Actichem Spotting Kit

Product Overview

The Actichem Spotting Kit is the complete professional spotting outfit: eleven 500 ml spotters, an oxygen booster, the tools to apply them and a spotting chart, packaged in a quality lockable case.

It exists because spotting is not one job. A red cordial stain, a rust mark, a chewing gum deposit, a protein spill and cellulosic browning are five different chemical problems, and no single product solves more than one of them properly. An operator carrying one all-purpose spotter will fail on most callbacks. An operator carrying this case will not.

The lockable case is a genuine feature rather than packaging. Several of these products are DANGER-classified and one is a Poisons Schedule 6 chemical; a lockable container is what makes it reasonable to carry them into an occupied home.

This kit replaces the PowerClean Spotting Kit.

What Is in the Kit

Chemicals

• Spotaway U 500 ml — urine and odour
• Actichem CTR 500 ml — coffee, tea and red
• Brownaway 500 ml — cellulosic browning and tannin
• Citrus Gel 500 ml — gum, adhesive and oily deposits
• Rust Remover 500 ml — iron oxide staining
• Actichem VDS 500 ml — dry solvent work
• Actichem POG 500 ml — paint, oil and grease
• Conquer 500 ml — odour
• Protein Spotter 500 ml — blood, food, body fluids
• Orange Solvent 500 ml — adhesive and general solvent work
• Pet & Flood 500 ml — pet and water damage odour
• Oxyboost 1 kg — oxygen booster

Tools and reference

• Premium towels ×2
• Gum Getter
• Tamping brush
• Trigger sprayers ×2
• pH test strips, 100 pack
• Spotting chart
• Quality lockable case

The pH strips are the item most operators overlook and the one that most improves results. Knowing whether a residue is acid or alkaline before you choose a spotter is the difference between fixing a stain and setting it.

Safety Information — Read This Before the Case Goes in the Van

This page previously listed the contents and nothing else. A kit is not a product with a single safety data sheet; it is twelve chemicals in one box, and each one carries its own classification and its own safety data sheet. Several are DANGER-classified, one is a Poisons Schedule 6 chemical, and one carries a reproductive toxicity statement.

The full classification for each is on its own product page, linked above. Please read them. The summary below is what matters when they are stored and used together.

The three that need the most attention

• Citrus Gel (AP486) — H360D, may damage the unborn child. Toxic to Reproduction Category 1B, driven by N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. Anyone who is or may become pregnant should not use this product. That is a substitution decision, not a matter of protective equipment. If that applies to someone on your crew, take this bottle out of their case.
• Orange Solvent (AP128) — classified dangerous goods with no pack-size exemption on our reading of the safety data sheet. Flammable. It changes how the case is transported and stored.
• POG (AP482) — AUH019, may form explosive peroxides. This is the only product in the kit where age in storage increases the hazard. A spotting case often lives in a van for years with bottles that are rarely used. Date the POG bottle when you open it, rotate it, and do not keep an old one "just in case".

Incompatibilities — the real risk of carrying them together

This kit deliberately contains products from opposite ends of the chemical spectrum, because that is what spotting requires. The consequence is that some of them must never meet.

• Protein Spotter is ammonia-based (pH 11.8). Never use it in the same operation as a hypochlorite product — ammonia and bleach produce chloramine gas. If you also carry Chlorosan, Mould Exterminator or Hypo Enforcer in the vehicle, keep them apart and never in the same bucket, sprayer or wet extraction tank.
• CTR is an acidic sulfite (pH 2.7). Acidic sulfites release sulphur dioxide, and sulfite reacts vigorously with hypochlorite. Do not combine it with anything.
• Rust Remover is acidic. Brownaway is acidic. Protein Spotter is strongly alkaline. Applying an acid over an unrinsed alkaline residue — or the reverse — on the same spot produces an uncontrolled reaction in the carpet and often a permanent mark. Rinse between products. Every time.
• Never mix two spotters in one sprayer to "cover both possibilities". If the first product has not worked, extract, rinse, and reassess.
• Use a dedicated trigger sprayer per product. The kit supplies two spare sprayers for exactly this reason. A sprayer that had CTR in it last week and Protein Spotter in it today is a chemical reaction waiting for a squeeze.

Storage and transport

• Keep the case locked. It contains Schedule 5 and Schedule 6 chemicals and it goes into homes with children and pets in them.
• Keep it out of direct sun and out of a hot vehicle where you can. Several contents are solvent-based, one is flammable and one forms peroxides with age. A closed van in an Australian summer is a genuinely poor storage environment.
• Store it upright. Mixed leakage inside a closed case is the worst version of the incompatibility problem above.
• Check the case periodically for weeping bottles, perished trigger seals and faded labels. An unlabelled bottle in a spotting kit is a hazard in its own right.
• Carry the safety data sheets. Twelve chemicals in a work vehicle means twelve sheets available to the operator. Every one is linked from the product pages above.

