Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Tom Molloy on January 11, 2015, 05:57:45 pm
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Hi All,
I am calling on the brilliant expertise of this forum once more.
In your considered opinion, what are the best machines for domestic carpet cleaning?
I have a friend with an Aireflex flow 600psi and another with a Dry Fusion Carpet Cleaning Machine. What in your experience is the best?
What are the +/- of both methods?
Thanks
Tom :) :)
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do you think that 0.25sqm of bonnet can extract deeply many many more sqm of carpet? No, it is phisically not possible. Water extraction all the way. Things like dry fusion are for commercial cleaning, used a lot in domestic sector by lazy cheaters. I know, some will kill me now. :)
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Hi Tom.
For pretty much all your domestic cleaning, hot water extaction is the way to go. I have pretty much every system you can use and hwe would be my preferred choice for domestic carpets.
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i'm a cheater though i do resent the label lazy as that i certainly am not.
if you vac properly they say that gets rid of 80% of the dry soil in the carpet that leaves 20% to account for, how much of that is on the surface and how much is deep deep down in the carpet?, we don't really know.
what i do know is i have been using my dry fusion machine for over three years and it leaves the carpets clean enough for me to get paid and i have a lot of repeat custom so it can't be that bad. thats good enough for me.
I don't really care what anyone else uses as its none of my business but i would advise any new starter to try hwe and some form of lm system before deciding where to invest their hard earned . there is no right or wrong way its what suits the individual.
if you put 10 ltrs of water in your machine you will not get 10 ltrs out of the waste tank so it must follow that if you use water to lift the soil out of a carpet whatever water you leave in the carpet must also be holding a part of the
soil too.
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I'd love to see any LM system tackle this job.
And that's the problem when you only have one tool at your disposal. I can't imagine life as a pro carpet cleaner with only an LM system. We get a lot of jobs from disaffected former LM customers who all say that it looked clean for the first few days....
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simon i'm not saying lm is the best for all jobs and of course a truck mount is the muts nuts nevertheless i do us dry fusion for 99% of my work even though i do have a HWE machine which only comes out for the occasional dirty stairs and the odd upholstery job
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I have been using Dry Fusion for almost 5 years now and it is a very easy and quick way of cleaning carpets. Also I have been surprised how clean it brings up some really dirty carpets I have tackled. Customers are happy and that is the main priority. I guess really it is personal choice but there surely is a place for both systems. Personally I find DF puts less strain on your back too.
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Get a Truckmount!
Then you will no about LESS STRAIN on your back
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Just your pocket !!!!!
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Just your pocket !!!!!
Yeah, it strains with all the £20 notes in it 😄
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Not if you don't have enough work to keep it busy
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That is very true. It also depends on what you're trying to build as a business, how much money you want to earn and how quickly you want to earn it.
I think a lot of people get stuck where they are busy enough to justify taking the next step up to a TM and the extra productivity it brings, because they are scared of the investment and so stagnate.
My first TM was a scary move but it utterly transformed my business and my ability to earn.
Simon
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That is very true. It also depends on what you're trying to build as a business, how much money you want to earn and how quickly you want to earn it.
I think a lot of people get stuck where they are busy enough to justify taking the next step up to a TM and the extra productivity it brings, because they are scared of the investment and so stagnate.
My first TM was a scary move but it utterly transformed my business and my ability to earn.
I will second that !!
Had my truckmount less than 6 months but it's all ready paid for its self
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I'd love to see any LM system tackle this job.
And that's the problem when you only have one tool at your disposal. I can't imagine life as a pro carpet cleaner with only an LM system. We get a lot of jobs from disaffected former LM customers who all say that it looked clean for the first few days....
I would take that challenge!
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I'd love to see any LM system tackle this job.
And that's the problem when you only have one tool at your disposal. I can't imagine life as a pro carpet cleaner with only an LM system. We get a lot of jobs from disaffected former LM customers who all say that it looked clean for the first few days....
I would take that challenge!
and my money would be on you
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Simon
I have seen Jamie remove soil from the Hartford palace carpet after Woodbridge busted their butt and you blasted the crap from it with your big blower
so could be close
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I'd love to see any LM system tackle this job.
And that's the problem when you only have one tool at your disposal. I can't imagine life as a pro carpet cleaner with only an LM system. We get a lot of jobs from disaffected former LM customers who all say that it looked clean for the first few days....
