[Adam P]

i'm still researching and researching carpet cleaning before i stop subbing this out and doing it myself. my budget is approx £4k and i have an idea of what i'd like to buy but i would like to see what others would get.

wanting something that'll give good results, and allow us to give bigger results as we buy more equipment (if we don't buy it initially).

all ideas are welcome for everything that we'll need and an idea of what to buy and what to buy next, e.g. first buy portable, wand, x amount of chemicals, heater, extra hose, then when we can afford it, buy this rotovac, this chemicals, this heater etc.

thank you

[Richard Cole]

I got a starter pack from Matt at Cleansmart in Nottingham for less than that, Airflex Pro and all the other misc equip needed to start including chemicals for a bit less than that.  Price included 2 days training with Derek Bolton. Just ring them and ask them about starter packages.

[ryan mca]

What have you got for transport?

[Adam P]

atm lwb hi-roof transit connect, may need to get a larger vehicle if this isn't enough but i think for starting it'll do if we organise it well.

[ryan mca]

  Airflex turbo
  alltec tv advance
  scorpion
  or if you want to use a local supplier call dave at the big clean he sales
  cfr, power flite and prochem machines and will give good advice on
  chems.

[Adam P]

thanks for the posts so far.

what are peoples' thoughts on the ashbys ninja? seen the airflex pro recommended on here a few times and the research i had done suggested is was a good one but the ninja is what the carpet cleaner we work with uses and again gets good reviews.

for rotary machines, do all do carpets as well as hard floors/tile and grout, or is it better to get one designer specifically for each task? i'll soon need a machine to clean (is the correct word buff?) some dirty hard floors so very keen to save money and get one that does both if it's still possible to get great results.

[Simon@arenaclean]

thanks for the posts so far.

what are peoples' thoughts on the ashbys ninja? seen the airflex pro recommended on here a few times and the research i had done suggested is was a good one but the ninja is what the carpet cleaner we work with uses and again gets good reviews.

for rotary machines, do all do carpets as well as hard floors/tile and grout, or is it better to get one designer specifically for each task? i'll soon need a machine to clean (is the correct word buff?) some dirty hard floors so very keen to save money and get one that does both if it's still possible to get great results.

The Ninja's reputation goes before it and is often referred to as the 'Transit van' of machines. The Airflex is new, about a year since launch, but many have brought them myself included and I've had no problems. I would also put the Scorpion and Alltec machines in the same bracket. Essentially they mostly share the same components it's just the casing and the layout that offers any real difference. I can vouch for the build quality of the Airflex and the Alltec machines with personnel experience and others will vouch for the others mentioned. Building a relationship with the supplier is important so ring around and have a chat and start there. If you can I suggest going for a triple vac machine or a twin with 200+ psi pump if you can afford it, the Ninja can have a 3rd vac added as an extra unit.

As for rotary machines. A slow speed machine will serve all your needs, get one with a tank on board and then just get the various drive plates to suit. Numatic make some great machines as do victor. As with anything you can buy dedicated machines to use with the carpet machines but will cost considerably more than a standard rotary. One is the Rotovac range which can also do multiple tasks using different heads. To buff, or polish to a shine, the rotary would tend to be a high speed machine but I think in your context your probably talking about cleaning or striping it? If so a standard speed will do that fine. One drive plate will take both pads and bonnets as they grip on to the block so carpets and floors can be done.

Hope that helps.

Simon

[Craig Trevain]

A craftex grace or even better the grace hp, with full kit of prochem/craftex chemicals, would be spot on.

[Ian Gourlay]

Do not forget you will have ther costs like Marketing

[Adam P]

ian: luckily we currently get a good amount of carpet cleaning jobs which we sub out to a carpet cleaner. we're also promoting it with our current methods of advertising and marketing so when we finally do the carpet cleaning there should be no extra cost or very minimal so nothing to worry about.

simon: thanks for the help explaining. as for a rotary machine, i've been looking at the victor multispeed industrial for hard floor cleaning. it mentions that it can be used for carpet cleaning but i assume not in the same way a rotovac would be as how would it get the water/suction plus it's much smaller with more then one head? from what i can tell i'd need a separate machine for carpets and for hard floors as something like the rotovac doesn't appear to be useful for hard floor cleaning aswell?

edit: maybe i was looking at the wrong rotovac machine. what are the machines people mean when they say they use a rotovac?  just seen this video and amazed as the results (of course i'm taken it with a massive pinch of salt as it's a sales video on rotovac's site)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICivHTj4XQ&feature=player_embedded

[Joe H]

The Rotovac in the video is the latest modl - 360i.
Great tool.  Single head rotates and you can spray and suck. Only needs low pressure, I used it at about 200psi, does a brilliant job and leaves the carpet fairly dry. There are 5 changeable heads for the machine so it will do carpets and hard floors.

