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Question: I have been looking at combination all in one tile and carpet cleaning machines. Lots to choose from. What are the best features to look for and which machines?
Answer: When looking at portable tile and carpet cleaning equipment the top eight features to look for #1 vacuum, #2 pump pressure, #3 heat, #4 size of auto dump pump, #5 chemical injection, #6 Auto Defoamer, #7 waste tank size, #8 Mobility
#1 vacuum because a stronger vacuum will allow you to run longer hose runs and dry carpet cleaning jobs faster. If you make a night and day difference on a carpet cleaning job and it the carpet is wet tomorrow the customer is going to never use you again. Also, more vacuum means cleaner carpet. Example if I use 35 gallon of water in a home and the machine sucks up 25 gallons, I know I left 10 gallons of water evenly spread throughout the home in the carpet. Was the water quality left behind clean water or dirty water? At first you think "I was using cleaning water to rinse the carpet, so the answer is clean water." But this is not the case. If you empty the waste tank and see the dirty water looks like motor oil, then realize that the carpet cleaning wand lip only sucks off the water quality that is laying on the carpet. The cleaning tool does not distinguish between clean water or dirty water. It suck off the water quality that is in the carpet. The same water quality that ends up in the waste recovery tank is the same quality as the water you leave behind. More vacuum is happier customers and cleaner carpet with less time spent relocating equipment to have the machine follow you around the home. To compare the vacuum between machines you can calculate their vacuum units. The formula is Max inches of lift (@ zero cfm) X (times) Max CFM (@ zero inches of lift) = vacuum units. The higher the number the stronger the suction.
'Inches of lift' means how high can the vacuum pick up a solid 1 inch column of water, at sea level, straight up in the air (vertical)? Measurement is taken when vacuum reaches zero cfm (cubic feet per minute)
The CFM rating is taken at the machine without restriction (zero inches of lift)
#2 Pump pressure is a form of agitation and speed. All in one machines first off all can be turned down to 500 psi for safe carpet and fabric cleaning but the max pressure for hard surface types is going to range between 1000 psi, 1200 psi, and 1500 psi. and usually be between 2 gallon to 2.1 gallons per minute. The pump cleaning units or speed is calculated as Maximum PSI X (times) max GPM. The higher the number the faster you can clean.
#3 Heat doubles your cleaning speed and performance. For every 18 degrees of rise, water molecule vibration doubles. 136 degree F water is 100% more effective cleaning over 118 degrees F. Heating water in an "all in one" machine is hard as these are all made to plug into just two wall outlets. Even if I am plugged into to two 20 amp breakers at 120 volts this is a combined energy rating of 4800 watts. So everything under the hood has to run at or below 4800 watts. Heat water with electricity takes a lot of power to be effective and with water flying in and out of the machine does not give it much time to work. All the heated tile cleaning machines usually only offer electric heat in a low psi use. Example, look at the US Products King Cobra. You can only turn the heater on at 500 psi or less but as soon as you turn on the 1200 psi pump, the heater is turned off and it is back to a cold machine. Mytee M12 is designed the same way. A second problem is designing a heater tank that can hold 1500 psi. The only way to heat the water is with 3 options: #1 convert the machine from suction feed to pressure feed. This means that the hot water travels straight from the customer hot water to the pump and to the cleaning tool. Most machine suction feed. This means that the hot water travels from the hot water heater to a fresh water tank and sits in the tank while the water molecules wait their turn to be used. Pressure feed systems clean 10 degrees hotter than suction feed systems. ALL machines can be converted. It is just a kit you install if the factory does not provide this options. #2 add a heat exchanger. The exhaust of portable carpet and tile cleaning machines can be as hot as 180 degrees F. This energy can be absorbed and used to boost cleaning performance. #3 use an external heater. These external heaters have to be left outside as they all run on propane, diesel or kerosene. Super impressive as you change your system from just cleaning to cleaning with steam. The water molecules vibration of cleaning at 212 degrees is 500 times that of just cleaning with 110 degree hot tap water. So we will see suction feed cold machines, pressure feed cold machines, pressure feed heat exchanger, or live steam units that use an external heating source.
