Sapphire 370

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

Roll call, How are your 370's holding up? Mine has been excellent but today I was doing a flood extraction with the pump OFF and the temp was reading 280. I hooked up water and cooled her down so it wasn't a problem and my Bimba is working fine. It was close to 100 degrees outside today. I have around 825 hours own it (took 2 months off when my mother died ) Over all I am impressed with the machine and it's holding 200-225 with 500 psi 7.5 flow in the summer. The vacuum is excellent. It's a tough little SOB

What say you?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Sorry to hear of your mother's passing Todd.

 

[dealtimeman]

Sorry for your loss.


Good to see you posting.

As to the 370, it had a few bumps in the road early on but from what I hear now days it is mostly wrinkle or bump free. As with all machines there will be breakdown and or failed parts but no major design flaws from I have seen and heard.

 

[Cleanworks]

Nice looking little unit Todd. I really like those safari/astro vans. I just sold one with my back up unit and am starting to regret it. I wonder if you need a manual diverter valve to completely by pass the heat exchanger when doing flood extraction work?

 

[BIG WOOD]

I don't care what truck mount you have...if you have the water turned off, and are running that rig wide open during water extraction, something's gonna get hot. Even if the manufacturer says it can be operated with the water off, I still leave it on and I tap it open, letting cold water slowly drain through the system.

 

[BIG WOOD]

View attachment 16346 Roll call, How are your 370's holding up? Mine has been excellent but today I was doing a flood extraction with the pump OFF and the temp was reading 280. I hooked up water and cooled her down so it wasn't a problem and my Bimba is working fine. It was close to 100 degrees outside today. I have around 825 hours own it (took 2 months off when my mother died ) Over all I am impressed with the machine and it's holding 200-225 with 500 psi 7.5 flow in the summer. The vacuum is excellent. It's a tough little SOB

What say you?

But that's a sweet setup you've got in that Astro. It looks like you organized it the right way for that size van. Do you have any close up pics of the side and back inside? And how hard are parts to find for that van nowadays?

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

It's an 04 Astro 4.3 liter V6 Vortec with 110k on it so parts are common although I haven't needed any parts yet since I bought it for $7k 6+ years ago, besides an alignment and tires. I added air bags to the rear suspension also

And yes I can just bleed some water through when doing flood extraction so it's not to big of a deal, Thanks.

 

[Bob Pruitt]

The 370 looks just right in that van. Very nice!

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

But that's a sweet setup you've got in that Astro. It looks like you organized it the right way for that size van. Do you have any close up pics of the side and back inside? And how hard are parts to find for that van nowadays?

I have also removed the passenger seat for my fans. Nothing to fancy but it gets the job done. I have the APO in there too. I do loose time unloading and loading but everything is paid for so I'm not complaining.

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

 

[Cleanworks]

I like it.

 

[BIG WOOD]

That looks great Todd. How many feet of 2.5" hose are you using normally? That's what it looks like you have on that reel.

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

50' of 2.5 . 150 feet total is all I normally carry.Sometimes I replace the back pack with my CRB. I carry an Airpath and Velo in the passenger seat plus a bunch of other stuff.

 

[rick imby]

I don't see a Trinity in there? Where do you carry that?

ooops....

Looks like a nice snug little setup...

 

[Zee]

This is how I want to set up a Metris. Except put a skinny vac reel in... And maybe even put it on the side so it'll open up the back.

 

[SamIam]

Nice looking little unit Todd. I really like those safari/astro vans. I just sold one with my back up unit and am starting to regret it. I wonder if you need a manual diverter valve to completely by pass the heat exchanger when doing flood extraction work?

On the Sapphire unit unless you turn the heat on the diverter remains off. Still the blower will heat the water box and it will get hot but plugging water in and opening bypass a crack will keep it cool.

 

[Cleanworks]

Hot to 280 with heat off?

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

Yes the heat was OFF and the diverter was in the proper location. The machine stays HOT in the summer while cleaning too. I love it. I am going to turn the vacuum down to 14. It was set @ 15 at the machine but my hose cuffs leak a little so it never goes about 13 or so when cleaning. Yesterday it was holding 195 on low but it was close to 100 degrees outside. It is a hot little machine in the summer but could use a little more heat in the Idaho winter. I keep thinking about buying a bigger machine but I don't really need anything bigger for what I am doing. 100-150 ft max. I can clean most 4000 sq. ft houses with 150 ft. I don't do much commercial work. Hate the hours !!!

