The Effect of Carpet Cleaners on Carpet Stains
Researched by Cody A. 2001-02	PURPOSE  HYPOTHESIS  EXPERIMENT DESIGN  MATERIALS  PROCEDURES  RESULTS  CONCLUSION  RESEARCH REPORT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE RESEARCHER

The purpose of this experiment was to determine which carpet cleaner removed various stains the most effectively.

I became interested in this idea when my dad spilled wine on our carpet, and I wanted to find out how to get the stain out.

Homeowners could use the information gained from this experiment so they can clean their carpets instead of spending thousands of dollars to have their carpet replaced.

My hypothesis was that carpet cleaners with more fats or oils will clean more effectively. 

I based my hypothesis on the World Book Encyclopedia. It said that fats/vegetable oils are the key ingredients of making soap.

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The constants in this study were:

• Amount of stain
• Amount of cleaner
• Time stain sets
• Time cleaner soaks
• Kind of carpet
• Method of applying stain
• Method of applying cleaner 
• Method of measuring stain 
• Method of measuring stain remover

The manipulated variable was the kind of carpet cleaner.

The responding variable was the amount of the stain removed from the carpet. 

To measure the responding variable, I used a colorimeter from Tree Top to determine the lightness of the carpet before and after removing the stain.

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QUANTITY ITEM DESCRIPTION
 

49	10x10 carpet samples (white)
30 ml.	Kraft Dijon mustard
30 ml.	Folgers Coffee
30 ml.	Welch’s Grape Juice
1	10 ml. Container
1	Bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner
1	Bottle of Spot Shot carpet cleaner
1	Bottle of Club Soda
3	Sponges

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1. The first step is to buy three kinds of carpet cleaners.
2. Get 30 ml. of mustard, hot coffee and grape juice.
3. Get 4,900  square cm. of  carpet, then cut it into 49 10x10 cm. squares.
4. Stain the squares with 10 ml. of stainer, 15 of them with each kind.
5. Let the stain soak into the carpet for 1 day (24 hours).
6. Apply10 ml. Of stain remover to each stain, 5 for each stain per remover. 
7. Let the stain remover soak for 15 minutes.
8. Gently wipe the stain away.
9. Go to Tree Top and use their colorimeter to determine how much of the stain came out with each cleaner per stain. Take three readings of each sample, each one from a different location on the carpet.
10. Compare the results of the cleaners to the control carpet’s results.

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The original purpose of this experiment was to determine what carpet cleaner removed various stains more effectively.

The results of the experiment were that Resolve worked the best, Club Soda worked the second best, and Spot Shot was the worst.

See my graphs.

My hypothesis was that carpet cleaners with more fats or vegetable oils would clean more effectively because the World Book Encyclopedia said that "the key ingredients of soap are 1)fats and 2)some vegetable oils…"

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected, because Club Soda worked second best, but if my hypothesis was accepted, it would nave worked the worst because it has no fats or oils in it.

Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if I would have let the stain remover soak in longer, would the results have changed?

If I were to conduct this project again, I would do several more trials, try to be more accurate, and try to be neater on my display board. I also would use more carpet cleaners, and try to find carpet that is whiter.