A rotary machine as suggested to you is different in as much it does not have suction. For carpets it should revolve about 150-230 rpm, although Jasonl uses a faster speed satisfactorily. You prespray the carpet, place a pad on the carpet that has been soaked in cleaning solution then wrung out. Put the rotary machine on top of the pad and operate it (you do need practice to do this).  As th epad collects the dirt, turn it over a do some more. You need quiet a few pads to keep you going - or a lot of rinsing on the job.  This method is called LM or low moisture and pehaps best suited to commercial wok but ok on most domestic if you have the room.   Size of machine head can be for 15" 17" or 20" pads.
Big open spaces as in office would be better to use 20" - cover more area. Domestic use would prefer 15".
There is a Oreck Orbiter which is 13" and this will do stairs a s well.
Thats a brief overview.

[Adam P]

many thanks joe to the overview. has confirmed what i was recently thinking.

rotovac 360i appears to just what i'm looking for as it will do carpet cleaning brilliantly as well as hard floor cleaning which i will need it for very soon. i assume it can be used without a machine for pre-wetted hard floors just like a dry rotary machine?

please suggest any other machine to look at if people feel there is better options for what i need other then a rotovac360i.

[Joe H]

One of the heads I have seen available seems to be for yse as a "bonnet" machine ie pad.  However, it is an expensive machine just for that (£1700 inc vat). For carpet cleaning where you washing the carpet then you need a pump to push the water in and a vacuum to suck the water out.  Same for hard floors really. Prespray, agitation and dwell, then a good rinse. The 360i does all of this f you have a water extraction machine linked to it.

Rotary pad machine is just a pad picking up the dirt. Get rotary machines 2nd user for about £100 - £150.  Good pads are about £17 each

[Joe H]

Forgot to mention
For the approx £1700 inc vat you get one head. Other cost £295 +vat each.
But it is a good tool.

[Adam P]

can you suggest what rotary machines to look for second hand and from where? if it makes more sense to get 2 separate machines (hard floor now and carpet later when we get the hwe machine) then i'm happy to do this, however i don't know what to look for

[Andrew Briscoe]

can you suggest what rotary machines to look for second hand and from where? if it makes more sense to get 2 separate machines (hard floor now and carpet later when we get the hwe machine) then i'm happy to do this, however i don't know what to look for

For carpet cleanng with a bonnet, cleaning of tile & grout & srubbing vinyl floors etc
you would need a slow /standard speed rotary, idealy 150-230 rpm,
you can use a higher speed , on carpets, but with care and the right pad.
If i am right in thinking you do contract cleaning, you could get a dual speed machine
then you can use for polishing floors too.
I have a electrolux sattelite 450 and a numatic, the numatic is lighter to use
but i find the electrolux(Truvox) machine heavier and does an all round better job.

Andrew

[elliott cleaning]

Dual speed machines have their problems.  Thought of getting one to reduce the necessity of carting around both low & high speed rotaries but decided to resist

Cleansurrey - there is a company that sells lots of good used rotaries of all speeds & sizes for very reasonable  prices.  For the life of me - can't remember their name - maybe someone else on here can help

[jasonl]

I run a twin speed , it is now 3 years old , and is a wetrok, it was very expensive new, over a grand.

Apart from the PAT testing it has not cost me a penny , not one screw has fallen out, no squeaks , rattles , absolutely zero maintenance.

[Andrew Briscoe]

Dual speed machines have their problems.  Thought of getting one to reduce the necessity of carting around both low & high speed rotaries but decided to resist

Cleansurrey - there is a company that sells lots of good used rotaries of all speeds & sizes for very reasonable  prices.  For the life of me - can't remember their name - maybe someone else on here can help

A couple of decent companies sell on ebay, think they are A3 machines,
and i think other is GCCS in Sheffield, type in polisher and search.

Andrew

[Adam P]

looking on a3 machines website and unsure what to get. all seem to be pretty much the same for pretty much the same price. any suggestions from the ones listed on their site?

http://www.floorcleaningmachinesuk.com/reconditioned/floor-polisher/floor-polisher/view-all-products.html