Remember I was using a Prochem Blazer for 4 years before I upgraded to this 370. There is a noticeable difference. I paid $10.5 in 2010 for the Blazer. They are around $13k Now. The 370 was 5k more than that. I think the 370 is close to $19k now.

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

370 owners...... When did you change the Vacuum belts? @ 1000 hrs ? The Blazer was every 300-400. The exhaust manifold would get red hot and dry out the belts. Gates Green belts help . It wasn't a bad machine but is was a little more more maintenance than the 370. The fan blowing through the frame rails really does help. .I'm not saying Prochem is bad. They make excellent machines. I would look at the PEAK or Apex. That is when they started to get the blowers up off the floor.

 

[Cleanworks]

This is how I want to set up a Metris. Except put a skinny vac reel in... And maybe even put it on the side so it'll open up the back.

Since we talked last time Zee, I have been seeing a lot of metris vans around. They have caught on very quickly. If I had the money I would probably go with a Prochem legend over the 370. A little more hp and the same or more heat. Little bit of a larger footprint. Same blower and pump I believe, just a slightly larger motor. I think it is 24 hp compared to 20 hp with the 370. Not sure what real world difference this makes.

 

[Nampa Carpet Cleaning]

Not the same blower as the Legend. The 370 has the same blower as the PEAK. The Legend has a little more CFM and requires more HP but the 370 has Tri Lobe and more efficient . I am sure the Legend is excellent but it is a much different design if you look at the diagrams. All being said I would think the performance is similar. I think the purpose of the tri lobe is less vibration, Noise and performance better under load

 

[Mikey P]

The narrow foot print and 1500 psi is what tipped the scales over lots of competition for me. Being a tool junkie, I need all the room I can get

 

[dealtimeman]

Does the 370 have a chemical pump shut off , off the pump itself?

 

[Mikey P]

Dude...

It's not made in Texas, wtf kind of question is that?


The shut off/ bypass is on the panel

 

[JS41035]

Calm down Gigantor. He meant the ball valve that the 87o and other high psi machines have that isolates the Chem pump at high psi. It saves you from busting a rubber diaphragm if you turn the psi too high.

 

[Mikey P]

Yeah, I wouldn't know anything about that..

 

[dealtimeman]

did you get out whatever crawled up there and was bothering you?

 

[Mikey P]

Look what time it is..

 

[Nate The Great]

Calm down Gigantor. He meant the ball valve that the 87o and other high psi machines have that isolates the Chem pump at high psi. It saves you from busting a rubber diaphragm if you turn the psi too high.

I've busted a few.... Mostly women use them...

@Cleanworks on Nate's computer....

 

[RussRobertsAZ]

1150ish hours on my 370.

I'll share my experiences that I've had with the machine.

Purchased March '14 new at Jondon in Atlanta. A good friend had one and they are built in my home town so I had to show some support and give it a try.

350 hours in, all 4 heat sensors needed to be replaced, the machine would only get hot on the low setting and it would get up to 280° it was kinda scary since I had no idea what was happening. Took it to Jondon, no big deal, they had me fixed the next day and they lasted maybe another 8 months at 840ish hours and got all 4 replaced again with the ones that are doing much better.

The second time I had them replaced I was having some major overheating issues and if I didn't keep the water flowing it would get to 280° rather quickly and shut off. It didn't help the sensors were back ordered for a month so I had to deal with this issue for a while.

At 1,000 hours I decided to change the belts, they didn't need it, I just did it. Back around 400 or so hours I put the vac at 15" and stretched the belts a lil, I put it back at 13.5" around 600hrs. This was my fault not the 370's. Hence why I just changed the belts.

Right after my 2 year warranty expired my waste tank shut off valve went out and it was $180 to buy the part and replaced it myself. For anyone replacing this themselves make sure the label of the shut off switch is facing the front of the van.

This machine has really served me well, I have done long hose runs with it and had heat loss but the suction was on point at 450' thanks to 100' of 2.5" hose.

I do feel I may have a slight leak on my waste tank gasket and I'll look into that this coming week.

Overall this thing has been a work horse, and some of the issues I couldn't always get looked at immediately due to being an over booked owner operator but I have been able to adapt these issues it has had and still make plenty of money.

As far as buying another one, not quite sure yet.... These machines are over engineered for sure, but I'm gonna run this thing until it dies and milk it for all it is worth. It still gets hot as hell and sucks like a champ. I don't regret this decision but I do wanna see what else is out there as my biz grows.