for once I'm speechless..

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May 12, 2007
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Bruce
I know his website says "alternative" cleaning methods, I just assumed he was pre scrubbing when I seen the 2inch hose running down the hallway and the caption on the screen was saying "scrubbing" instead of "Cleaning"
 

jcooper

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IL
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Jerry Cooper
It's not a bad idea, just not a great one.


Buy the time you get the buffer and his thing, I bet it's the same cost as an oreck or something like it.
 

Bjorn

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Oct 7, 2006
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2,450
you are seeing more into this than what it is

I don't think it's for cleaning whole rooms

could come in handy for as it shows for under hard spots to reach could be really good for filtration lines ( if the customer is willing to pay to have them removed )

might be nice to wax our box trucks without having to use a ladder.
 

Mikey P

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might be nice to wax our box trucks without having to use a ladder.

that and for obese folks to wipe their bottoms.



with almost no weight behind it I would think a Vibram Agitator would be as quick and more effective.
 

Desk Jockey

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A planet far far away
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Rico Suave
We tried one like Ray showed.

It actually worked pretty good. A little awkward with the battery backpack, might take a little getting used to. We were going to use it to cut in the rooms when using a Cimex. It even worked stripping VCT.
 

SixShooter

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Feb 25, 2014
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Bill Sabia
Hi Guys,

I'm the maker of the Hot Rod Handle.

I have a 5 truck operation in Orange County Ca.

We use it mainly for agitating pre-spray, scrubbing stairs and scrubbing out T&G.

So this tool is meant primarily for folks who are inclined to pre-scrub residential but more importantly for those that don't pre-scrub because bringing in a big machine into a home (especially cramped upstairs condos) is just too much of a hassle.

The guys at Stone Pro have sold several of them out of their store and I've spoken to the end users. They love them. They add weight to them and use Twister pads to polish tight areas like bathrooms, edges and stairs.

We tried the Oreck Orbitor in our business and it was just o.k. We think this is a big improvement over that.

We've gotten great feedback from our customers and the guys love to use them.

For those of you who love their Orecks I made a modification to ours (although we don't use them anymore) which you might find interesting. I could post a video of that mod if there's any interest.

BTW: I paid $28K to have the "Fling Ring" injection molded, dang right I got a patent on it. Kidding
 

Mikey P

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The guys at Stone Pro have sold several of them out of their store and I've spoken to the end users. They love them. They add weight to them and use Twister pads to polish tight areas like bathrooms, edges and stairs.

I would think more weight could be applied by just using the Makita w/o the handle.

Welcome to MB, were your neck hairs tingling ?
 
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bob vawter

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bob vawter
Mikey...remember when i showed Mike Charles how to clean with a Makita 'bout EIGHT YEARS ago......
great idea!!!

however i think i should get a royalty.............
 

SixShooter

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Bill Sabia
Quote from a few folks: "anytime you can get a guy off his knees, that's a good thing".

I don't know brother I'm not a stone guy yet.

Oh, believe it or not they use it vertically as well, doing showers and monuments, etc. I made a sling that the user wears and allows the handle to rest at about the armpit level so that they barely use their arm muscles while working overhead. Again man I'm not a stone guy but they seem to like it.
 

SixShooter

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Bill Sabia
He's going to think "great minds think alike".

But 90% of our customers are women who are probably only going to notice, "hey they never pre-scrubbed before"
 
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Shawn Forsythe
I don't know if Bill has a video of it, but the section on the end of the "hot Rod" is rotatable, so you can operate the tool sideways. This would permit the use of an edge brush for HS grout line agitation that really compliments a rotary cleaning tool (Turbo Hybrid or SX-15).

I don't think this tool is designed to replace a rotary, or anything else. It is designed to "fill gaps" in the weaknesses of other tools you may already use, in that it agitates spaces not otherwise easy to do.
 

Newman

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Aug 1, 2008
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St. Charles, IL USA
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Chris Newman
I kinda like this contraption. Nice work Bill and welcome to Mikeys Board!

I have used my DeWalt buffer with Cimex pads on severely soiled commercial stairways with awesome results, but my back whines about it the whole time!

I use my 15" rotary on heavily soiled residential stairways. It is a bear to handle but produces great results.

My old style 2 head Rotovac did a killer job on stairways, but killed my back at the same time.

I have considered that Oreck Orbitor unit for stairways but never actually held one.

I think a nylon brush would work better on cut pile than a pad, am I wrong?

IMHO, the negative with this tool is merely that it utilizes something which looks and is too familiar to our customers. Everyone has a hand held buffer machine. It just does not look professional. The head is far too small for general production work.
 

SixShooter

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Bill Sabia
I just can't imagine scrubbing a whole job with a pad that size.

A 17" 175 can be had for a few hundred bucks.

175 in residential? Hucking it out of the van? Upstairs condos? Lots of furniture around? Filthy between the sofa and the granite coffee table? Filthy stair landings? Filthy stairs? Transitions from one room to another that require just a couple steps down or up and your brush or pad driver falls off in the process? If you're happy with a 175 in those situations more power to ya.

Again, this is for the guys that are not using their 175s and not using or can't afford a CRB. My guys bitch and moan when they have to use a 175 under those circumstances even if they're getting up-sell. Yes we do scrub some open areas with it and it works great, but we're also able to deal with the other situations as well. It's just way more agile than the big machines. "A pad that size" is perfect for crowded home or by the way office cubicles.

But we aren't competing against the big machines.

I think a better comparison would be the Oreck Orbitors but we find our tool way outperforms those as well. In fact our dissatisfaction with them is part of why our tool exists today.

ICE was our coming out party. We've sold about 50 since then.

how many have you sold?


Thanks
 

Mikey P

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50 is impressive for sure, congratulations!


We use a rake or hand brushes on steps if (rarely) needed. We also have a 175 and a CRB on both trucks.


and a Makita, just never considered using one on carpet.
 

SixShooter

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So Cal
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Bill Sabia
I kinda like this contraption. Nice work Bill and welcome to Mikeys Board!

I have used my DeWalt buffer with Cimex pads on severely soiled commercial stairways with awesome results, but my back whines about it the whole time!

I use my 15" rotary on heavily soiled residential stairways. It is a bear to handle but produces great results.

My old style 2 head Rotovac did a killer job on stairways, but killed my back at the same time.

I have considered that Oreck Orbitor unit for stairways but never actually held one.

I think a nylon brush would work better on cut pile than a pad, am I wrong?

IMHO, the negative with this tool is merely that it utilizes something which looks and is too familiar to our customers. Everyone has a hand held buffer machine. It just does not look professional. The head is far too small for general production work.


Yes, we use both pads and brushes.

As far as "general production work" checkout my reply to Mike.

BTW: you sound like an open minded guy. When you say "looks too familiar" what about when you used your Dewalt. Did you get dirty looks?

The response from the customers has been nothing but positive. We do follow-up calls on every job and specifically ask them what they thought of the tool. Those that notice it at all really like the uniqueness of it. We've actually sold some to our customers. This is actual experience of over a year using it everyday on multiple trucks.

They haven't seen any other carpet cleaner use it. I think the custom brush head or even the the Cimex pads combined with the nice shiny red (powder coated) handle legitimizes the whole package in the customer's mind.

And remember, this is meant mainly for guys that are not already scrubbing. So the choice for many customers is;

A) Added service of scrubbing before cleaning albeit with an odd (in some people's opinion) looking tool

B) Not scrubbing at all
 
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