[Grant Whyte]

Hiya

This machine has three functions; vacuum cleans/brushes pile, agitates prespray & LM cleaning

Anyone use it in combination with h/w deep extraction cleaning and how do you rate it?

Comments appreciated

Thanks

Grant

[Joe H]

I have a CarpetGard. same as Flexi5 - just a different name.
I use it sometimes as a vac prior to prespray. With the crb it does a decent job.
Also use for agitation of prespray, obviously without vac, and it does a very good job.
I have used it for vlm on my own rug  - again good job.
Worth £2000 (or thereabouts) What is these days?
If you can get an Envirodri new for about £1000 that would be better value IMO.

[Simon Gerrard]

I think my Flexi 5 is probably the best purchase I've made this year. I've had a Sebo Duo, which was good, and then Envirodri which was a lot better but the Flexi 5 is quite simply one brilliant tool and I use it on almost every job and in my view is worth the extra money to an Evirodri.

Simon

[Joe H]

Would be interesting to hear in what area you think the Flexi 5 is better then the Envirodri???

[Simon Gerrard]

Joe,

Don't get me wrong, the Envirodri is a really good machine but what I didn't like about it was the fact that even though you clean the brushes regularly it dumps lots of lint on the carpet which looks unsightly. The one big advantage with the Flexi5 is that it dry vacs and wet agitates and I think that combination really does produce a far better result - either that or I should go back to Specsavers
The other thing is that my customers have noticed this new addition to having their carpet cleaned and I think it is important to show them that you are striving for better and not being complacent, after all, the trick of keeping your customers is to put them in a position where they can't get what you do anywhere else and that extra glue generated between us and the customer makes the Flexi5, even if it were not better than the Enivrodri, a damned good investment.

Simon

[Colin Day]

The Flexi 5 is has a warranty for "Wet" work... Which makes it more appealing IMO!!!

[david_green]

Can you use the vac after prespraying ie when the soil is damp?

[Simon Gerrard]

Why on earth would you want to do that?

[Grant Whyte]

Hi all

Thanks for comments, local supplier offering to demo both machines - Flexi 5 and Envirodri - he's waiting for demo model from Chemspec. Could be next week.

Cheers

Grant

[Joe H]

Can you use the vac after prespraying ie when the soil is damp?

The damp soiling could block up the tubes at the least and defo not good in the reusable dust bag - will affect the suction efficiency.

[Adam P]

sorry i'm fairly new to this but i thought when people say "agitate prespray" they mean to use it after prespray which is when the soil is damp so that it gets mixed in better and does a better job?

[Joe H]

Most of the soiling in a carpet is loose, thats why vacuuming with a good vacuum cleaner is stressed as important. Get it out of the way.
Why?
What happens when you wet dirt?
It turns into a sludge.
Why do you want to be sucking sludge, especially if you dont have a high powered extraction machine.

When you got rid of the loose soil - and the Flexi5 and more expensive Host, or TM4 machines, have counter rotating brushes (CRB) which dig deep to get at the soiling and at the same time vac it up, then you can prespray.  Use an Envirodri or the lowest priced Host or the Sebo Duo and you need to vac with say a Sebo BS36 etc.

Then you suck.
Purpose then of prespray is to loosen the stickey soil wrapped onto the fibres. Many presprays benefit from agitation, so you either brush it (get the heart pumping) of use an Enirodri, flexi5, Host, TM4, Oreck Orbiter, Sebo Duo, or your rotary with a brush or pad to do the agitation - get the prespray into the fibres so it can its job.

[John Kelly]

The vacuum on the Flexi 5 is dry only, although you can suck up slightly damp carpet cleaning granules without damage.

[james roffey]

Whats the weight of the Flexi 5, the Envirodri is a heavy bit of kit without a vacuum

[Grant Whyte]

I'm expecting a local supplier to contact me for a demo of both the envirodri and the flexi 5 this week so I'll let you know once I've got the low down on these pieces of kit

Grant

[Grant Whyte]

I had a demo with it using dry/LM compound on well worn synthetic fibre carpet tiles. I also used the Envirodri and was equally impressed with its agitation. The Flexi 5 has a higher price and could be a decider. I'm interested in its simultaneous dual pile lifting and vacuuming ability.

The Flexi 5 with its pre-mounted vac and sturdier construction (see attachment) has fixed wheels to move from the point of offloading to the job site. It's definitely heavier than the Envirodri but can be used for: 1. Vacuuming, 2. Pile lifting carpets, 3. Brushing in LM compounds. 4. Agitating pre-sprays 5. Vacuuming out dry compounds. The vac motor (1250W) operates off a separate switch from the brush motor (700W). Its got a 40cm (16") cleaning width and a reuseable dust bag.

The attachment provides other details.

Grant

[ryan mca]

 

       Grant
       Imo the flexi 5 is worth the extra money if you are planning to do vlm work
       as the brushes make it a lot better than a sebo for picking up granules on heavy pile
       carpets.
     
        ryan