WHO NEEDS A CENTRIFUGE?

Monzie

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WHO NEEDS A CENTRIFUGE? Sure, I would love to have one, but $40 to $60K is a serious piece of change, and then you gotta have a PLACE for that big sucker. It's not like you can fold the thing up when you're done and slide it under the bed! Thousands of successful rug cleaning plants all over the world done quite well without one, and made a LOT of money. I was surprised to see that Paul Lucas sells a basket type centrifuge in the back of his catalog for around $26K! Someone at the Rug Lover Tour told me that Nathan Koets, has a basket style unit, and neither of these originate from Dusty!! That's beside the point of course, but it is interesting to know that there are other options out there besides just "Ford" and "Chevy". What do YOU THINK? Is a centrifuge an absolute MUST if you want to run a successful rug spa?:confused:
 
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Lee Stockwell
Welcome back Mike!

I'd think a centrifuge only makes sense if you do so many rugs that you get backed up due to lack of drying space for hanging rugs.

Not many rug cleaners are at that point. I rarely have over 4 or 5 at a time. (that's a lot of quarters at the carwash)

:-)
 

Mikey P

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Hopefully Joe Appleby chimes in here on what was the breaking point for him to buy one..


If I were cleaning over 50k a year in rugs alone, I'd get one..

They just make sense.

I got to play with one at Ike's in Greenville. It's super impressive and I imagine if you were giving a walk in customer a tour and they saw that verses a pos portable and a plastic wash pit the impression would be set in stone.



But it sure the hell would not be a Red one.
 

Monzie

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I am convinced that owning a rug spinner is a great goal to shoot for, and I hope to do so one of these days. I own an Olympus portable extractor that has enough PSI and vacuum to get a carpet clean. I also own a Blueline TM with a #5 blower, and I will use it 99 times out of 100 over the portable. If I had one of the giant UD-Diesel rigs, I would likely prefer it over the Thermal Wave. If I had a PLACE to put it, I could phone up Tom Monahan tomorrow and send him a deposit on a wringer. Lawrence, KS is a college town/bedroom community within 40 minutes of Kansas City, MO and 20 minutes of Topeka, KS. The rent and real-estate tax here is insane. Paying $50K for the wringer is not so much the issue as paying $30K per year to rent a place that people can FIND. Plus I LOVE working from home. How many people does a centrifuge SLEEP?
 

Mikey P

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after dabbling in in plant wash pit type rug cleaning as a partner for 5 to 6 months I came to conclusion that Ken Snow had it right.

Mor them all and don't spend more than 10 minutes on any rug. Clean em by the boatload, don't test for squat.


and the 2% you do screw up won't cost a dime vs the cost of being cautious.
 

Mikey P

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and welcome back Mike!



Did you know that our Main Page here produces more fresh new articles each month that ICS, CF or that dish rag *** squirts out, combined?



MB has taken over as THE place for online cleaners.
 
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rhyde

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after dabbling in in plant wash pit type rug cleaning as a partner for 5 to 6 months I came to conclusion that Ken Snow had it right.

Mor them all and don't spend more than 10 minutes on any rug. Clean em by the boatload, don't test for squat.


and the 2% you do screw up won't cost a dime vs the cost of being cautious.



-Dabbling in rugs washing often results in struggles,...well you know Mike.

-A Mor system sweet spot is volume how much volume do most guys here have?


I half halfheartedly tried to bridge the subject of cleaning and cleaning performance at rug summit.
Imagine a room full of cleaners and we can't actually talk about what's clean is, any measure of clean, or different systems benefits and detraction's all have them.

During the wash plant tours a few guys came up to me apparently never seem a mor system
run and somewhat in shock saying there's no way that rug is clean.
All i could say was,. clean that rug isn't even completely wet to the core.

Does it matter ? If you are shooting 800 -1,000 rugs a month making bank not really.I make a good living doing what I do and there is a living to be made for those unhappy with such service.
I'd bet many here get spin-off work from chemdry, stanly and sears in a similar manor
 

J Scott W

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Centrifuge is not about how clean you get a rug but how many rugs you clean. Lee was right on the money. If the volume of your business supports one it is great, but not a necessity. There are many ways to dry rugs.
 

