Has anyone bound the vac and solution line together and rolled up on one reel?

[juniorc82]

Im trying to pimp one of my vans to be an apartment slayer for my leed guy to rock this summer. Because we will be doing so many units (sometimes 8-10 per day and upwards of 15-20 a day during the last week of july) I am trying to shave every minute of time and save the operator any fatigue I can. I am going to get that truck a 16 inch wand to cover more floor.And electric hose reel also. I thought maybe if you zip tied or Velcro strapped the solution line together it could prevent tangling and roll up really fast onto the electric reel. I thought maybe If I kept a 50'' piece of solution line and a 20" piece of inch and a half separate that could be used for pre spraying and cleaning stairs.Usualy during our rental turn over rush the last week in july it is often among the hottest days of the year. It really sucks trying to de tangle the solution from the vacuum than reel it all up by hand into the van on a 100 degree day with 100+ feet of hose on the ground. I have seen people do this before but have never thought to try it my self. I am expecting this spring and summer to be my biggest year in carpet cleaning to date and want to engineer my truck to set us up for success with the increased volume. Aside from trashing the qd's from dragging on the ground it sounds like it could work.

 

[Russ T.]

How would you roll the hoses up if they are bound together? On the same reel? Do you use an in line sprayer?


The Clean Machine

 

[juniorc82]

yes they would all get wound up on the vacuum reel. Ive seen this done before. I would keep a 50 foot length of solution line separate for pre spraying with the inline and a 20 foot whip hose separate for cleaning stairs. I think it would really cut down on set up time . The crew I saw using this method sent one guy in to pre spray with a pump spray and agitate with a crb while the other set up hose. I think they ran emulsifier because they would only pre spray the real heavy areas not along the edges or in closet.s. They would also have like 10 irons going at once for red stains They would have a standard 2 bedroom unit done in no more than like 20 minutes. It was pretty wild. They had a powerfull tm and by the 2 units I saw them do they got pretty damn fine results. This was in Kansas city. I hear cleaners don't make squat in that area so their assembly line style of cleaning was more than likely born out of necessity.

 

[ruff]

Jon, it will be helpful to read your posts if separated to paragraphs.

I do not have an electric reel so I can't remark on it. However, I've always tied my solution hose to my vacuum hose and it works well for me.
Not perfect, but I find it better than separate hoses that always get tangled everywhere. You will find different opinions here about it, like everything else.

I used to use an plastic band to tie it together (used by electricians to tie cords together) which works great (especially the heavy duty ones) however you need to cut off the sharp edges and they could still possibly scratch some wood floors. I switched to small elastic cords that I tighten and tie around, also heavy duty rubber bands can work too (I never tried.) And the QD's are doing fine.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Jon I've noticed what you are trying to do to increase productivity.

This won't help.

Neither will the 16" wand.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Spurlington]

I love the idea of 1 trip for 2 lines but zip ties have sharp ends that might catch on fabrics and or scratch floors .. duct tape looks trashy and velcro would fall off when wet or snag on carpet .. I like the idea of having the solution line run through the vac hose .. it would be 1 trip, keep the line insulated from cold weather and if you have a blowout - what a better place for the solution hose to be .. you could bring in a 20ft line for your inline sprayer unless you have a nice battery operated .. although not too many fans of a hide a hose around here .. they say it interrupts vacuum flow .. but if your suction is powerful enough, does it really matter .. I dont know .. seems like the filters would be more of a problem restricting vacuum flow ..

 

[Russ T.]

Is it a 2 man crew? I like to send in someone with a 50' length of solution hose with the inline sprayer and rake. If it's on the 2nd or 3rd floor, they drop the end of solution hose down to the truck to be plugged in and truck fired up. They begin prespraying the apt. When finished, we use the solution line to pull vac up and hook it on and get cleaning. We do the edges with the vac hose to give a little dwell time and agitate with a rake where necessary. For us, I think separate hoses work better.


The Clean Machine

 

[FB7777]

Sounds like a bad idea

If you use a hydro force , you will have to drag the vac hose along with the solution line as you prespray areas

There is more to bring in then just two hose lines, bring in the vac hose with spotting bucket

Bring the wand in with the solution line

Binding them together would create more problems than it would solve IMO

 

[juniorc82]

ok fred, Ill explain again. I would bring in an additional 20 or 50 footer to pre spray with. and lee if you are covering more ground per swipe and saving set up and pack up time why would this not save time? at the least it would save operator fatigue which can mean everything on a humid 100 degree day

 

[Randy Royer]

It works ok but

If you are going to do it use Velcro strips. I did it for years with my Bates D-84 and you don't want to use plumbers ties or plastic cord/ flex cuff style wraps. They will snag of furniture, scrap the heck out of your hands and be an over all pain in the ass. On my second truckmount I invested in dedicated hose reel for the pressure line and another for freshwater. Sure having three reels consumed space but it was convenient .

That being said I prefer a mini van with a couple of Cimexs or Trios. I have zero interest in being among the 56% of carpet cleaners that net less than 50 grand. Get a boat load of assisted living facilities and dentist offices and then you don't need to wrap your hoses or even own a truckmount.

