Truckmount Vs Portables.........

Not all articles in my files were written by me. Here is one that was informative, and gives a good overview of some of the differences you would find. A great article to read by a manufacturer of both.


     
TRUCK MOUNTS vs PORTABLES - A COMPARISON

by Mike Roden
Vice President Manufacturing
Professional Chemicals Corporation

The professional cleaner of today is riding an increasing wave of opportunity. Recent industry estimates place the dollar volume of our marketplace at over $2.5 billion (USA) and projections show it could even double before the year 2,000. But while the overall mood for our industry is extremely optimistic, the real question for most professional carpet cleaners continues to be, “What equipment do I need to do the best job for my customers and stay ahead of my competition?”

As a designer and builder of high technology cleaning systems, I am often asked why so many professional cleaners are upgrading to truck mounted cleaning systems. And while I believe there is certainly a place for both portables and truck mounts, I most often find that cleaning businesses upgrade to truck mounts because of the big advantage truck mounts have when it comes to power.

The increased power in a truck mount system results in more heat, greater pressure and vacuum for the cleaner, as well as less dirt, water, chemical residue and bacteria in the carpet for the customer. Truck mounts also save the operator time and labor while providing superior results and reduced chemical usage. Tools and accessories for truck mounts are normally of better quality than those made for portables and the truck mount technology maintains better interior air quality because the air from the vacuum is ventilated indoors.

More power is the real advantage: everything else stems from there. Using horsepower as the standard of measure, the truck mount far exceeds the portable unit. With today's technology, the average truck mount has about 23HP. The portable unit, depending on the number of cords, might have 1½ - 2 horsepower. With this in mind, let's look at what this horsepower can do for the cleaner if it is properly harnessed.

Heat

In the truck mount, the waste by-products of burnt gasoline contains an abundance of BTU's which can be used to heat the water in your system. There are approximately 127,000 BTU's in a gallon of petrol. About 15-18% of this will be used to drive components like the vacuum blower and the water pump. Nearly all of the remaining BTU's can be harnessed for hot water production. Carpet cleaners have repeatedly told me you must have hot water to really get carpet clean. My 20 years of experimentation with machines has sold me on the benefits of heat. When an operator is using 220°F-240°F water from the machine, the temperature on the carpet is only 160°F-180°F from the wand.

In the case of a portable, hot water coming from a tap would be 160°F at best, which would be reduced inside the unit and during the application process to only 100°F by the time it reaches the carpet. Take your thermometer with you and check this out some time.

Why all the concern over heat? Well, it speeds up the molecular movement and results in reduced drying time with much better cleaning. Oils are broken down better, dust mites that can live in carpets are destroyed and the natural spring in the carpet fibre is restored.

I realise that some portable units have hot water heaters. Yet, on a heavy production job, they cannot reach the high temperatures or maintain them for continual cleaning.

Pressure

Pressure is the next point to compare between the truck mount system and the portable unit. There is a dramatic difference here as well. Most truck mounts can be readily adjusted up or down between 100-1,000 PSI, depending on the needs of the operator. In comparison, the pressure with a portable will range from 100-200PSI at best, with most operating at only 90PSI. This is not to say that 90 PSI cannot do some jobs or that more is always better. However, pressure does penetrate the surface of the carpet in order to get below the surface for that deep down cleaning. A portable will do an adequate job in some comparisons, but the operator will spend much more time and energy working the cleaning solution into the carpet, increasing not only the time it takes to do the job, but increasing chemical consumption as well.

Vacuum

Vacuum is the big one for me. I like those big numbers that everyone recites in CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute) and inches of Mercury lift or inches of water lift. They are music to the carpet cleaners ears. This takes horsepower to accomplish and the truck mount really shines in this department with 4 or 5 times as much vacuum. The advantages are many for both the customer and the operator, including dryer carpets, very little chemical residue, less dirt, diminished chances for browning and much less bacteria left in the air, maintaining better indoor air quality.

The dust mites, bacteria and foul odours are all expelled outside, not recirculated over and over again inside as with a portable machine. If you want carpets dry quickly, the big positive displacement blowers will get the job done much better than the small, centrifugal vacuum motors that portable machines utilise.

Tools

Tools and accessories for our industry have developed separately and advancement has been slow. The big difference in the truck mount tools is that they are more durable. Valves, hose and components are designed to last longer. The mechanised spinning head wand is another good example of the improvements in the tools for truck mounts. Tools of this type are very effective in improving the productivity of the truck mount; they provide improved, more efficient cleaning with wider sweeps. The truck mount can keep up with the vacuum pressure and heat required to run these superior tools.

IAQ

It is also important to mention the environmental superiority of the truck mount relative to Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). When extracting from the carpet, a portable unit recirculates the air internally within the building. Truck mount systems externally exhaust their spent vacuum, which contains humidity, bacteria, chemicals and any other undesirables that may be in the carpet. Studies now show that this greatly improves the indoor air quality of the area being cleaned, which is one of the major reasons for having carpets cleaned in the first place.

Savings

Repeatedly, ex-portable operators who have stepped up to a truck mount tell me the job takes much less time and less chemicals and with far superior results. They always report that carpets dry faster and they have far more repeat customers.

An independent study showed that owning a truck mount generates more income with fewer people in less time than using a portable. The study showed that on average the set up time per job is reduced by 10 minutes when using a truck mount instead of a portable. It also showed that five minutes was saved in tear down time. This comes to 15 minutes per job. In essence, you've created an extra hour if you do four jobs per day.

The above example doesn't even include the time saved by not having to empty a portable's waste tank more frequently, and perhaps fill the fresh water tank more than once. The bottom line is that you need a truck mount if you want a profitable business and don't want to hire more people.

Conclusion

We all know how much times have changed. Inflation has taken its toll, wages, benefits and expenses have gone up and our industry's technology has been improving constantly. If you are really in business to make money, an investment in a truck mount to improve the prospects for success and prosperity of your business is not a bad proposition. Most carpet cleaners work hard in their businesses, and outsiders to our industry are often amazed at how well they do financially.

Today, many consumers are beginning to ask their cleaners what kind of equipment they have. “Mrs. Jones” knows that little machine you rent at the DIY store is not as powerful as the big truck mount she saw sitting in the driveway at her neighbours house last week. If she wants portable cleaning, she can have her husband or son rent one!

I am happy to say that I am constantly being thanked for helping individuals to increase their productivity, effectiveness and profits by simply adding a truck mount to their existing operation. If you're thinking about upgrading, try one of our new Prochem systems for yourself. They're powerful and they do a superior job.

About the author

Mike Roden is the Vice President of manufacturing for Professional Chemicals Corporation in Chandler Arizona. He is well known in the cleaning industry as the innovator and designer of Prochem's advanced generation multi-stage heat exchange cleaning systems as well as Prochem's revolutionary UltraTemp Cleanburn technology. He holds the US patent for Prochem's UltraTemp catalytic device and is responsible for the development of all Prochem truck mounted cleaning systems worldwide

I had truckmounts, many advatages, but give me a rotary machine and a poratable extractor and I will go head to head with any truckmount! Truckmounts are a great thing, but it's the operator that is doing the cleaning

we all have to live....

" AN INDEPENDENT STUDY SHOWED " means I made it up...to confirm my point...LOL

God help us, please