General handling

• Eye protection whenever you are applying a spotter, particularly the acids and the alkalis. Spotting is close-range work at floor level and splashback is normal.
• Ventilate. Solvent spotters in a closed room build up quickly, and the smallest rooms — bathrooms, wardrobes, hallway corners — are where spotting most often happens.
• Pre-test every product in an inconspicuous area before it touches the visible carpet.

Choosing the Right Product — A Working Guide

The spotting chart in the case is the reference. This is the short version of how an experienced operator narrows it down.

Identify the class of stain first, not the substance

Use the pH strips

Wet a small area of the stain with distilled water, blot onto a strip and read it. An alkaline residue calls for an acid-side product; an acidic residue calls for an alkaline one. Guessing this is how operators set stains permanently.

Work mild to aggressive

Always start with the least aggressive product that could plausibly work. You can escalate. You cannot un-bleach a carpet, un-etch a fibre or reverse dye loss.

Rinse between products

If the first choice does not work, extract and rinse before the second goes on. This is both a safety requirement and the difference between a clean result and a ring.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Reaching for the strongest product first. The commonest and most expensive habit in spotting.
• Not rinsing between products. Chemically dangerous and cosmetically ruinous.
• Reusing a sprayer across products. Dedicate one per chemical.
• Skipping the pre-test because the carpet "looks like nylon".
• Over-wetting. Most browning callbacks are caused by the cleaner, not the client. Brownaway is in the kit partly to fix problems this creates.
• Rubbing instead of blotting and tamping. That is what the tamping brush is for. Rubbing distorts pile permanently.
• Leaving the case unlocked in an occupied home.
• Keeping a POG bottle for years. AUH019 — peroxides form with age.
• Not carrying the safety data sheets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is buying the kit cheaper than buying the products individually?

The kit is priced as a package and it includes the case, the towels, the sprayers, the tamping brush, the Gum Getter, the pH strips and the spotting chart, which you would otherwise buy separately. Contact us if you want the comparison against your specific product list — for an operator starting out it is almost always the better buy, and for an operator restocking two or three items it may not be.

Can I buy the individual products to refill the kit?

Yes. Every chemical in the kit is stocked individually in the 500 ml size and most in larger volumes. The product pages are linked in the contents list above.

Is there one safety data sheet for the kit?

No, and there cannot be. A kit is not a mixture — it is twelve separate chemicals, each with its own classification and its own sheet. You need all twelve available to the operator. They are linked from the individual product pages.

Which products in the kit are dangerous goods?

Orange Solvent is classified dangerous goods on our reading of its safety data sheet, with no pack-size exemption stated. The others in the kit are not regulated for transport at 500 ml. Because classifications are revised, check the current sheet for each product rather than relying on this summary when you are consigning or writing a transport risk assessment.

Do I really need eleven different spotters?

You need the class of chemistry, not the brand count. There are broadly six mechanisms represented here — reducing, oxidising, acid, alkaline, solvent and enzyme or surfactant — and a professional operator will meet all six in a normal working month. Carrying only two or three means either failing on the others or reaching for something aggressive and causing damage.

What is the Gum Getter for?

Mechanical removal of gum and hard deposits after the Citrus Gel has softened them. Chemistry loosens the deposit; the tool lifts it. Using either alone is slower and more damaging than using both.

How long will the chemicals last in the case?

Most will keep for years in reasonable storage. POG is the exception — it carries AUH019 and can form peroxides with age, so date it on opening and rotate it. Store the case out of heat and sunlight, and check periodically for weeping bottles and perished trigger seals.

Can an untrained person use this kit?

We would not recommend it. Several of the products are DANGER-classified, one carries a reproductive toxicity statement, and the incompatibilities between them are real. This is a professional contractor's kit and it assumes an operator who reads safety data sheets and pre-tests.

Related Products

• Actichem Red Fix 500 ml kit — the specialist two-part red dye remover. Not included in the kit, and the natural next purchase for anyone doing regular red work.
• Actichem Rinse Pro — the rinse to use between products and after spotting.
• Actichem Protein Spotter 5 litre — the volume refill for the most frequently used product in the case.

Summary

The Actichem Spotting Kit puts every class of spotting chemistry an operator meets in the field into one lockable case, with the tools and the reference chart to use them properly. For anyone building a professional carpet cleaning operation, it is the single most useful purchase after the machine itself.

It is also twelve individually classified chemicals in one box — including a Category 1B reproductive toxicant, a peroxide-forming solvent, a strong alkali and two acids. Read the safety data sheets, keep the case locked, dedicate a sprayer per product, and rinse between chemicals. Handled that way it is a professional asset. Handled casually it is a genuine hazard.

SKU: AP900

Not sure whether the kit or a shorter list of individual products suits the work you actually do? Contact Carpet Cleaners Warehouse before you order. We would rather set you up with the right chemistry for your jobs than sell you eleven bottles where you need four.