[Jason Hedges]

Good post Richie

Steve,

Go for the best machine you can afford and one that justifies your workloads and budget, be it porty or tm.

There are a few high end portys available on the market including the raptor, ninja, scorpion & speedster. All of which have their good and bad points.

Shop around and see which machine offers you the best package be it weight, power, heat, cost or combination.

I think if I were looking for a porty now i'd be interested in the high spec ninja with add ons. Not only for a robust reliable machine with a great track record but great service from ashbys and after sales support.

Just my opinion though.

All the best,
Jason.

[Joe H]

Richie.
PS
If you want a portable i would go for one that has a built in heater rather than one without.  Dont be fooled by sellers of portables that tell you that cold water cleans aswell as hot water.  A portable with a internal heater will give you the option of what heat you want without having the hassle of a external one.

I am sure the Hydramaster Raptor is a mighty fine portable - having not tried it I cant fairly comment otherwise.
However as it has internal heat source something has to be sacrificed if 2 mains cords are used - in this case it looks like it has only 2 vac motors.
I know you can get external vac boosters BUT what is easier then to have 3 vac motors built into the case of the machine together with a good pump.
That though means no onboard heat.
Is that a big deal - NO - and not because you say "Dont be fooled by sellers of portables that tell you that cold water cleans aswell as hot water". Its no big deal because you can ON MOST JOBS get hot water from the customers tap. For those that you cant get customers hot water then you can plug in a external heater - no big deal.

I would prefer to have 3-3 stage vac motors readily available for use then only 2 and ALWAYS having to set set up a third.
I ALWAYS use the 3 motors, ALWAYS use hot water from the customers tap, but VERY RARELY get out the external heater - in fact it more often then not does not come in the van with me.

Going back  to your statement "Dont be fooled by sellers of portables that tell you that cold water cleans aswell as hot water".
Could this seller you refer to be Solutions UK? I think so.
I have a Scorpion from Solutions UK and NEVER have I had it forced at me that cold water  cleans as well as hot water.
It has been DEBATED on the Clean Talk forum by your fellow professional carpet cleaners, and some are reporting that they have tried it and dont think it cleans as well, but others have tried it and say it does. That is their opinion and we should respect that.
Me - Ive already intimated in my reply above that I ALWAYS use customers hot tap water in the clean tank, and YES I have tried cold water cleaning and know if I have no hot water it will work in certain circumstances.......... and knowing, even if you dont do, is a positive thing.

[lands]

Joe

You seem very defensive towards Solutions . I'm sure its not aimed at them specifically, I was told exactly the same by Prochem when I started out and they were pushing the steampro on me. All salespeople sell, I should know I used to be one and they will say anything to get you to buy and apart from a few (stand alone individuals) in this industry they are all the same, it's just some are prepared to blur the line between selling and lying a bit more than others.

Pete

[*paul_moss]

Steve all suppliers have good top end machines and are all around similar prices, you do get what you pay for with machines and the big cost is the internal parts which are the key to the machines performance. A big thing to concider is also location for repairs,help,parts etc.
What ever machine you get,  get one that suits your style of cleaning, some good personal comments are given above regading that.
My last portable was an Edge 2( made by Kleenrite) This machine has lots of different specs and is used rebadged by a number of suppliers in the Uk, example is Chemdry ( they tinkle with bubbles but same machine) Hydromaster use it,Chemspec use it.
The one I had was 300 psi, 2x 3 stage vac ( large lamb vacs), 2x inline heaters the machine had heat circulation and used 2 plugs.

My sytle of cleaning was that I liked to go to the customers and not use her water( some are on meter and abit funny) and also did not want to trapes through the house with buckets of hot water which takes time and is a pain. Ok if they had an out side tap which some do.
What I used to do was fill 3 or 4 x 25 litre plastic containers up with water from home and store them in the van. When I got to my customers the first thing I would do is take the porty out the van put it out side the customers door, hook it up to the mains then fill the tank with 25 litres of water from the van which takes a few minutes. Then I would switch the machine on heat circulation which basicall puts both heaters on and circulates the water around the machine heating it up.So by the time I had pre vacced, presprayed, aggitated, set up hoses and was ready to wand the water was hot in the tank and then would come out the wand very hot. What about the customers electric I here you say, well I did a full house rental clean once 3 beds and was there 3 hours and it clocked up 74 pence that I had used in total with electricity.
The other thing is heat makes a big difference on grubby jobs in terms of time and speed.

[Darren O]

I would take 2vacs and heat before 3vacs and no heat anyday when you use the raptor the heat on it is something else.90% of the time 2 vacs is fine but when you have to use more than 50ft of vac hose you need a bit more suck.As for using customers hot water done a job last week with my powermax top floor flat my inline heater was sent back to olympic cleaning so i had to use customers hot water the time it gets to the carpet its not even warm. Darren

[Joe H]

Cant see what I posted was defensive towards Solutions.

It was stated always go for a portable with a built in heater.
But with electrics you cant have everything without going to 3 cables.
I stated I would prefer 3 vac motors cause I always use 3 vac motors to get best performmance.
I always use heat - I can get that majority of times from a tap.- if I cant I can plug in an external heater.
Seems logic to me the things you use most are there at hand.
So far I had not mentioned Solutions UK nor had I mentioned Scorpion.

