Walkbehinds, self-contained extractors etc. What's your experience? Just running the numbers they can keep up with encapsulation square footage wise. Has current advancement in chemicals, independant sprayers and agitation with larger crb's made this a viable option to push larger sqft in places not accessible by truckmount with zipper instead of encapsulation? For example high rise offices? Would not consider for residential just straight commercial.
Walk behind for large commercial
- Thread starter SM Car
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Cleanworks
Moderator
SM Car" data-source="post: 4760865" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">I've used a couple and find they don't clean as well as a portable and wand. You spend a lot of time filling and dumping. For commercial I prefer my trinity Phoenix or my Sprayborg. A Cimex would do well too. Much more efficient.
Interesting, may I ask what your process was?
Desk Jockey
Member
It depends on the soil load. If heavily soiled it's going to take several cleanings to bring it back to acceptable level.
Light to moderate soiling you can clean some sq/ft. Yes at least at encap rates.
High level "appearance" while recovery water looks pretty dirty, it's not much solution pressure. The cylindrical brushes do most of the work. Although it looks good it's maintenance type cleaning.
If you're maintaining accounts it should work great for you. If you're wanting it for a once a year corrective cleaning, probably not the best choice.
Idiot proof type cleaning. I have 18-20 year old female students cleaning thousands of sq/ft with them.
Light to moderate soiling you can clean some sq/ft. Yes at least at encap rates.
High level "appearance" while recovery water looks pretty dirty, it's not much solution pressure. The cylindrical brushes do most of the work. Although it looks good it's maintenance type cleaning.
If you're maintaining accounts it should work great for you. If you're wanting it for a once a year corrective cleaning, probably not the best choice.
Idiot proof type cleaning. I have 18-20 year old female students cleaning thousands of sq/ft with them.
Kenny Hayes
Member
Is it a rider or regular walk behind?
I have my reservations on just how soiled the method can handle, I have a trucking company office situated on a dirt compound to clean coming up. Poly glue down, grease, dirt and dog hair, if it can handle this it can take some office workers 20 stories up. This is my thinking, encapping is great for commercial and large areas but at some point an extraction needs to take place. I want to combine a 10gal 70psi trolley sprayer of ebay, wave vacuum by windsor, crb and windsor clipper and market high rise office buildings. All second hand of course, I realise the capital outlay would put anyone off going this route and instead go cimex or the like but this is what I find intriguing as I don't know if anyone is trying this method because of exactly that. The clipper by my calculations should be realistically able to push 2000sqft an hour including filling and dumping. No portable can match that and as you pointed out it takes very little training to operate. The wide area vacuum performs the majority of the heavy dry soil extraction and in a fraction of the time an upright would, the battery 10gal trolley sprayer most likely only need to be filled up once and have some high ph prespray to really dislodge soil, crb to grind it in and the windsor clipper to flush it, if other steps are done right 100psi should in theory just be rinsing out the suspended soils, I mean that's how much pressure carpet was cleaned back in the day, I figure with a 2 man team a portable realistically can do 1000sqft an hour, if you can double that why not? Plus the windsor has the added bonus of having a front quick connect for an upholstery tool or single jet wand for tight areas, throw in some office chairs and protection as an add on.
Desk Jockey
Member
What size solution and recovery on the Clipper?
12gal
Desk Jockey
Member
If it did half that, it would still be good.
Cleanworks
Moderator
SM Car" data-source="post: 4760867" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">I was using a 20 gallon machine by Tennant. Don't remember the model. Prespray ahead of the machine, then go over it. This was a large office area in a high-rise. About 15000 sqft. Probably 10000 sqft of open carpet. Took 2 guys 8 hours and I didn't find it cleaned well and the carpet was still pretty wet. Now I use my orbital machines with either fibre scrub pads or microfiber pads. It takes less than half the time and does a better job in my opinion.
Mikey P
Administrator
Get a Cinex if you want to haul ass or an OP if you want to go almost as fast but sleep well knowing you removed a impressive amount if dirt.
I may be trying to re-invent the wheel, sounds like the exp you guys have had would suggest its not worth going down that road.
Cleanworks
Moderator
SM Car" data-source="post: 4760912" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">I think a Cimex or an orbital will do a better job, leave the carpets drier, with less potential for wicking. The key is good vacuuming either by you or the janitorial staff.
There's a bunch of Cimex users on here so what I say it gonna cause several disagreements, but I hated mine. It didn't do anything miraculous and was an awkward, bulky, heavy, and could be messy with the chemical tank machine. All it did was grind the dirt deeper. From what I saw a couple weeks ago with that OP machine...at least it had a pad that picked up some of the soil. I'd pick an OP machine vs a Cimex.
And if it did half that without swinging a wand...that'd be even better. Chances are, the person that'd be swinging the wand would be a Janitor making a bunch of wet triangles also
Jim Pemberton
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You'll get better results with most any of the low moisture options recommended above. Walk behinds do not recover water well at all, so you not only have a resoiling issue from traffic on wet carpet, you also end up with a residue issue if you are using any detergent in your machine.
Mikey P
Administrator
KSL
Member
We purchased a Clipper years ago for a 200k sq/ft facility we maintained on a daily basis. The production was not there at all, carpets were left wet. We quickly replaced it with a Cimex and doubled production and carpet appearance. High traffic lanes were taken care of with an Orbot or Trinity.
Mr Brightside
Member
I bought two cimex machines last year and did nothing but struggle with them hated every minute with it
I would rather bonnet clean personally than Cimex
but I would rather zipper than anything lol
I would rather bonnet clean personally than Cimex
but I would rather zipper than anything lol
Cleanworks
Moderator
I'm surprised. The Cimex is one of the easiest machines to use. At least on large commercial.
Walrus Gumboot
Member
We sold our Cimex, too.
Easy to operate and made the carpet look a lot better, but...
Easy to operate and made the carpet look a lot better, but...
Kenny Hayes
Member
I sure hope you did not buy that clipper. You’ll be wanting to slit your throat. If you’re gonna get a walk behind, at least make it cordless!! It’s not the same as a Cimex or any OP!
