning time.