Re Richies statement that a seller tells cold water cleans beter then hot - I referred to a debate between fellow professional carpet cleaners on Clean Talk and what their observations were from thier actual experiances - you have access to Clean Talk, you may remember the debates and who said what.

So where is my defensive attitude on that post towards Solutions. - I was stating facts

[lands]

Hey Joe (good song)

I was referring to below

Going back  to your statement "Dont be fooled by sellers of portables that tell you that cold water cleans aswell as hot water".
Could this seller you refer to be Solutions UK? I think so.

No big deal mate just could'nt work out why you thought that was aimed at them specifically but now I realise you were talking about the cold/hot water debate when using Mpower I thought you were talking about being sold machines with/without heat capacity. Sorry

Pete

[*paul_moss]

 

[Joe H]

Hey Joe (good song)

Ah! Jimmy Hendrix - what a great guitar player.

[Mike Osbourne]

Well I think the Speedster is fab and excellent value for money.

Somebody could easily improve it by - adding a heating element in the tank, making the tank opening better and by far the biggest thing sorting out the filter bag set up.

I like the idea that you can have an in tank element and then as soon as you start wanding inline heaters kick in. Is there such a machine with 3 vacs?

[Joe H]

If on board heat is highest priority to someone then the Powerflite CFR500 Perfect Heat I had was a good machine.
2 vac motors, 500 psi pump, in line heat (and it produced some heat) , and when matched up to a Wonderwand .... I found it to be a more then capable machine.

[lands]

What made you change from the CFR Joe

[Joe H]

Interesting question Pete - and I will give the same reason as I gave Steve Gunn just over a week ago.

Whilst I have been carpet cleaning for about 16 years, its only this last 5 years I have been serious about it, and I bought the Texatherm system and used that for a couple of years.
I then looked at serious portable HWE machines - went down to Matt at Cleansmart and came away with the CFR500 Perfect Heat.
In April 2007 I went to the Cleaning Exhibition at Birmingham NEC for the very first time. Saw lots of different products but wasnt looking for anything particular as I was happy with the CFR500.
The stand I was at longest was Furniture Clinic (leather) and they were doing a number of courses on leather restoration - one was in Warrington so booked on it for June.

In attendance was Paul Moss and another guy form Liverpool - forums were discussed, and although I joined this forum Aug 2006 I didnt frequent it very often at all.
but I started to frequent it often......... but found that there was this anti Solution, anti Nick thing going on (times diont change).
Now I didnt know who Solutions UK were, nor who this Nick was, in fact I didnt know what the Scorpion was.
(I can rememer in retrospect being at their stand at NEC - the Hybrid Booster was being demonstrated - but didnt make a big impact on me).
but all  this anti this and that got me interested and I wanted to know who are Solutions, who is Nick, what is M-Power, and what is a Scorpion.
So I found out, first about the Scorpion and M-Power.. and like what I read, both the technical spec and users views.
In time ..... I wanted a Scorpion and wanted to use M-Power.

I am now a owner of a Scorpion and of M-Power, Nemesis Super and microsplitters as well as other stuff as required ie I have Ultrapac Renovate, HM Blitz etc

So I have to thank all the banter on here against Solutions UK for me being the owner of a Scorpion machine.

I have only just sold the CFR500 - I still speak highly of them - and am in contact with the new owner in Derbyshire, helping him use it to the best of my ability.

[turneylogan]

On domestics I have never needed a heater as I can always use the customers hot water (and I have never been challenged about using their power).

On empty properties I have either put on their hot water or cleaned with cold water (and still did a good job).

I think you FEEL better when you have hot water though.

I also think the heat helps activate the chemicals but the reality is that amount of heat at the wand is much, much reduced.

[richie]

My post was NOT directly directed at Solutions but WAS a general term.  Many suppliers sell portys without internal heaters. 
Solutions & most of there customers (many of which get brainwashed im sure) get so defensive over the slightest thing even when Solutions / Nicks name isnt even mentioned  
Now that you have mentioned the cold water debate i will say that COLD WATER WILL NOT CLEAN AS GOOD AS HOT WATER. and the water from a tap will not reach the temps of a good internal heater in a porty.  If i was in the market for a porty i would rather a machine with a internal heater than without.  2 3stage vacs will give enough power to clean a carpet & get it dry in a respectable time.  Yes the extra vac power of 3 vacs would be nice but id still take a heater instead of a vac motor.

Richie.

[Joe H]

Richie
those customers of Solutions that you are sure get brainwashed by them , they are your fellow professionals who have many years experiance in carpet cleaning. Really I think they are inteligent enough to realise if they were being brainwashed.
but thats your opinion and your are entitled to them.

[Mike Osbourne]

Did a greasy cotton 3 piece today, took 3.5hrs. I would kill for more heat.

In fact I think i'm getting a bit lazy- time to get a truckmount.

[lands]

Mike,

What time are you getting to Hotel on the Sunday?

Pete

[Mike Osbourne]

Will try to get up there for about 12. I will be wearing a red carnation in my lapel.

[lands]

You'll know when I'm there as you'll hear a Granada Ghia 2.8 doing a doughnut in the carpet.

bout the same time. Can you help me make sure that Jason 'the eyebrows' Hedges does'nt get on the sauce too early.

Pete