Hi John
What do you reckon to the Sandia machines?
Cheers Steve
well , i just retired one , an Alltec express , my upstairs machine for the last 3 years i think .
I think they have enough design to function and enough build quality to not fall apart ... They are cheap and will sell on price alone. But if you think you are getting an Enforcer /Airflex /Alltec proper for a cheaper price , your not really . You are getting just about what you paid for .
I list some cons and pros ...
Cons .
Its very basic build quality ... shake it side ways ... the back wheel wobbles, not gonna fall off but itd indicative of the general sturdiness or lack of.
Front castors on most if not all have no lock ( a nuisance booth in the van and positioning it on slopes etc )
Internal plumbing ... 1.5" ... the like of a miniflex have a larger bore internal .
Cant trust it not to let water in - this was a biggie for me , i only had it a couple of months , pulled it off the van in a sudden downpour ... wheeled it 20 yards to the house ...and it tripped, all it took was a brief shower to get water inside .
Also ... a clumsy bucket pour .... if water surges to the back of the lid as u pour ... there are gaps beside the switch panel which seem to let water reach the inside . (After this i went to drastic lengths to make it water proof )
there is no proper place to store cables on it .... thats because its American , and the usa version come with pigtales /detachable cords , so it would not even occur to the designer to build a cable wrap system .
No loading wheels on the 12gallon version .... sure youl lift the 6 gallon into the van , but the bigger one ? back strain potential.
Build quality again .... the bolts holding the motor to the underside of the waste tank ... bolts are screwed into little self-tapping inserts ( there is a proper name for these i cant think of ) they are about an inch long ... over time the dropping machine down steps etc must put strain on these as they were supporting two vacs in my series one . Anyway one popped out .... after its out it never really sits in strong again , glue it for a while ...comes out again , a nuisance if you just starting a job as the vacuum is lost as the vac hangs loose from the mounting plate. The like of this would never happen on an airflex for eg .
The built in heater that come with them ... at most 2000w , uk machines will offer 3000w , its again to do with it being of usa origin , thats all they can use over there and thats what they designed space to fit .
Pros - its fairly cheap , its usable . But there is just nothing great about it .