Propane or Volcano 6000 heater

[erickgs3]

Hello and thanks in advance for any help.

I am just starting out in the Carpet Cleaning business. I happened to buy a used Truck mount from a guy here locally that is retiring from the carpet cleaning business after 25 years. It is an older HydraMaster Truck Mount that heats the water with Propane.

My question is would the Volcano 6000 Watt Tankless Electric Water Heater be sufficient enough to use with my system? I dont really want to use the propane burner as it seems dangerous and it would feel as if I had a bomb in the van.

I almost just ditched the idea of using the TM i bought and was going to go with a heat portable and rotovac because i just dont feel comfortable using the propane burner. I dont have the capital to buy and new TM either.
Is there going to be a problem using the dryer electric outlet when using the Volcano or any alternative way of using the Volcano if they dont have the Dryer outlet accessible?

Has anyone gone this route instead of the propane? Please advise? Thanks

erick

[Donald]

Carpet Cleaning Heater Options

The Volcano 6000 was designed to be used with existing hot water, but it will provide you with up to a 100 degree rise up and above what ever you put in it. For example 65 cold tap water will come out at 165 degrees F. Starting with 120 (normal hot tap water) will give you 220. The Volcano does require the use of an electric dryer or stove outlet.

[erickgs3]

Donald,

Are you saying that it would be a better idea to just use the propane then? what about the vocano 9000??

erick

[Donald]

carpet cleaning heaters

Not better, just different.
Propane is scary and take a little getting used to, and cost more to operate but is hotter with cold water.
The Volcano 9000 takes allot of cords to plug in. One 220 volt + 2 regular 120 volt cords.

[erickgs3]

i see, i dont want to use propane at all and with the equipment that i do have and some of the information that i've read on here, says that if i cant have really hot water then i have to bring something else up in the pie. what type of agitation machine do you recommend? I've been using an agitation rake while ive been practicing and it just doesnt clean really good, but im also using cold water. Ive been practicing on my own home using cold water. i'm getting the technique down of using the wand. Thank you so much for all the info.

erick

[mickybullets]

why not look into re-fitting the machine with a heat exchanger? while i have no idea what the cost for such may be, over time, it'll pay for itself and is much safer to use.
a flow fired diesel or kero burner will put out the hottest most consistent heat but being you're against propane, you'll probably be against that also.

in the meantime, for agitation, look into a floor machine with shampoo brush or you can even use a scrub pad which is even better with a floor machine.
steambrite has tons of em for sale, or look into pawn shops or vacuum stores for a used one.
for years, i used an old electro-lux floor buffer to aggitate the nap and while it was a tad on the slow side, it worked much better then doing it manually.
the ultimate for agitation is an ocillating pad machine, OP for short, or, a cimex type, or cylindrical brush machine.
i prefer (and use) a 15" OP machine in conjunction with HWE and achieve outstanding results. and it dont matter whether i use hot water or not.
a side benefit with an OP machine is it can be used as a stand alone method of cleaning and works exceptionally well on lower napped carpets. works ver well on deep pile too but great care is needed to avoid what is called "tip bloom"!
the key with OP cleaning is extra time when doing the pre-vac step so you remove as much dry soil as possible! actually, the key with all methods of carpet cleaning is a good pre-vac step.
hope this helps

[erickgs3]

i prefer (and use) a 15" OP machine in conjunction with HWE and achieve outstanding results. and it dont matter whether i use hot water or not.
a side benefit with an OP machine is it can be used as a stand alone method of cleaning and works exceptionally well on lower napped carpets. works ver well on deep pile too but great care is needed to avoid what is called "tip bloom"!
the key with OP cleaning is extra time when doing the pre-vac step so you remove as much dry soil as possible! actually, the key with all methods of carpet cleaning is a good pre-vac step.
hope this helps

MickeyB- Thanks. I thought about a heat exchanger and that maybe the way that i go. Its sounds promising that you say that without hot water you've been getting great results. Do you use a manual wand or a rotovac/rx20/drymaster??

[mickybullets]

had a rotovac, used it for a while and found it to be agonizingly slow, over wet the carpet, and left an unclean stripe between the 2 heads which meant going over the same area twice making the process even slower. needless to say, i sold it and still use the scrub wand. never used the RX or RDM so i cant comment on either.
rotovac has come out with a new model called the 360. i've got no input to give on it, but thought i'd mention it to you for research.

if i may give a suggestion to you, check this website here for the hild floor machine. 400 bucks for a new floor machine is not a bad deal at all. it can be used to pre-scrub and post bonnet carpets, and used for general floor cleaning also.
give donald a call, i doubt he'll steer you wrong plus, he knows way more than i do!
good luck

[erickgs3]

MickeyB,

Yeah, i've already thought about getting a mechanical aggitation machine. I think I'll have to go with propane to get the best cleaning. Thanks for the information and time.

erick