 

[steve_64]

i think it would create more fatigue. much heavier and the bigger wand is harder to use when moving fast.

i knock out 2 bedroom apartments in half an hour one bedrooms in 20 minutes with a bane, pull up to pull out. sometimes 15 minutes for a one bedroom.

no hose reels at all. one 150' solution line.

 

[juniorc82]

it was just a thought. the electric reel will definatley be on this summer. I think on our apartment truck Im gonna start running dry slurry again. Seemed to really blast through the grime plus running an emulsifier you don't have to pre spray some areas like the edges and walkin closets.

 

[GCCLee]

Its all in how you toss the hoses behind you. Im getting better at it : )

Split reels.
Carry in sprayers and brushes, retrieve solution line.
Pre spray, agitate.
Return sprayer and brushes.
Retrieve vac line and Go.

I always re roll the vac line first, and step on the end qc of the solution line so i dont see stars again.

Most apts are Nasty so I shoot for a max of 1.5 hrs. And leave nothing for anyone to clean behind me!

Last guy that spent 15-20 min in the units around here lost his contracts for shitty workmanship.

 

[Jim Martin]

sounds to me like better hose management 101 may be better then hooking everything together....

as far as the 16 inch wand....its not how much ground your covering.....but how well your covering the ground.....

 

[Desk Jockey]

Contact John Olson, those Mytee straps work great for what you're wanting to do. They are designed to hold the hose and solution line into one bundle and work well doing it.

 

[ruff]

sounds to me like better hose management 101 may be better then hooking everything together....

I do it all the time. definitely saves trips back to the van. No difference whatsoever regarding furniture or floors. Not a problem with using a hydroforce, unless one likes spraying a lot in advance. I do one room ahead, as anyhow the pre spray is not supposed to be left more than 10 minutes ahead. Even then if he wants to, for efficiency, he can use a Y qd the section before and his second man can connect a second solution hose and pre spray way in advance.

Different strokes for different folks. It does not always have to be right or wrong. And trying to make things more efficient makes sense in these circumstances. Why don't you try it Jon, and judge for yourself if it works for you or not.

 

[The Great Oz]

Time and motion study has been an interest of mine since I had to write "I will not run in the hall" a couple hundred times in grade school. (It's faster to write the same word down the page than write the sentence.)

A few extra minutes of set-up and take down doesn't matter much when doing residential work, but I always liked hoses tied together when doing commercial work. That included rolling them up to carry or storing them on a manual reel.

You can use duct tape (doesn't have to be silver) but the cheaper stuff doesn't last and the better stuff leaves goo behind if you change anything. You can use inner tube stiff rubber bands, but they're difficult to get over the vac hose and lesser quality ones will just end up bunched together. Nylock ties work well if you put them on so the "lock" is toward the hose. Tight enough to work can cut through cheap vac hose. Never tried a velcro strap that worked, might have to order some of the new ones.

We don't use steel braided lines, so don't know how the extra weight would affect handling. Speed work is no place for soft guys though, so it might not matter.

 

[Desk Jockey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIBS_bkfbII

 

[Jim Martin]

I do it all the time. definitely saves trips back to the van. No difference whatsoever regarding furniture or floors. Not a problem with using a hydroforce, unless one likes spraying a lot in advance. I do one room ahead, as anyhow the pre spray is not supposed to be left more than 10 minutes ahead. Even then if he wants to, for efficiency, he can use a Y qd the section before and his second man can connect a second solution hose and pre spray way in advance.

Different strokes for different folks. It does not always have to be right or wrong. And trying to make things more efficient makes sense in these circumstances. Why don't you try it Jon, and judge for yourself if it works for you or not.

I agree...anytime someone comes up with something they need to dig in and give it a try....what works for some may not be the best for others.....
I tried it and really did not care for it to much...had some old time cleaner years back showed me some good hose management and now I can stage a house and clean with hardly any tangles......for me the hoses are the biggest pain about this job....once he showed me easy ways to manage it ..its not so bad...

its all in how you lay them out....knowing which direction to enter the room..( that one works best for rotaries )....and knowing when to turn around......and most important was how to pull them back out of your way and stage them for your next area with out getting a knot you can lift the Titanic with..........

 

[BradFenstermaker]

I say keep seperate. That many units they gotta be close together.

Run sol prespray 1st unit, clean half then jump over prespray the next 1.

Slowest hurdle for me is gonna be water supply. That hose in on a reel in my truck too.

Get a small jug of Harvard Chenical's FURY. Mix as directed and run at 3gph. Only prespray the nasty traffic lanes.

Less prespray is less waste water on those killer days.

 

[Royal Man]

Remember hide a hose?

 

[Goomer]

Adding a battery sprayer might be the way to go if your hell-bent on trying it, as you can avoid any potential hose issues, as well as have the ability to spray ahead and keep moving.

 

[hogjowl]

I really like the paragraph suggestion.

 

[Larry Cobb]

Junior;

We introduced the Mytee Hose Wraps @ the Experience convention . . .

They are the best way to connect vac & solution hose.

http://www.cobbcarpet.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72&products_id=5165

I do agree with Lee that the 16" wand is too wide.

A well-designed lightweight 14" will work better.

Larry