I would take that challenge!
I'm not doubting you could get a result on a carpet in that state, but it is a question of time and how much people like that will pay to get their carpets cleaned.
And good luck getting you're 80% dry soil out, as this thing was a sheet of dirt so that if you dropped a coin on it would go, 'ding.' ;D
Simon
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I would take that challenge!
So would I...
but being a cheating lazy git....
can't be arsed.. :P
;D
Oh yes... retired from the business too... ;D ;D
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Hector,
I'd like to say we miss you....but we don't ;D ;D
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:'( :'(
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does anyone really believe that dry vacuuming remove 100% of the 80% of dry soil that is supposedly in a carpet?
If so why do rug cleaners bother with vibration tables & Rug Badgers? They could just whip across it with a vacuum.
I bet you don't get half the dry soil out when vacuuming, so what happens to the other half when you put your prespray down? You then have to deal with the 20% of attached soil and the 40% of the dry soil you have just wetted( which your vacuuming didn't remove, 60% in total) do you think a bonnet will remove it?
And let's be honest, the customer is not bothered by the 80% dry soil that they cannot see in the base of the carpet.... they want the 20% they can see removing
Given enough time I could get the carpet Simon posted clean.......with unlimited buckets of hot water and a toothbrush...... this does not make a toothbrush a compatible method of cleaning. Jamie might get the carpet to look as clean with LM. But if we are talking about true cleaning with is the removal of foreign matter I would bet on Simons truckmount.
I'm bonnet cleaning a flat next week it's on the 3rd floor, I've been honest and told them the carpet will look cleaner but that's all
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In reply to the OP , the best machine for domestic carpet cleaning , is by far and away a marketing machine.
Without one you wont make a penny.
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Mike
If LM is a sub standard clean to HWE would you not be better getting a portable
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Jim,
LM is an inferior clean to extraction cleaning, simply because there is no way on gods merry earth that a pad can remove the same volume of soil as an extraction system, unless of course it is being used in circumstance it was designed for.
Simon
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Jim I don't mind doing a substandard clean as long as I'm not misleading the customer into thinking I'm doing something I'm not.
It might sound like I'm anti-LM cleaning but I'm not, I just know its limitations.
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Precisely, Mike.
Simon
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In reply to the OP , the best machine for domestic carpet cleaning , is by far and away a marketing machine.
Without one you wont make a penny.
and that is by far the best post on this thread! ;D
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Billy,
Do the usual, please ;D
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I love you to Simon! :-*
UFEBC!
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In reply to the OP , the best machine for domestic carpet cleaning , is by far and away a marketing machine.
Without one you wont make a penny.
Jason L, whatever forum you're on, you're a genius lol You should start a fan club
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But is not the 'best marketing machine' the machine that does the best job, as it's a lot easier to sell great work rather that make excuses for crappy cleaning done by a ineffective machine & process.
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Your marketing machine is the quality of the work you do. It doesn't matter what jazzy marketing you've got if the quality of what you do isn't worthy of people's loyalty to the point where they are happy to recommend you to others and have you back again.
Simon
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Same as Jamie I once owned a prochem top of the range truck mount thought it was dogs balls at the time
Now I cimex most jobs only problem is I drink more tea and chatting with customers as it is so quick ,
And am talking real Minging Chinese and Indian restaurant,carpetsand God do they know how to greet ,I've got one in city centre he invites all his businesses associate along to see how good a job we do
One of his associates booked us for his carpets,when there it took us 1 and 1/2 hours
To do
The last time some one done his carpets it took 7 hrs and carpets smelled and took a week to dry out properly as the old saying goes horses and courses ! Is that right ::)roll
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On the last Chemspec Carpet Cleaning course we ran. The Hotel meeting room had a lovely Axminister carpet. The cleaner came in before we started and whizzed over the carpet with a tub vac. Just before lunch I vacuumed 1 square foot of the carpet with a filter cloth in the pipe of the upright vacuum cleaner. What came out was amazing. I added the debris to a bottle of water and gave a good shake. Ended up with a bottle of muddy water. Left to settle on a window sill by 3 o clock all the mud had settled to the bottom of the bottle and was about an inch deep.
An upright vacuum cleaner only works efficiently when being pulled backwards SLOWLY.
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I still cannot believe what my fifty year old Holloway pilelifter . It's a bit like Trigger's broom though, not everything is original.
