Drag Wand 10,000 feet, almost died!!

[Mike Draper]

So I thought I would share my experience with everyone. The topic pretty much says it all, I used a drag wand to clean 10,000 square feet. Thought my arms were going to fall off, my hands were swollen shut like a fist when I woke up the next morning. I won't do that again. White magic 24" drag wand, I think it's 65 pounds.

 

[Rex Tyus]

Do you find cresting much of an issue with the drag wand?

 

[Dolly Llama]

I started out with a drag wand 18 years ago.
a 16" Steam Genie DW.
Still have one working DW.
It's rarely used

If we did more com, we'd keep in on the van.
It's a great rinse tool when pre-scrubbing.

PITA on an uneven sub floor though.
(but so is a 14" scrub wand)
a 24" wand would be a nightmare un uneven floors, me thinks


..L.T.A.

 

[Brian L]

When I purchased my van the guy had a 16" Steam Genie Drag Wand lying around. He let me keep it. I liked it on big open areas. I haven't used it in a while. Watching the dirty water flow through the clear tube was fun.

 

[randy]

That reminds me of a job we did once (12,000 theater style chairs) . We were there for 16 hours (deadline issue) and were all in really sorry shape the next day. All the bending and repetitive motion got all of us. On the way home we hit an all night Walmart and everyone got Icey Hot. That helped a bunch. Two Nyquil softgels and a three day weekend to recover were the bomb.

 

[John Watson]

Frank Kuntz almost died with a heart attack after his work out at Mikeyfest08. Took him 20 minutes to catch his breath before he could have another cigarette!!!

 

[The Great Oz]

I started out cleaning large acreage commercial with a drag wand. About two jobs in I found out how much faster and easier it was to clean huge amounts of carpet with a light wand, even though back then light was only compared to the drag wand.

I didn't know anyone still made them, much less still used them.

 

[Mike Draper]

Yeah, nothing against the wand guys, I used to have a couple. But three different wand guys have all lost their stores to me in the last month since I bought my drag wand. Personally, I think the drag does a better job, and dries faster too. I guess the store owners agree to, since they hired me and canned the others. I also own an RX-20 with glides and the drag will still clean better in about 65 percent of commercial jobs.

 

[Scott S.]

drag wand, what is a drag wand? somone send me a pic.

 

[tmdry]

drag wand, what is a drag wand? somone send me a pic.

 

[Jimmy L]

Real name in full.

 

[Mikey P]

Like the horse and carriage, somethings are best left in the last century.

 

[Mike Draper]

Seriously though, I would never in a million years use this for residential. I only use this for some short glue down carpets. Some, as in very short glue down with a perfectly even floor underneath.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

We have a 9 jet 24" that we use to clean new and event carpets. If your not dealing with a large soil load they work fine. One of our customers has about 20,000 sqft that we extract monthly it's never dirty and only takes 1 tech 4-5 hours since it's open space. On new construction the floor usually hasn't warped yet and cresting isn't a problem.

 

[Scott S.]

thanks for the explanation and the pic. never saw one like that before. i do have a power head that is 14inches wide that weighs like 50 pounds. i could see how it could wear ya out.

 

[Greenie]

biggest problem with any drag tool is the forward pass, glide is kind of making life too easy with a free dry stroke though.

 

[Stevea]

Basically got started with a Drag Wand and used them for everything. Used to take my truck mount off the truck and roll it into JC Penney Stores and Sears Stores and clean from 30-60,000 sf from Sat. night until early Monday mornings, all with Drag Wands.

Always used them in residential, Steam Genie's 16 inch and 24 inch. Always shampooed the carpets so all I needed to do wash flush out the suspended soil. Used the drag wand up until about 8 years ago when I started using portable equipment but even with this I use a form of drag wand process still.

This thread brought back a lot of memories.

Here is a picture of the one I still have left.

People love to see the dirt coming up the clear tube.

SA