#4 Auto dump pump size means I might be able to use my machine to perform light water and flood extraction. These tile cleaning machines will use 3.3 to 20 gallon per minute pumps. The garden hose inside diameter and fighting against the vacuum will limit all machines to 10 gallons per minute maximum discharge. The most common size auto dump discharge pump is only 3 to 5 gallon per minute as if the cleaning pump is only putting down 2 gpm. The auto dump pump will keep up fine with this...(2 down, 3 out). It is only if you are extracting standing water that a 3 to 5 gallon discharge pump is not going to keep up. If you want true flood extraction capabilities you will have to consider synergistic cleaning equipment and not an all in one machine. Synergistic means that you purchase a flood water extraction machine and purchase a pressure washer and uses these side by side to perform carpet and or tile cleaning work.
#5 Chemical injection is a standard feature on all suction feed auto fill machines. If the machine is pressure feed or you add the pressure feed feature you cannot use chemical injection. Please note you can take a suction feed portable extractor, add pressure feed and then toggle back and forth between these to options. We have sold many machines with dual auto fill kits. Currently all the 'all in one' tile and carpet cleaning extractors or suction feed with chemical injection as a standard feature except for the "Goliath" series machines. The Mytee LTD12 offers a Dwyer chemical injection monitoring system is very nice but only on machine manufactured before Aug 2017. After Aug 2017 this feature was removed.
So who are the winners?
#1. Top vacuum winners: Mytee Escape (quad 3 stage 40 amp vacuum; current dual 6.6 is disqualified from this list and has a 28 amp vacuum), Mytee LDT12, Nautilus, and Clean Storm Goliath 1500 all use a 20 amp, dual 3 stage vacuum system. Note the US Products Torrent is also dual 3 stage but only a 15 amp system with 25% less suction. (US Products Torrent is disqualified from this list)
#2. Top water pumps: Clean Storm Goliath 1500. 3150 cleaning units is 31.25% stronger and faster than other machines.
#3. Top Hot units: Clean Storm Goliath 1500 is pressure feed and has the optional heat exchanger. All the other models have to have to be converted to pressure feed and do not offer a heat exchanger. The machines that show they have heaters on board, example US Products King Cobra are only hot in a low psi mode (carpet and upholstery cleaning)
Typical tile cleaning machine is filled with 110 degree F hot water and the water is cooled down to 100 degrees before it hits the surface it is cleaning. The Goliath with the optional heat exchanger starts off at 110 and cleans at 128 degrees. This is offering more than 100% more water molecule vibration.
#4. Top auto dump machines: Mytee Escape, Clean Storm 12-5000, Sandia Plastic 80-5000, MasterBlend 1200, MasterBlend MF1203, and Kleenrite Horizon 1200 all use the Little Giant 20 gallon per minute discharge pump providing about 10+ gpm of real dumping speed.
#5. Top chemical injection machines: Mytee Escape, and Mytee LTD12 (models build before August 2017, Mytee removed the chemical injection after Aug 2017).
#6 Automatic defoamer. All auto dump machines only dump dirty water and leave the suds and foam in the waste tank. This means for example if I have a machine that fills to 6" + 1" of foam and then drains itself to 1" water + 1" foam. Then refills itself to 6" of water + another inch of foam, drains itself to 1" water + 2 inches of foam. Refills and drains and now left with 3" of foam, and so forth. Both Mytee Escape and Goliath series offer automatic defoamer at no charge and it is available as an option on all other machines.
http://www.steam-brite.com/hydroforc...n-p-10330.html
#7 would be tank size. As the waste tanks are larger, this would give the ability for use on small water extraction jobs to help the auto dump pump to catch up with the amount of water coming into the waste tank. For many cleaners that only clean carpet and tile, this is no advantage at all and would only offer an advantage to customer performing the water evacuation extraction services. The largest tank is on the Goliath at 27 gallon, then MasterBlend 1200 is 15 gallons, and all the remaining at 12 gallons.
#8 would be mobility. The Goliath 1500 uses large 12" diameter rear wheel combined with locking 5" front swivel casters. The locking casters on the front are nice as this prevents the machine from rolling away from you on sloped driveways. Some of the other machine offer 12" rear wheels with standard swivel front casters. Example: Masterblend 1200, VersaTile VT1200, and the Nautilus 1200. All the other machine are using 10" rear wheels with smaller front casters.
