Spray on cloth cleaner: same as a spay on carpet cleaner in a can? (Soft, non abrasive soap) Interchangable?
Cloth Cleaner - Thoughts...
- Thread starter BarTableMan
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Jerry Forsyth
Well-known member
If you have Simonis cloth the best cleaner is the electrostatic Simonis x-1. It gets every speck out.
Damp clean non lint rag works pretty darn good....adding soda water if its an active stain also works well, soak and dab. As for the newer cleaners I am not the one to ask.
I'll second the X-1. I got one as a gift - works like a charm. A bit pricey I hear, but it does work. It also eliminates the need for chemicals, which is a very good thing!
The Hippie
Registered
They make a lot of $ selling things when simple solutions work as well if not better. I always use a piece of table cloth, get it pretty wet and wipe the table and rails. It picks up all the stuff underneath the cloth, and in drying it stretches the cloth too. Makes it look like new!
Dont worry about those ugly streaks when you apply it, it will dry and be totally clean in about 30 minutes.
The spray-on cloth cleaner I've tried is called Quick-Clean, and it is almost entirely worthless. Not only does it NOT remove stains, it leaves a stain of its own.
Roger
No way any wet cloth picks up "all" of the chalk in the cloth...and I use the wet rag method too. Vacuuming first seems to improve the wet cloth approach.
Glad to read the input on quick Kleen and the x1 too, thanks folks.
A better way....
This works as well as the X-1 and much cheaper..lol. Find a sturdy cardboard tube and wrap a microfiber cloth around it and sweep the table. The static and microfiber a will pick up a lot of chalk.
Nothing works better than a vacuum and then a damp towel and go over the table and let it dry.
This works as well as the X-1 and much cheaper..lol. Find a sturdy cardboard tube and wrap a microfiber cloth around it and sweep the table. The static and microfiber a will pick up a lot of chalk.
Nothing works better than a vacuum and then a damp towel and go over the table and let it dry.
I also am a vacuum and damp towel guy. I think it works great! I did this method for almost 6 years on my last table. When I broke it down to sell it I was amazed at how clean the slate still was.
Vaccum the cloth. Then if you have a wool cloth like Simonis, use a damp rag dipped in a Woollite solution. Woolite cleans all the dirt off and once it dries the cloth is a little tighter to the bed.
This is what I do and us a micro fiber cloth. The vacuum nozzle needs to be one with a medium brush to dislodge the chock. Don't use one that rotates, too harsh on the cloth.
I use the Simonis X in between cleaning and sometimes between games. There is nothing like playing on a clean cloth and your hands don't get blue.
I also clean the pool balls with a damp cloth and like many others said a good vacuum is the way to go. I cleaned a room for four years this way five days a week, before setting up the bar. The one thing I found....of Huge concern is the materials used to fill the slate seams. Some dry out, crack or can be effected by High powered suction, causing high spots under the cloth. This must be avoided. I'd ask an experienced table mechanic, to get that answer.
All I do is vac. an use a lint free damp cloth..do not use a vac with a power brush..I beleive the brush is to hard on the cloth..most stains other then chalk are not going to come out in my exp...I don't like using anything other then water..my try the bakeing soda tho.
Soda water, not baking soda....
I knew some one would correct my blooper..thanks.
Same as many others here, I primarily vacuum daily. Roughly every 3-5 days I use a micro-fiber cloth dipped in water w/ woolite or fabric softner and wring out every last drop I can and wipe the cloth. I use caution not to allow enough moisture on the cloth so as to get it wet to the point it starts to appear darker from to much moisture.
Now here is where I differ from a lot of folks methods here, 1 out of 4 times I wet wipe the table is with the "Woolite" mixture. The other 3 out of 4 times I use a small portion of "Fabric Softener" mixture. I find the fabric softener makes the cloth have a softer feel and allows for a little more ball slide once dry. Woolite is a detergent on the alkaline side of the PH scale, although a much lower pH than a standard clothing detergent, it is still above 7 PH which puts it on the alkaline side of the PH scale. Add to that a hard water supply, and that makes for a very dry brittle feeling fiber once the table dries.
Fabric softener is below 7 PH which puts it on the acid side of the PH scale. Acid sounds like a harsh word, but research the PH scale to have a better understanding. So when you use a fabric softener in your clothes wash, and your clothes comes out feeling all soft, that is due to the acid rinse lowering the PH of the cloth. Same affect here for the table cloth, it has a nice soft non abrasive or non stiff fiber feel to it ( I also happen to have very hard water here as well which only adds to the dry/stiff feeling fiber issue, If you have soft water this is not so much an issue), the dry stiff cloth promotes accelerated cloth wear and also likes to grab and hold on to any chalk dust residue.
I was taught this method back in the 80's working in a poolhall doing the table cleaning maintenance, and have used this method for almost 20 of the last 30 years (the missing ten+ years I wasn't around a pool table). I have witnessed this method prolong the life of table cloth in addition to making for a very nice playing table surface enough to not deviate from its use.
Dopc. test it yourselves at your own risk, however you just might like the results. Key here being not to over wet the cloth.
EDIT: Keep in mind when using either a Woolite or a fabric softener, a little bit goes a long, long way. I use maybe a 1/4 of an ounce (that is a little less than 1/4 of a shot of whiskey to you shot drinkers) per gallon of water.
Now here is where I differ from a lot of folks methods here, 1 out of 4 times I wet wipe the table is with the "Woolite" mixture. The other 3 out of 4 times I use a small portion of "Fabric Softener" mixture. I find the fabric softener makes the cloth have a softer feel and allows for a little more ball slide once dry. Woolite is a detergent on the alkaline side of the PH scale, although a much lower pH than a standard clothing detergent, it is still above 7 PH which puts it on the alkaline side of the PH scale. Add to that a hard water supply, and that makes for a very dry brittle feeling fiber once the table dries.
Fabric softener is below 7 PH which puts it on the acid side of the PH scale. Acid sounds like a harsh word, but research the PH scale to have a better understanding. So when you use a fabric softener in your clothes wash, and your clothes comes out feeling all soft, that is due to the acid rinse lowering the PH of the cloth. Same affect here for the table cloth, it has a nice soft non abrasive or non stiff fiber feel to it ( I also happen to have very hard water here as well which only adds to the dry/stiff feeling fiber issue, If you have soft water this is not so much an issue), the dry stiff cloth promotes accelerated cloth wear and also likes to grab and hold on to any chalk dust residue.
I was taught this method back in the 80's working in a poolhall doing the table cleaning maintenance, and have used this method for almost 20 of the last 30 years (the missing ten+ years I wasn't around a pool table). I have witnessed this method prolong the life of table cloth in addition to making for a very nice playing table surface enough to not deviate from its use.
Dopc. test it yourselves at your own risk, however you just might like the results. Key here being not to over wet the cloth.
EDIT: Keep in mind when using either a Woolite or a fabric softener, a little bit goes a long, long way. I use maybe a 1/4 of an ounce (that is a little less than 1/4 of a shot of whiskey to you shot drinkers) per gallon of water.
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