Bulletin: Env107
While nylon fibers sometimes have colorfast problems they are still the best choice for most applications. Even the original DuPont 501 from the 1950’s were still around thirty years later. You almost could not wear it out and it could be cleaned to look really good even after all those years. Today’s nylons are even better and if cared for they may be around until the end of the world.
Unfortunately nylon has one giant creature feature that manufacturers have not been able to solve. Compared to olefin, nylon dyes are more fragile; sunlight and many chemicals will damage the dyes especially in the blue range of colors. In areas where nylon carpets cannot be protected from sunlight, they should be selected in earth-tones. These are the least noticeable when color damage takes place. We recommend having us apply UV protector to help prevent premature blue dye color problems from sunlight.
In addition to sunlight, nylon carpeting is also vulnerable to furnace fumes, chlorine walk-off from swimming pools, janitorial chemicals, etc, especially those of blue range of colors including gray, green, etc.
Here is the dirty little secret that has been a real snake-in-the-grass for carpet cleaners for 50 years. Red nylon dye fades to pink and earth tones generally fade to the yellow side but when blue nylon fades it turns light brown on the tips.
This mimics pH browning and the condition is often treated with acid or oxygen products and re-cleaning. All of this activity can lighten the dyes
even further. This loose or damaged dye flushes right out with the normal cleaning process. Even plain water would do it and this dye loss is not apparent until completely dry, which in most cases is the following day or so. Then you get a customer call saying “you ruined my carpet because it turned brown this morning”.
Our experience is to be wary of cleaning blue range nylons and treat any “browning” on blues and grays as color loss, which will only get worse with treatment until you know better about the true cause of the problem. We have learned of an art-form test for blue range nylon dye damage that can be performed to verify and confirm the blue dye problem with nylon that usually works but it is subject to light conditions and the cleaning technician’s ability.
Blue dye color loss can be nearly transparent and invisible before cleaning but often it can be discovered as well. It will appear as slight beige color at the very tips of the carpet yarn. This will be camouflaged by soil and matting of the yarn and extremely difficult to see. If the slightest beige is present on the tips, you can conclude that it will be much worse after the carpet is rinsed and dried. While the carpet may otherwise look nearly brand new after cleaning, this dye-loss will probably be even more apparent at least for the first few days until re-matting begins to take place.
Olefin carpeting is inferior to nylon because the melting point of olefin is so low that just the friction of people walking on it will cause the pile to be permanently distorted which results in dark, shaded areas. Test this for yourself by passing a cigarette lighter quickly over the surface
of an unwanted olefin scrap and it will melt a path almost faster than you can pull it away. This results in traffic lanes that defy the cleaner’s efforts to restore because they are damaged beyond our ability to “un-melt” them. Therefore the light reflects and refracts differently from the fibers lying in different directions and still looks dirty from one direction and clean from the other end of the room. However, olefin does have just ONE advantage over nylon. It is colorfast. Sunlight, unburned hydrocarbons from heating systems, pool chlorine walk-off and improper chemicals do not usually affect it.