narrowing it down

[gjennings]

I am considering purchasing a new extractor, but I am also contemplating tile and grout cleaning and/or water restoration. I have seen some machines with the 1200 psi motors with high volume pump-out for flood work. But these machines either have no heater or only 2-2 stage vacs.

Questions: 1. Can these machines be simply turned down to 500 psi for carpet cleaning or is there a seperate pump installed that only reaches 275 psi (which is alright) for carpet cleaning. I have seen extractors advertised this way. It seems odd to have 2 pumps when one fully adjustable pump should work.

2. Is there a machine out there that has the fully adjustable 1200 psi pump with 6 stages of vac? If so, will the portable heater work with it for heat, or would it be better to have auto fill and let hot water be added from water faucets?

3. What portable heater would you suggest that can keep up with 500 psi pumps? I know I am talking about a lot of power with these options, but I am considering buying a generator.

Thanks,

Gary @ Omni Kleen

[Donald]

Tile cleaning with dual 3 stage vacuum motors

The reason for the 1200 psi with dual 2 stages if of electrical draw. 1200 psi draws 15 amps on one power cord and dual 2 stage is 16 amps on the other power cord. Most auto dump pumps that are rated under 20 gpm use only 2 amps.

1.All the 1200 psi pumps can be turned down to under 500 psi for carpet and upholstery cleaning. I also agree that making a machine with 2 water pressure pumps is quite odd. All it does is add weight and expense to the machine. The other difference with the smaller pumps is a smaller GPM flow (gallons per minute). Many 100 psi pumps can only push 1 gpm to 1.6 gpm while the larger 1200 psi pump can push up to 2 gpm. The higher the gpm pump is rated the less pressure drop off is experienced during depression of the trigger on the cleaning wand.

2. Is there a machine out there that has the fully adjustable 1200 psi pump with 6 stages of vac? If so, will the portable heater work with it for heat, or would it be better to have auto fill and let hot water be added from water faucets?
The Enterprise line of extractors manufacture machine to your specs, If you can dream it they will built it. Off the shelf, non of the machines with dual 3 stages vac have a 1200 psi pump installed because this would be a three corded machine. Each vacuum motor uses 11 amps. The other problem would be the total weight of the machine. 1200 psi pumps weigh 60 lbs and add all the other guts with dual 3 stages and you have a super heavy piece of equipment. This is why the Enterprise has the pump outside of the machine. This way you carry the pump and machine in and out of the service van with ease without the requirement to use a ramp. For off the shelf dual 3 stage with external 1200 pump is available with our Drain Vac system and Mega 3 system and the Enterprise.
Most all in line heaters have a 500 psi safety pop off valve to keep you from destroying the heater with too much pressure. The second issue is 2000 watts of power is not enough electrical energy to heat that much water to perform tile cleaning any way. That is why the Volcano 9000 has to use 9000 watts of energy to keep up with tile cleaning. The is one 220 volt electrical drier plug, plus 2 more 120 volt circuits.
All 2000 watt heated machines have to be filled with hot water to keep up with the flow. These heaters are designed to boost the water temperature, not heat it from cold water.

3. All 2000 watts of energy is 2000 watts of energy. One does not work that much better than another. There are some heater that are coming out on the market by Shazaam Mfg that utilize more of normally lost energy. For example. Instead of wrapping the heaters with just insulation, wrap them with the metal tubing after it leaves the heater to have the energy that would be absorbed by the insulation will now be absorbed by the water. Or they have a heater that uses the exhaust air of the vacuum motors (150 degree F) to pre-heat the water before the pump. This does not use any electricity. Also Shazaam Mfg can is manufacturing an in-line heater (after the pump) that is not wrapped with insulation because it is also the tank heater in the bottom of the fresh water tank. You can even order a machine that has both. Vacuum motor exhaust pre-heater with a in-line electric heater. While both of these heater are submerged in the fresh water tank and are used as a tank heater. This can be sublimated with a Siamese recirculating system so the water at the wand and in the hose never cools down, even if you set the wand down for an hour. This is the only machine that I have seen that can heat the water from a garden hose from cold water and is a usable hot water at the wand. The water is heated in the tank from the recirculating return, from two tank heater, one exhaust heater, and one electric heater all running on one power cord.

The cost of purchasing a generator and a good quality portable, you might as well just purchase a Scout or Prowler. If you want to purchase a high end portable, consider using the 220 volt converters instead.