Is this a whisper wash?

[One Tough Pressure 580]

I came across this on a carpet cleaning website and was sort of shocked to see it selling for $1000.

Looks to be the 16" whisper wash classic and it is modified for tile and grout cleaning. Supposed to work like the Fury system, despite the fact that it has no baffling.

Quite some time ago, I was asking on the boards if this could be done and a select few who had some experience, said no it is not that simple. At the time I was giving thought to modifyng my Steel Eagle, but was never brave enough to pop holes in it.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

another

[Scott Stone 604]

Looking at the pictures, I am amazed that it works, if it does.:( There are a couple of things wrong with what they did that might be easily remedied if a guy wanted to go to the effort. Now rememeber that this is the miscellaneous ramblings of a guy that does not do a lot of surface cleaning. I am also not the sort of guy that would be brave enough to cut holes in a perfectly good surface cleaner, unless it was someone elses. :whoops:

The surface cleaner pictured needs some sort of air inlet to work. If you will look at the base, it is a solid piece of either plastic, or Polyurethane. It appears that if there was enough suction to actually vacuum something up that it would suck it straight to the floor, and seal it there, thus being really hard to move the surface cleaner, and not being able to vacuum anything up in the process. The way I could see this working is if there would be a vacuum break somewhere around the bottom of the surface cleaner. It would have to be relaly small, and be able to be nearly overwhelmed by the vacuum motor. What would happen then is that it would still try to suck the surface cleaner down towards the floor, but, as it did, it would still have a small gap that air could rush through. This would force the water up through the vacuum hoses. I am guessing that the vacuum system that you have would be able to pull it off. Why don't you cut a couple of holes in your surface cleaener and let us know? BTW, I am pretty sure that is not a Whisper wash.

Scott Stone

[ron p 500]

i think scott is right but i think he is forgetting the grout.

it is lower then the tile allowing a very small amount of air in.

it may not work on solid cement, just tile.

[Mike Williamson 198]

That appears to be a Whirl-a-way 16".

If you were using a system such as this, you wouldn't need to have any other sort of reclaim, would you? I mean, say you modified a 30" cleaner in the same type of way, you'd be reclaiming your water as you washed.

Correct?

[One Tough Pressure 580]

I did not post the picture of the brush ring that they use for concrete. I think Ron may be on to something as far as the grout being lower. As I have seen posts by Carpet cleaners saying that tools like this will suck down on concrete.

Mike, this is a 16" cleaner and it does require a truck mount carpet cleaner for suction, if you want to have any ability to run lots of hose. If you were to try this on a 30" surface cleaner, it would require a very large rotary blower. When you say that you would not need any sort of reclaim, well, this is it. Not a cheap one either.

As far as drilling my 24" Steel Eagle and doing this, I am giving it some serious thought. Just need to guess where the best place for the four holes to be drilled is. I would also need some sort of skirt to keep the water in. If it does not work, then I can plug the holes, and remind myself of a ugly mistake.

Steel Eagle sells some small light weight aluminum surface cleaners, that have a small brush around the bottom. For the 16", I could get it for around $300. plus the cost of the fittings and hose, so $350.00.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

more

[One Tough Pressure 580]

another

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Scott,

Loan me your surface cleaner, and I will modify it for you, so no bravery is needed on your behalf. I will then test this theory and the performance of my new vacuum. What do you think?

[Scott Stone 604]

Gee, what an offer! Now, which one do I send to Simi? :p I think that I will pass. It does appear that they had a problem, and figured out how to get a round it.

I don't think that you need 4 holes in your surface cleaner. That would require moving to much air to get the water to suck up. Two will do. ALso, it appears that they used fittings for water tanks in the holes where the hose comes in. That gives it a nice clean installation. I think that Jon has two fittings on his trailer, and it might be a couple of days before he misses them.;)

Scott

[Jon 533]

WARNING, shot first and ask questions later!!

Scott don't give Alan any idea's as he knows what is on my trailer, just not where I store it.

Oh and why not be brave, ship one to Simi and let Alan experiment since he loves doing things like that, just ask his wife and she will tell you how much he messes with stuff.

Jon

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Scott,

Looking at the Steel Eagle 24", they used 4 hoses. Not exactly sure of size, but they look like 1.25 or so. They may use more due to the extra shell on the inside, but not sure yet.

[Scott Stone 604]

Jon,

Don't you have two surface cleaners? I think that you are closer than I am. Maybe when you do that job for Zippo, you could just leave your extra on your truck.