#9 Factory Warranty and Support.
Answer: When looking at portable tile and carpet cleaning equipment the top eight features to look for #1 vacuum, #2 pump pressure, #3 heat, #4 size of auto dump pump, #5 chemical injection, #6 Auto Defoamer, #7 waste tank size, #8 Mobility
#1 vacuum because a stronger vacuum will allow you to run longer hose runs and dry carpet cleaning jobs faster. If you make a night and day difference on a carpet cleaning job and it the carpet is wet tomorrow the customer is going to never use you again. Also, more vacuum means cleaner carpet. Example if I use 35 gallon of water in a home and the machine sucks up 25 gallons, I know I left 10 gallons of water evenly spread throughout the home in the carpet. Was the water quality left behind clean water or dirty water? At first you think "I was using cleaning water to rinse the carpet, so the answer is clean water." But this is not the case. If you empty the waste tank and see the dirty water looks like motor oil, then realize that the carpet cleaning wand lip only sucks off the water quality that is laying on the carpet. The cleaning tool does not distinguish between clean water or dirty water. It suck off the water quality that is in the carpet. The same water quality that ends up in the waste recovery tank is the same quality as the water you leave behind. More vacuum is happier customers and cleaner carpet with less time spent relocating equipment to have the machine follow you around the home. To compare the vacuum between machines you can calculate their vacuum units. The formula is Max inches of lift (@ zero cfm) X (times) Max CFM (@ zero inches of lift) = vacuum units. The higher the number the stronger the suction.
'Inches of lift' means how high can the vacuum pick up a solid 1 inch column of water, at sea level, straight up in the air (vertical)? Measurement is taken when vacuum reaches zero cfm (cubic feet per minute)
The CFM rating is taken at the machine without restriction (zero inches of lift)
#2 Pump pressure is a form of agitation and speed. All in one machines first off all can be turned down to 500 psi for safe carpet and fabric cleaning but the max pressure for hard surface types is going to range between 1000 psi, 1200 psi, and 1500 psi. and usually be between 2 gallon to 2.1 gallons per minute. The pump cleaning units or speed is calculated as Maximum PSI X (times) max GPM. The higher the number the faster you can clean.
#3 Heat doubles your cleaning speed and performance. For every 18 degrees of rise, water molecule vibration doubles. 136 degree F water is 100% more effective cleaning over 118 degrees F. Heating water in an "all in one" machine is hard as these are all made to plug into just two wall outlets. Even if I am plugged into to two 20 amp breakers at 120 volts this is a combined energy rating of 4800 watts. So everything under the hood has to run at or below 4800 watts. Heat water with electricity takes a lot of power to be effective and with water flying in and out of the machine does not give it much time to work. All the heated tile cleaning machines usually only offer electric heat in a low psi use. Example, look at the US Products King Cobra. You can only turn the heater on at 500 psi or less but as soon as you turn on the 1200 psi pump, the heater is turned off and it is back to a cold machine. Mytee M12 is designed the same way. A second problem is designing a heater tank that can hold 1500 psi. The only way to heat the water is with 3 options: #1 convert the machine from suction feed to pressure feed. This means that the hot water travels straight from the customer hot water to the pump and to the cleaning tool. Most machine suction feed. This means that the hot water travels from the hot water heater to a fresh water tank and sits in the tank while the water molecules wait their turn to be used. Pressure feed systems clean 10 degrees hotter than suction feed systems. ALL machines can be converted. It is just a kit you install if the factory does not provide this options. #2 add a heat exchanger. The exhaust of portable carpet and tile cleaning machines can be as hot as 180 degrees F. This energy can be absorbed and used to boost cleaning performance. #3 use an external heater. These external heaters have to be left outside as they all run on propane, diesel or kerosene. Super impressive as you change your system from just cleaning to cleaning with steam. The water molecules vibration of cleaning at 212 degrees is 500 times that of just cleaning with 110 degree hot tap water. So we will see suction feed cold machines, pressure feed cold machines, pressure feed heat exchanger, or live steam units that use an external heating source.
