RAM AIR

[packfancjh]

I finally used the RAM AIR system on my house and I was extremely surprised at the results! It worked very well for being a "truckmount system". I'm going to do another job next week hopefully and I'll get before and after pics if I can.

 

[SRI Cleaning]

Keep me posted! We do mostly apartment work and one complex is remodeling all of there places. They asked us if we clean ducts. I know people have talked badly about the ram air and rotobrush, but if we purchase one of them, we could have the contract to do over 220 apartments!

 

[Desk Jockey]

I watched the video, it is something unique.

I had not seen it before, it looks impressive at first glance.

A couple of thing the the video didn't address are the trunk line & air returns.

The trunk line is where most of the dirt is! Air returns are often larger than the neat little Plexiglas box, so do you just block off the rest of the opening?

I would think you might loosen more debris than you have the vacuum to remove, since you not zoning off areas. I would think you won't have the negative air, with an open system?

It looks impressive but I would have my doubts that it could do a effective job on the complete system, but I don't know.

Chris let us know how you think it's doing. Definitely something different!

 

[SRI Cleaning]

Richard,
I had the same concerns. Do you have a truck? Or do you use portable electric equipment?

 

[XTREME1]

Yeah Richard are you a portable guy or do you have truckmounts? Is it just you and your sisters?

 

[Dolly Llama]

Yeah Richard are you a portable guy or do you have truckmounts?

I hear he works out of the trunk of a rusty '63 ch-chevy lo-rider...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGkE5g7_jAg


..L.T.A.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Anthony
We have a gas fired collector, Meyer's Porta Vac http://www.meyervacuums.com/air_duct_cl ... a-vac.html

We also have an electric but it hasn't been used in 5-years. They just don't feel like we can do as good a job with it. I wish we had purchased Atlantic Engineering's Ultralite instead of the brand we have.

Currently we provide air duct cleaning mainly to our restoration customers, but plan to expand that this year. I'd like to grow our sales enough to afford a Builtwell truck.


Crowley it's me & my sister, she does all the work, well when she isn't taking it easy. "Bitch get to work!" can't take you eye off them for a minute! :roll:

 

[breathe72]

On Apartments it could work, if all they wanted was the secondary(branch) runs cleaned.

If you do use the RAM air on a normal home, be very careful to cover your tracks.

You will have to either be OK with lying directly to the customer, or you will need to tell them that you're really not cleaning the ducts complete.

Last year, a well known company here in Omaha was the focus of a very negative local nightly news piece titled "Dirty Duct-work".


The company was using a Roto-vac type system on someone's home and after the technicians left, the customer did some snooping around and discovered all the main trunk-lines were still LOADED with crap.

The local news got in on it and damn near destroyed this guy's company.

They brought a camera crew into that home to show just what he DIDN"T clean.

He'd been in business over 25 years and was doing well.

Not anymore.

The cleaners did not get the trunk-lines very clean at all.

They couldn't do it right with the equipment they had.

Keep in mind that homeowners who want duct-cleaning done are often VERY anal about most things, and tend to be clean-freaks already.

Often, they are a different species of customer than your carpet custys.

Since, unlike carpet cleaning, they cant SEE the difference, you will be under even more scrutiny.

I can easily see how this system could damage the hard-earned reputation of a decent carpet cleaner who didn't do his homework.

 

[Rob Lyon]

We refer our duct cleaning too the local ductz franchisee, he does a great job and the customers love the results, I agree, if you are following NADCA standards, you will need to take precautions on all of your work, including proper cleaning of the air handler as well.


All The Best, Rob

 

[randy]

Using Ram air to clean airducts is just fraud. you need a push pull system. Call Nikro, Abatment technology or Meyer and get a REAL system or stay out of the business. More and more people are figuring out that Rotobrush and other carpet cleaner invented systems are a poor method of source removal.

 

[breathe72]

Like tile and grout, Odin?

 

[breathe72]

just another thing carpet cleaners should not be getting into

Sorry, but I had to say something here.

This IS something carpet cleaners should be getting into.

HEALTH-WISE, Carpet cleaning and duct cleaning go hand in hand and more and more you will see people wanting their ducts cleaned.

WITH THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT AND TRAINING.

The very reason we are called out to most of the homes as carpet cleaners, is the same reason we are called out to do ducts.

Dust. Dirt. Germs. Pets.


Most Spills and stains on carpet are a cosmetic problem; the custy doesn't want to see it anymore.

But most HWE carpet cleaners will agree that there is a positive healthy benefit to carpet cleaning; that same benefit happens when the ducts are cleaned. Only deeper.

Now, if you watch the replies to duct cleaning on the BBs, there is always going to be someone (usually the old timers) who come out and say we shouldn't do it or that its snake oil or whatever.

Thats because they have never done it and they never will, and they are stuck in their ways; afraid to contemplate aloud that they may have missed the bus after all these years.