Better yet, drop it off ahead of time for it's modifications, and see what he can do.

Scott

Actually, couldn't you make up a wood dummy surface cleaenr to see how and if ti would work before you cut into a good surface cleaner? 4 or 5 feet of flex board, and some plywood should do the trick.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Not a bad idea Scott. Should I rig my spinner up on the plywood too, or just pump the garden hose in there?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Looks exactly like a whisper washer except for the blue hoses. The handle is similar (comes apart at midsection and is attached by a cotter pin) and the hovering cover and bar on the underside appear to be the same. Has a brush around the edge. But a whisper doesn't have suction or hoses coming out of the top. It has only one hose that couples via quick connect to the unit. Replace the white rim with a black brush...and you're set.

..ahem...yes, I have used a whisper. It's the piece of equipment I can use most easily to wash with. Did a pool apron a week or two back. ;)

Beth

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Donations accepted. Anyone want to donate their surface cleaner for modification? It will be religious when I am done, since it will be Holy.

[Scott Stone 604]

Umm, there will be no donations coming from my neck of the woods;)

IF you want to rig up a dummy to just see if it will work, then I would not worry about putting the spinner on it. I would just run a garden hose through it, and see if it could capture all of the water. If it does, I would put two hoses to it, and see how it does. If it can capture the water out of two hoses, I would think that it might be worth the experiment to cut in the holes.

Scott

[Jon 533]

Scott I parted company with the old Whisper Wash Big Guy last year, sold and shipped East.

Lately someone has been hounding me about loaning my surface cleaner out for some experiments, I wonder how the idea was put into this persons head!

That job for Barry has yet to come though, whether or not it ever does I have no idea, if it does great, if not I won't lose any sleep over it.

[Jon 533]

Scott I parted company with the old Whisper Wash Big Guy last year, sold and shipped East.

Lately someone has been hounding me about loaning my surface cleaner out for some experiments, I wonder how the idea was put into this persons head!

That job for Barry has yet to come though, whether or not it ever does I have no idea, if it does great, if not I won't lose any sleep over it. I will say he is one person who pays his bills promptly so that is a plus and in real life he is not a bad guy, really yet he loves messing with people online, we all have to have an outlet.

[Scott Stone 604]

Gee, you mean that I manipulated someone? I would never do that. :rolleyes: It is obvious that you aren't willing to help Alan with his quest. :yoda: He needs someone to guide him in his efforts:wink:

I had another idea (Everyone says Oh no) Get one of those big plastic mixing bowls. You can sometimes get them for a buck at a dollar store, and use that as the mocked up surface cleaner. Cut a small hole in it for a hose, and a larger hole for the vacuum and turn them bothe on and see what happens. If it is sucking it straight own to the ground, you will need to cut some air holes in it, to get the air moving.

Scott

[Mike Cappa 14]

I have a 20 inch simpson I don't really use if you want to try it. Disclaimer: If it works, I get it back, if it doesn't work, I get it back in working (close as possible to original) order.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

I am going to try Scott's idea first. A couple of bucks in wood is probably the best idea, no need to disfigure a good surface cleaner. If it was not for Scott, I may have done just that.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

So here is the update. I by chance got to speak to a guy who has some experience in this field and he says that the water recovery is not a problem, it is the suction of the vacuum slowing down the spray bar.

Another concern is that everything washed away will be sucked up past the spray bar as well. So there is a valid reason that vacuum recovery surface cleaners should have a dual shell.

Now all I need to do is find an iteml to fit my current cleanerto creat the shell effect, or I have to spend $2000. on a new Steel Eagle.

Anyone have a 22 or 23 inch pie tin that they do not need?

[Scott Stone 604]

How about an oil drain pan? they are about that size, and you could use bolts to hold it on to the surface cleaner, and nuts to space it away from the cleaner housing.

I do not see how the vacuum would slow down the spin action of the spray bar. I can understand how the dirty water. mixed with clean could effect the cleanliness of the surface.

SO give it a try.

Scott Stone

[One Tough Pressure 580]

You know, I did consider the drain pan, and ran out to measure it. Mine is 16.5", so it will not work on my 24" cleaner, but would probably do the job for an 18" one. Will make a trip to look for bigger drain pans.

I wonder how much it would cost to have a inner shell made, or just order one from Steel Eagle? Will have to wait until Monday for that.