Trial Purpose:
To evaluate current cleaning process for grout cleaning
Date Run:
03/17/2011Experiment Procedure:
Three cleaning products were selected for comparison. These included two supplied chemicals and steam. Cleaning was performed using a supplied cloth towel or a toothbrush/grout brush and vibratory scrubbing device.
Initial light reading were taken of grout in several unsoiled location in building restroom to create a composite baseline reading. In addition, various dirty locations were selected for a composite dirty reading.
The selected cleaner and cleaning method were used to clean a section of the dirty bathroom floor. Cleaning product was liberally applied to the floor and then cleaned for a minute with consistent mechanical force. At the end of the cleaning, the surface was wiped with a towel to remove excess dirty and cleaning solution. Once dried, "clean" light readings were taken to determine cleaning effectiveness. Furthermore, visual ranking of each section of cleaned grout was compared against all cleaning processes.
Trial Results:
Visual Observations
Scrubbing cleaning with either the hand held brush or mechanical agitation both outperformed the cloth cleaning application. The TMI Neutral Disinfectant product with the mechanical agitation was ranked highest based on visual observations followed by the DfE 401 all purpose cleaner at 2.3%. The DfE at 4.7% with mechanical agitation was ranked the same as the Neutral disinfectant with the hand held brush. Steam cleaning with a brush (no cloth) was the next most effective cleaning process (based on visual rankings).
Color-Gloss Evaluation
The Neutral Disinfectant with the hand held brush resulted in the highest gloss-color reading after cleaning. The steam cleaning with a brush (no cloth) had the second highest level. The collected data and observations for the cleaning processes are listed in the table.
| Coupon # | Unsoiled (Lu) | Soiled (Ls) | Clean (Lc) | Lc-Ls | Lu-Ls | [(Lc-Ls) /Lu-Ls)]*100 |
| Neutral cloth | 77.67 | 45.65 | 53.48 | 7.83 | 32.02 | 24.46 |
| Neutral brush | 77.67 | 45.65 | 57.34 | 11.69 | 32.02 | 36.51 |
| Neutral sonic | 77.67 | 45.65 | 54.02 | 8.37 | 32.02 | 26.14 |
| DfE 2.3% cloth | 77.67 | 45.65 | 49.75 | 4.10 | 32.02 | 12.81 |
| DfE 2.3% brush | 77.67 | 45.65 | 51.23 | 5.58 | 32.02 | 17.43 |
| DfE 2.3% sonic | 77.67 | 45.65 | 53.17 | 7.52 | 32.02 | 23.49 |
| DfE 4.7% cloth | 77.67 | 45.65 | 51.56 | 5.91 | 32.02 | 18.46 |
| DfE 4.7% brush | 77.67 | 45.65 | 44.71 | -0.94 | 32.02 | -2.94 |
| DfE 4.7% sonic | 77.67 | 45.65 | 47.9 | 2.25 | 32.02 | 7.03 |
| steam small head | 77.67 | 45.65 | 50.82 | 5.17 | 32.02 | 16.15 |
| steam medium head | 77.67 | 45.65 | 49.59 | 3.94 | 32.02 | 12.31 |
| steam no cloth with small brush | 77.67 | 45.65 | 56.25 | 10.60 | 32.02 | 33.11 |
| Method | Visual Rank | Gloss-Color Rank |
| Neutral cloth | 9 | 4 |
| Neutral brush | 3 | 1 |
| Neutral sonic | 1 | 3 |
| DfE 2.3% cloth | 10 | 10 |
| DfE 2.3% brush | 5 | 7 |
| DfE 2.3% sonic | 2 | 5 |
| DfE 4.7% cloth | 12 | 6 |
| DfE 4.7% brush | 8 | 12 |
| DfE 4.7% sonic | 3 | 11 |
| steam small head | 11 | 8 |
| steam medium head | 7 | 9 |
| steam no cloth with small brush | 5 | 2 |
Success Rating:
A follow up test, usually based on company input.Conclusion:
Additional cleaners will be selected to determine more effective grout cleaning options.