To prove this last point, go find a carpet cleaning company that does duct cleaning as well, and ask them if they think duct cleaning is "just another thing carpet cleaners shouldn't get into..." lol.

.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think the business is there if you want it, but just as I want to provide the best job possible when I'm cleaning carpet, I want to do the same when I'm cleaning ducts.

So far I have not see that possible with a 1.5 or 2-inch collector hose.

I don't know enough about the Ram air to condemn it, but I do have questions about cleaning the entire system.

This isn't an attack on Chris either, he is a good guy, I would just like him to keep us in the loop!

 

[John Buxton]

Most apartments I've seen have no return, and small runs so a system like this may improve the ductwork, but not clean as well as a large vac and compressor system. I had to buy a rotojunk for a retirement community and it did improve the ductwork but not to really clean standards. Cleaning a return, or supply trunk line in a crawl space, or attic is impossible with it. Oh and the phone company installed phone lines in the ductwork and the rotojunk would rip them out if we weren't very careful.

IMO these are to be used in addition to a large vac and compressor, not instead of.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I must say the visual is impressive.

I can see where it would be good to use as a demo, showing the need for cleaning.

 

[randy]

just another thing carpet cleaners should not be getting into

Sorry, but I had to say something here.

This IS something carpet cleaners should be getting into.

HEALTH-WISE, Carpet cleaning and duct cleaning go hand in hand and more and more you will see people wanting their ducts cleaned.

WITH THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT AND TRAINING.

The very reason we are called out to most of the homes as carpet cleaners, is the same reason we are called out to do ducts.

Dust. Dirt. Germs. Pets.


Most Spills and stains on carpet are a cosmetic problem; the custy doesn't want to see it anymore.

But most HWE carpet cleaners will agree that there is a positive healthy benefit to carpet cleaning; that same benefit happens when the ducts are cleaned. Only deeper.

Now, if you watch the replies to duct cleaning on the BBs, there is always going to be someone (usually the old timers) who come out and say we shouldn't do it or that its snake oil or whatever.

Thats because they have never done it and they never will, and they are stuck in their ways; afraid to contemplate aloud that they may have missed the bus after all these years.

To prove this last point, go find a carpet cleaning company that does duct cleaning as well, and ask them if they think duct cleaning is "just another thing carpet cleaners shouldn't get into..." lol.

.

Chris, you are correct that most of them are "old timers" , especially ODIN who is very, very OLD.

This "old timer" offered airduct cleaning for 6 years and there are many reasons why most carpet cleaners shouldn't get into it.

It's NOT as profitable as some equipment salesmen like to claim. Takes 5-8 hours to properly do the average home. Tons of coupon companies doing it, the $6.99 a room carpet cleaners have moved over to airducts. The PROPER equipment will cost you $15,000 to $20,000 minimum, and that money would be better spend marketing your CORE business competency. It requires different equipment period. This is actually the second pieces of equipment that Bridgepoint has offered to adapt truckmounts to airduct cleaning. The duct wizard was also a joke, but they sold a few to new guys that don't know any better ( and think they do). It requires a whole different training program for techs (a 5 day school).

When you are Caught offering poor quality duct cleaning and you will, it will harm your business drastically. All a customer has to do is change the air filter or have a heating & ac guy open the box on the next routine service call and you will be exposed. A digital camera or camera phone held into a vent will also get you every time.

Adding airduct cleaning is not like adding Upholstery cleaning or tile & grout, it's more like the requirements for water damage. It's a whole new business and NOT A ADD ON.

Anyone in this business less than 5 years and or fewer than 5 employees/ two trucks should probably be focused on selling more carpet cleaning.

If your carpet cleaning business is at $400,000 + per year and you have a couple of techs to dedicate to a second business WITH THE PROPER EQUIPMENT go for it, otherwise forget it.

Remember doing a decent job required cutting access holes in the trunklines and pulling the blower out to cleaning the coils. In many States you must be a licensed heating & ac tech to do so. Go to the airduct cleaning trade show (held every Spring ) and attend a class before buying any equipment.

 

[Greenie]

A couple of years ago a customer of ours and friend, stopped by one day, he runs a box truck with a truckmounted cleaning unit, he was telling us how we could benefit from airduct cleaning, I had to honestly say that from a consumer point of view a guy who sells the benefits of a Truckmounted carpet cleaning is missing the boat on selling Portable duct cleaning.

I agree, most guys should focus a bit more on the fuzzy stuff as they are not as busy as they should be in the first place.

 

[XTREME1]

I offer airduct cleaning but I don't clean them

 

[John Buxton]

OK, I actually watched the video. The cartoon dust did clean up real well.

Actually the clear box isnt a bad idea I rigged up something that worked similar except I had a 10" vac hose connected to it. Plus the box is larger than the register opening so dirt will get the carpets dirty within the box. Reverse cleaning should only be done on houses on slabs where you cant connect to the plenum.

Sorry I've got to refer to my earlier post. Its a rip off.