#4 Auto dump pump size means I might be able to use my machine to perform light water and flood extraction. These tile cleaning machines will use 3.3 to 20 gallon per minute pumps. The garden hose inside diameter and fighting against the vacuum will limit all machines to 10 gallons per minute maximum discharge. The most common size auto dump discharge pump is only 3 to 5 gallon per minute as if the cleaning pump is only putting down 2 gpm. The auto dump pump will keep up fine with this...(2 down, 3 out). It is only if you are extracting standing water that a 3 to 5 gallon discharge pump is not going to keep up. If you want true flood extraction capabilities you will have to consider synergistic cleaning equipment and not an all in one machine. Synergistic means that you purchase a flood water extraction machine and purchase a pressure washer and uses these side by side to perform carpet and or tile cleaning work.
#5 Chemical injection is a standard feature on all suction feed auto fill machines. If the machine is pressure feed or you add the pressure feed feature you cannot use chemical injection. Please note you can take a suction feed portable extractor, add pressure feed and then toggle back and forth between these to options. We have sold many machines with dual auto fill kits. Currently all the 'all in one' tile and carpet cleaning extractors or suction feed with chemical injection as a standard feature except for the "Goliath" series machines. The Mytee LTD12 offers a Dwyer chemical injection monitoring system is very nice but only on machine manufactured before Aug 2017. After Aug 2017 this feature was removed.
So who are the winners?
#1. Top vacuum winners: Mytee Escape (quad 3 stage 40 amp vacuum; current dual 6.6 is disqualified from this list and has a 28 amp vacuum), Mytee LDT12, Nautilus, and Clean Storm Goliath 1500 all use a 20 amp, dual 3 stage vacuum system. Note the US Products Torrent is also dual 3 stage but only a 15 amp system with 25% less suction. (US Products Torrent is disqualified from this list)
#2. Top water pumps: Clean Storm Goliath 1500. 3150 cleaning units is 31.25% stronger and faster than other machines.
#3. Top Hot units: Clean Storm Goliath 1500 is pressure feed and has the optional heat exchanger. All the other models have to have to be converted to pressure feed and do not offer a heat exchanger. The machines that show they have heaters on board, example US Products King Cobra are only hot in a low psi mode (carpet and upholstery cleaning)
Typical tile cleaning machine is filled with 110 degree F hot water and the water is cooled down to 100 degrees before it hits the surface it is cleaning. The Goliath with the optional heat exchanger starts off at 110 and cleans at 128 degrees. This is offering more than 100% more water molecule vibration.
#4. Top auto dump machines: Mytee Escape, Clean Storm 12-5000, Sandia Plastic 80-5000, MasterBlend 1200, MasterBlend MF1203, and Kleenrite Horizon 1200 all use the Little Giant 20 gallon per minute discharge pump providing about 10+ gpm of real dumping speed.
#5. Top chemical injection machines: Mytee Escape, and Mytee LTD12 (models build before August 2017, Mytee removed the chemical injection after Aug 2017).
#6 Automatic defoamer. All auto dump machines only dump dirty water and leave the suds and foam in the waste tank. This means for example if I have a machine that fills to 6" + 1" of foam and then drains itself to 1" water + 1" foam. Then refills itself to 6" of water + another inch of foam, drains itself to 1" water + 2 inches of foam. Refills and drains and now left with 3" of foam, and so forth. Both Mytee Escape and Goliath series offer automatic defoamer at no charge and it is available as an option on all other machines.
http://www.steam-brite.com/hydroforc...n-p-10330.html
#7 would be tank size. As the waste tanks are larger, this would give the ability for use on small water extraction jobs to help the auto dump pump to catch up with the amount of water coming into the waste tank. For many cleaners that only clean carpet and tile, this is no advantage at all and would only offer an advantage to customer performing the water evacuation extraction services. The largest tank is on the Goliath at 27 gallon, then MasterBlend 1200 is 15 gallons, and all the remaining at 12 gallons.
#8 would be mobility. The Goliath 1500 uses large 12" diameter rear wheel combined with locking 5" front swivel casters. The locking casters on the front are nice as this prevents the machine from rolling away from you on sloped driveways. Some of the other machine offer 12" rear wheels with standard swivel front casters. Example: Masterblend 1200, VersaTile VT1200, and the Nautilus 1200. All the other machine are using 10" rear wheels with smaller front casters.
#9 Factory Warranty and Support.
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