Mikey P
Administrator
I was reading through a newsletter published and mailed to cleaners throughout the US and around the world the other day. It is published by a leading cleaning equipment and supply mfg. who has been around this industry since the days when I was in grade school. In one of the articles, the founder of this company was discussing the harmful results possible from using high pressure while cleaning. I could relate to him and understand his position on the issue because that was the belief that was taught by all suppliers and mfg's back in the 80's when I first started cleaning.
Back then most of us were not very long away from our portable days and many of us had 36 blowers with restricted plumbing and whip hoses, so it was easy to see how high pressure could pose a problem. However, we are a long way away from those days and the information available to suppliers and cleaners on these internet boards is invaluable to someone who will take the time to read and discuss them. It is amazing to me that there are still so many within our industry who are operating with yesterdays news and recommending that we still clean with 250 psi through our 1.5 inch wands.
Why do you think that is the case?
Along with many of you, I have been using high flow/high recovery, high heat cleaning for several years now. The improvement in my cleaning and customer satisfaction is markedly noticable to me and my customers often make comments comparing my cleaning to the cleaners that preceded me. I am certain that many of those cleaners are just as dedicated to offering outstanding service to their customers as I am and I am left to conclude that the difference between us in that I have stayed on the cutting edge of the changes in this industry and they have not. It's understandable that a cleaner might not be aware of these boards and all of us know that we often never know we have a problem until the solution hits us square in the face. However, it amazes me how those who make our equipment intentionally avoid and even criticize the very changes that have helped all of us who frequent these boards.
Is it expensive to replumb your vacuum plumbing? Does resizing your vacuum ports to 2.5 inch cost THAT much money? Would discussing the advantages of using a 2 inch wand over an inch and a half and offering a new cleaner either/or undermine the business bottom line? It amazes me to still see so many of our supply side business owners still in the dark ages when there is so much light on this end of the tunnel.
Often, the only source of education and practical information available to cleaners is what is found at their supplier. Whatever a supplier says is gospel. To see so many of our supplies still offering 20th century information in the 21st century is discouraging. To say that our industry is fractured is an understatement. From top to bottom I see education taylored to meet the needs of a chemical mfg or test results skewed to benefit a favorite association partner with money enough to buy some fake soil, so it should not come as a surprise that we can't manage, as an industry, to evolve with the passage of time.
I sure hope that the changes within the IICRC coupled with more educational awareness brough on by these boards will eventually bring us to the day when the average cleaner can be shown a glided wand and not see a blank look come across his face.
Back then most of us were not very long away from our portable days and many of us had 36 blowers with restricted plumbing and whip hoses, so it was easy to see how high pressure could pose a problem. However, we are a long way away from those days and the information available to suppliers and cleaners on these internet boards is invaluable to someone who will take the time to read and discuss them. It is amazing to me that there are still so many within our industry who are operating with yesterdays news and recommending that we still clean with 250 psi through our 1.5 inch wands.
Why do you think that is the case?
Along with many of you, I have been using high flow/high recovery, high heat cleaning for several years now. The improvement in my cleaning and customer satisfaction is markedly noticable to me and my customers often make comments comparing my cleaning to the cleaners that preceded me. I am certain that many of those cleaners are just as dedicated to offering outstanding service to their customers as I am and I am left to conclude that the difference between us in that I have stayed on the cutting edge of the changes in this industry and they have not. It's understandable that a cleaner might not be aware of these boards and all of us know that we often never know we have a problem until the solution hits us square in the face. However, it amazes me how those who make our equipment intentionally avoid and even criticize the very changes that have helped all of us who frequent these boards.
Is it expensive to replumb your vacuum plumbing? Does resizing your vacuum ports to 2.5 inch cost THAT much money? Would discussing the advantages of using a 2 inch wand over an inch and a half and offering a new cleaner either/or undermine the business bottom line? It amazes me to still see so many of our supply side business owners still in the dark ages when there is so much light on this end of the tunnel.
Often, the only source of education and practical information available to cleaners is what is found at their supplier. Whatever a supplier says is gospel. To see so many of our supplies still offering 20th century information in the 21st century is discouraging. To say that our industry is fractured is an understatement. From top to bottom I see education taylored to meet the needs of a chemical mfg or test results skewed to benefit a favorite association partner with money enough to buy some fake soil, so it should not come as a surprise that we can't manage, as an industry, to evolve with the passage of time.
I sure hope that the changes within the IICRC coupled with more educational awareness brough on by these boards will eventually bring us to the day when the average cleaner can be shown a glided wand and not see a blank look come across his face.
