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trivz

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Posts posted by trivz

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    The typical components of a carpet cleaner are:

    Solution tank: to hold your water and soap solution

    Pump / delivery system: you will need a pump and hose to pump the solution from your tank to your cleaning hand tool

    Vacuum system: EXTREMELY important as you will need to remove as much of the water from the carpet as possible

    Recover tank: to hold the recovered water and soap (which typically resembles chocolate milk or coffee)

    Stain protectant can be applied with a pump up garden sprayer.

    Hand tool: there are a variety of these things ranging from cheap to expensive, and tiresome to effortless (with respect to price). Usually it consists of a metal tube about 4' in length. A vacuum hose and pressure hose are attached. The pressure hose is used to deliver the solution, the vacuum hose is used to remove. A nozzled head (triangular in shape) is at the opposite end, in contact with the carpet. For the cheaper units, physical agitation by hand is used. This is very exhausting and can result in inconsistent cleaning patterns over large areas of carpet, but is the most common and cheapest.

    Other tools resemble a vacuum cleaner in the sense that they have independently powered beater bars to agitate the carpet and make cleaning easier on your arms.

    Also, a VERY cool tool (costing between $2000 and $3000) consists of a spinner and multiple water emitting orifices with simultaneous vacuum ports. The object of this is to clean the carpet from all angles, not just a one-dimensional stroke.

    Portable carpet units range in cost from $1500 up to around $6000, the factors involved being whether or not the unit can heat the water internally, how much solution it holds, attachments it comes with, and quality of construction. Truck-mounted units can range from $7000 up to over $20000 and have the same components as the portable units, just scaled up and more powerful. Some models use small 4-cylinder car engines (Nissan is a popular one) to power the vacuum pumps. The pressure on some can reach over 3000 psi, so some people use their setup for pressure washing as well (you would never use this for carpet, but you never know when you will need to push water up high and need the power). The units also have the ability to heat the water (absolutely essential for successful cleaning).

    Jon-Don - Carpet Cleaning, Janitorial and Restoration Supplies

    Vacuum Cleaners | Commercial Vacuums | Residential Vacuums

    You can go to either of these sites to learn about the different styles. Jon-Don has some fantastic products and the people there are very helpful on what kind of chemicals you need.

    Also, you can google

    "truck mounted" AND "carpet extractors"

    and get some excellent information. I use an Edic Stealth for one of my jobs...it works really well as a portable unit, but the drawback is I have to heat the water externally (I have on-site access to a stove, so this isn't a problem).

    Hope this gives you a head start. Good luck!

    Ryan H.

    awesome post!!!

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