T Monahan

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Centrifuge is not about how clean you get a rug but how many rugs you clean. Lee was right on the money. If the volume of your business supports one it is great, but not a necessity. There are many ways to dry rugs.

Great remarks. Here are some other things to consider. It is my personal observation through personal use that the horizontal rug wringing centrifuge Centri-Maxx could be said to be part of how you clean a rug. Consider: Moving water and suspended soil out of the rug between the shortest possible distance between two points is an advantage in a number of ways. Centrifugal action is fast and effective. Why? Water (and perhaps suspended soil) must evacuate from the back of the rug through the pile through centrifugal action. That is a very short distance compared to vertical drying. (Flat drying does not hurl the water, along with potentially and suspended soil) Contrastingly, when rugs are asked to dry hanging vertical really dripping wet, then lots of water (likely still carrying soil particulates) migrate down through the warp yarns to the fringe. This has the real potential of causing the pile and fringe to be crusty and discolored. There likely will be a need to post fringe detail. The centrifuge, and rinsing rugs in it while spinning, would help in eliminating this issue altogether on most pieces, or at the very least, minimizing it on other pieces.

If you deal with urine rugs often, it is a tremendous time saver when used with U-Turn.

Time is money.
 
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Monzie

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I have yet to see a "MOR plant", or anyone who CLEANS WITH a MOR machine. Robert Mann, Ellen Amirkhan and everyone else I have visited that has MOR equipment are using it as a latter stage EXTRA rinse/flush tool. I guess that there must be some folks doing it that way. Kind of like the gas station car wash that blasts your car with chemicals, water and air in 120 seconds for $8 bucks. Your car still has road film all over it. Looks good from six feet away. Great for Stanley Steemer customers, but not for mine.
 

-JB-

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Please educate me...
you have a 10x14 ft rug that has not been cleaned in 20+ yrs, you roll it up pop it in the fuge and viola! All the solids/soils push through 7-9 layers of rolled up carpet warp and weft, because you shot water up the middle whilst it was spinning? What am I missing, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but seriously educate me...
 

T Monahan

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Please educate me...
you have a 10x14 ft rug that has not been cleaned in 20+ yrs, you roll it up pop it in the fuge and viola! All the solids/soils push through 7-9 layers of rolled up carpet warp and weft, because you shot water up the middle whilst it was spinning? What am I missing, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but seriously educate me...

No, no, no.... My reference to the centrifuge was regarding the technique of water evacuation after washing had been done. Assuming rugs are washed on the floor with power washers, pit washing, wash tub or combination of the techniques. Some use centrifuges after using a compression wringer as in the case of Moore machine operators. Thus, this is another drying phase of the cleaning process. My reference to soil suspension in water was residue on rug after whatever method one washed with being flung out with additional rinsing in the centrifuge in the final phase I just mentioned.

A reference was made to Ellen and Robert. Both of them have wash floors to do work on. Both have Moore machines to rinse and squeeze the rug. Both still use centrifuges after all that.

I hope that is clearer. If not, let me know and I will attempt a further explanation.
 

Mikey P

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Tom have you sold this guy a Wonder Tube yet?

PC260087_zps3615d8ae.jpg
 

Nathan544

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Nathan Koets
Volume should dictate a fuge purchase. Labor is our biggest expense, and time is money.
Yes, my centrifuge is a top-loader; yellow, not red or blue. I prefer it to the cylindrical type for many reasons, such as the ability to control & rinse better, add deodorizers, sanitizers, dye blockers or dye fixative, rinse agents, etc, and the ability to spin rugs too large for a cylindrical fuge are the main ones. There are drawbacks as well: fold marks, the logistics of hoisting a large, wet rug are two of them. You don't have to spend huge money, many large laundry centrifuges can be purchased used for pennies on the dollar (I was just offered one for $50), so look around, watch eBay, check local machine wholesalers who specialize in factories going out of business...
I'm always surprised at how many cleaners think nothing of buying a new TM/van, but agonize for years before buying a centrifuge. The fact that there are almost no used centrifuges for sale should speak for itself...
 
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T Monahan

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Here is company that made a big deal about the centrifuge (Albeit other things too) in their advertisement:

[video=youtube_share;5d2RWae1i04]http://youtu.be/5d2RWae1i04[/video]
 
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