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I can't believe that there is still this level of ignorance about LM cleaning. I was trained by Chem Dry and now use Texatherm, Whilst I believe you need both systems I also know there are far more jobs that HWE can't do than than LM, so if you're gonna pick one pick LM
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The problem with LM is its seen by some as a lazy way to clean to give a quick fix - not capable of properly cleaning.
This is often the opinion of Truck Mounters.
Now before i go further, i use both LM and HWE and wouldnt be without either so i am not biased to LM.
I think the quick, lazier approach is actually more applicable to the TM jobs. It is very often expressed on here how much quicker and easier it all is with a TM and how much more work you can do in a day. Its also suggested its the only real way to clean properly.
Now this isnt a dig at Simon - but have a look at the photo of the minger he has posted in this thread. From what i understand Simon used a TM on that. From the picture i can see a number of things -
The carpet has probably been presprayed, but certainly not agitated - otherwise the uncleaned area would not look like it does. Was it vacuumed? - not sure.
The curtains are still hanging at floor level - not great when using a wand or prespraying or after as moisture will wick up.
The sofa has not been moved and is not on blocks and it has wooden feet - light wood yes but still a problem if not blocked. The carpet soiling also goes well past the sofa limit.
Although the carpet is obviously cleaner where its been wanded - you can still see areas that need attention and if it had been agitated properly first before wanding, it would look a lot better after a pass with the wand. It isnt as it could be.
Now, if that is correct, that means the process was go in, prespray and then wand - quick and easy with pieces of the cleaning pie missed out - often what is accused of LM cleaning when it isn't when done correctly.
My point is - dont compare just one method to another, it doesnt mean anything. The real thing to compare is the knowledge, dedication and appliction by one operative to another - that will vary from company to company.
To do LM well takes an expertise and a knowledge and to be honest is a real great way to learn more as you are restricted by what you can use without rinsing and can leave you with more knowledge about how things work because you have to dig deeper to know what will achieve the result but leave the carpet in a non resoiling state. Anyone can prespray and rinse super hot, but are those acheiving better results and giving a better service? - no, not always.
And this isnt a dig at Simon - but there can be a team of TM's on here who always rubbish LM when its possibly their own misapplication of it which actually is the problem.
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some questions....
On a whole would you say most carpet cleaners are relatively intelligent ? Or are they all thick
Would you say most carpet cleaners want to to the best job possible?
Why do carpet cleaners spend £1000s on portables & truckmounts if they can do the same job with a rotary, bonnets and some chemicals costing less than £1500?
You would have to be pretty stupid to spend over £20,000 on a truckmount if you could do the same job job with LM.
I've met some thick truckmount owners but I've also met some very intelligent owners as well, but if LM could equal HWE........then every person who uses it would have to be totally stupid otherwise why are they using it?
Also I have met nearly every trainer of carpet cleaners in the uk ( and quite a few USA trainers) everyone of them used HWE as there main cleaning system.....are they stupid as well?
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A local guy to me was in charge of training chemdrys technicians I would say he was an expert in LM Cleaning. when he started his own carpet cleaning company guess what system he used?
He bought a Prochem portable..... why??? I met him many times and he was a real decent bloke & incredibly knowledgable
Why with all his knowledge of Chemdrys systems and low moisture cleaning did he chose to use HWE when he started his own company?
I would normally respect his privacy but As this ŵebsite is freely shown on the web already I'll post a link here so you can see who I'm on about and read his qualifications and see his experiance.
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ron-rookledge/20/8a1/68a
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It think you had to see that carpet to truly appreciate the problem.
The entire pile (what little of it there was present) was matted together so that it was more like a flooring than a carpet, so prevacciing would have had no affect whatsoever. The best way of describing it was that it was dead and not worth cleaning and if it was to be cleaned, perfection or anything close to it simply wasn't on the menu, regardless of what system was being used.
I have a whole range of LM equipment, including a Cimex and forty years carpet cleaning experience behind me, but given the sheer volume of compacted soil in the carpet the only realistic prospect of removing sufficient of it to get something of a result was with a TM.
I don't think anyone equipped with multiple systems as we are would in this circumstance opt for anything other than the TM option. Again, you had to see this thing to truly appreciate the situation, otherwise to speculate on another outcome without having seen it is to my mind futile.
Simon
This is what came out of it :o
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In fairness, I think you've answered that well Simon.