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Effective Wet Mopping Is Key to Success

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Facts to know about wet mops:

A wet mop should quickly absorb the mopping solution and release most of it when the mop hits the floor. Water is the vehicle that holds a detergent in order to break up soil. The colder the water, the quicker and more thorough will be the lifting of soil to the surface of the water to ensure complete residue-free removal.

The best performing wet mops are made from a blend of cotton, rayon, and one or two other synthetics. Synthetic fibers mixed with cotton allow soil a more thorough exit over the smooth synthetic fiber when wrung out.

A 100% cotton mop tends to trap soil and prevent necessary soil release. When taking on water, 100% cotton mop strands expand, tend to loosen, and separate from the mop as small pieces of mop yarn.

Synthetic strands give excellent structural strength to a mop. Synthetic material holds the cotton in place to keep the wet mop from being pulled apart.

Bottom Line: A high-performance wet mop must have enough cotton to maximize the mops liquid capacity. Synthetic materials allow mops to hold together better during use and to release soil more easily.

Why does a wet mop, that gets agitated in a detergent mopping solution, have to be machine washed using a laundry detergent? It does not make sense. If the mopping detergent worked properly, the soil would have left the wet mop when it was swished in the bucket or when it was rinsed under running water in the slopsink.

A mopping detergent that causes a wet mop to have to be washed in a washing machine using a laundry detergent needs to have its effectiveness questioned. If soil sticks to the mop fibers, baseboards, grout, inside and outside of mop buckets, etc., the mopping detergent is at fault. When the left behind soil film gets pulverized by foot traffic, it becomes an airborne health threat.

Bottom Line: Detergents that work properly remove all of the soil and leave nothing to stick to baseboards, floors, grout, mop buckets, or locked within the mops with which they are mopping. Detergents that work properly, do not leave sticky soil to which more soil becomes attached.

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