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RESEARCH REPORT  Introduction     Stains are caused when someone spills something, and the color of the spilled substance will not come out of the carpet, shirt, pants, etc… There are many costs involved with stains. One of the most expensive ones would be replacing a carpet.  Economic Importance of Stain Removers     Stain removers are important. If you spill a staining substance, and you can’t get the stain out with one kind of stain remover, you usually lose trust in all of them. Stains look very bad. Shirts might only cost about $25 to replace, but carpet costs much more. Instead of replacing your carpet, you should try your very best to get the stain out. Your carpet would cost $1,000’s of dollars to replace, but a bottle of carpet cleaner might only cost about $5. But the question for most homeowners is which one? Detergent "De*ter*gent: A cleaning agent that increases the ability of    water to penetrate fabric and to break down oils and fats." World Book Encyclopedia, 1999     The key ingredients to make detergent are 1) fats or some vegetable oils, and 2) alkalis (usually sodium hydroxide/ lye). The difference between detergent and soap are that detergent can dissolve better than soap in cold water, and detergent can be used in hard water. Hard water is water with extra minerals in it. Soap "Soap: A cleansing agent, manufactured in the form of bars, granules, flakes, or liquid, consisting of a mixture of the sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids that occur in natural fats and oils." World Book Encyclopedia, 1999     Soap is made of many of the same things as detergent. It also goes through most of the same processes. People use soap for many different things. Some of them are: polishing jewelry and furniture, softening leather, cleaning their clothes, and cleaning soiled surfaces. Detergent is also used to clean dirty surfaces. Soap Making     Soap is made by first making liquid "neat" soap. Soapmakers make neat soap by mixing fats and chemicals like lye. Then, it is dried and cut into soap "noodles". Next, the noodles are pressed into logs. And, finally, the logs are cut into bars. Soap making goes back many years. Archeologists found a soap factory in Pompeii, Italy. It was buried in A.D. 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The Kettle Method     Up through the 1940’s, soap was made in large kettles. Some soap is still made this way. In some soap factories, there are kettles that are three stories tall! These kettles can hold over 100,000 pounds of soap ingredients! Steam passes through coils in the tanks to heat the fats and alkali for many hours. The heat makes a chemical reaction called saponification or hydrolysis. This turns the soap into a creamy liquid. Next, salt is added, and this causes the "neat" soap to rise to the top of the kettle. Other items are added in a huge mixer such as colors, perfumes, germicides and builders. After this, the liquid is made into flakes, granules or bars. Bar Soaps     Bar soap is made from the "neat" soap. It is cooled then cut into noodles. After the noodles are made, they are formed into logs. After that, the logs are cut. Finally, the cut pieces are pressed into bars. Bar soaps are mainly used for laundering and bathing. Flakes and Granules     Granule soaps are made from a machine that sprays soap over a hot dryer. At the end, the particles that are too coarse, and the ones that are too fine are sifted out. This leaves only granules about the same size.      To make soap flakes you pour liquid between two rollers. One roller is hot, and the other one is cold. When the roller turns, a thin layer of soap sticks to the cold roller. When the roller turns, the soap is cut into ribbons. After that, a blade scrapes the ribbons off of the roller. Next, the ribbons are put into a dryer, where they either break or are cut into small flakes.  Uses of Detergents/ Soaps     People use detergents and soaps for many different things. They use them to polish jewelry and furniture, to soften leather, to clean clothing, and to wash their hair and bodies. One very important thing to wash is your hands. In the 19th century, 25% of mothers giving birth to babies died of childbed fever. In 1943, Dr. Oliver Holmes discovered a cure for childbed fever. Can you guess what it was? Washing their hands! Now not even 1% of mothers die from giving birth.      In 1993, eleven doctors were infected with Hepatitis A because they didn’t wash their hands after treating their patients with the disease. If they had washed their hands, they likely wouldn’t have died. Many doctors have died because they didn’t wash their hands. History of Soap     In the late 1700’s, a man named Nicolas Leblanc found that lye could be made out of ordinary table salt, or sodium chloride. Leblanc was a French scientist. Because of his discovery, soap could then be made and sold at prices that almost everyone could afford.      The soap that the English settlers made cleaned well, but it had a bad odor and was harsh to the skin. It was made by pouring hot water over ashes to make the alkali, then they boiled the alkali with animal fats in large kettles to make soap. To harden the soap, they poured it into wooden frames. After that, they were cut into bars. Some of the people who made this soap sold it door-to-door. Carpet   Carpet is made out of wool yarn that is hooked, woven, or stitched. To make a rug, some people make rugs to make time pass quickly. Rugs can be used as many different things. Sometimes, they are even hung from a wall to decorate a room. Some other uses for rugs are using them to absorb sound in a place such as a gymnasium. They are used in kitchens to make the floor not as slippery when it is wet. A lot of the time they are used right inside doors so that people can wipe their feet on them when they walk through the door. And finally, they are used all throughout the house. Most of the time, houses don’t just have a rug here and there, but a huge carpet throughout the house. There is carpet in most bedrooms and family rooms, and usually in playrooms. Carpet is usually put down because people don’t want to walk on wood. Carpet is soft and usually is the finishing touch to a room.     Some carpets are woven or knotted. The ones that are knotted are made out of yarn that is smaller than it usually is, but bigger than thread. The yarn is cut into pieces and knotted to form patterns, such as flowers, leaves, animals, designs, and other things. Many people like to make rugs. When they make them, they usually hook them or stitch them. When you hook a rug, you pick out your desired colors. After that, you cut the colors into pieces about two inches long. Then, you hook the pieces onto a piece of canvas that is the desired size for your rug. To stitch a rug, you get a finer piece of canvas and do a looping motion with a needle and yarn that is the color that you would like. Top of page

BIBLIOGRAPHY "Detergent." Microsoft Encarta Reference Suite 2001 Ed.  Feinstein, Myron E.   "Detergent and Soap." World Book Encyclopedia, 1999. "Handwashing." Encyclopedia Britannica Online   December 5, 2001 Knapp, Brian.   Sodium and Potassium Connecticut: Danbury, 1997. pp. 36-37 "Soap." Encarta Encyclopedia. 2001 Ed. Turner, Carroll R. "Rugs and Carpets." World Book Encyclopedia, 1999.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for helping me with my science project:

• My mom for helping me stain and clean the carpet samples.
• My dad for helping me cut the carpet samples.
• Mrs. Helms for helping me with my display board.
• Mr. Newkirk for editing all of my things over and over again.

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