Anything you sorry you bought?

[Glides-R-Us 1-757-486-3532]

I guess I have been lucky compared to most of you guys. 30 years now in the business and I have never bought a piece of equipment I wished I hadn't bought. I did build my own electric TMs for the first 17 years, so that may have had something to do with it. The Cleanco 47 that I bought in 1997 is still running as well. Only improvement I was looking for was less strain when pushing a wand and I fixed that when I brought out the glides back in 2003. I have never regretted it since.

[ttkcollectibles]

A waste of money is te purchase of a Prochem Stair Tool. A upholstery tool works much better than that piece of junk! It is too big, wide and bulky to be effective.

[Newman]

A Blue Baron Truckmount Heat Exchanger From Peter Garland Carpet Cleaning, LLC.

[mnieman]

I read through this thread hoping to find out what vehicle purchases people have been disappointed with, or haven't worked out as hoped, in order to help me advise my clients better on vehicle purchases, but only one person mentioned a vehicle problem.

[lccleaner]

My 1st wife's wedding ring


I should have just waited on my present one

[Gnu]

One thing about buying any equipment. Or matter of factly say you wan to buy a car. you dont just walk over hand over the check and take it home. you test drive a few before you decide. I started out my business using a harloff lil upright portable, no heat, broken wheels etc. I replaced the two seized two stage with two three stage vacuum motors. put in a nice sure-flo pump. then upgraded finally to a leased option to buy van mounted unit.. I had the option to pick and choose... I used four differant brands and I found out... the simpler the design was the less break downs I had. I think I got a prochem that would throw belts at least once a week. I am sure I also used a salsa van mount. it was an awesome machine but for Oregon with the constant 60% humidity steam makes alot of trouble. But surprisingly I had to use a loaner the tech from Cali. called the kiss model. It was so simple. the engine the heat exchanger, the pressure pump was a hydraulic teel pump, and a really old vacuum unit. that must have been 4 inches at max across inside. It was by far the best ****ed unit I have had in any of my vans. he said the kiss meant..KEEP.IT.SIMPLE.STUPID K.I.S.S.

[locko-fabara]

RedZone, 2 inches low profile wand, chinese upholstery tool. truckforce 3500.

[ECOPRO]

Yeah, sorry I bought a 07 Toyota Tundra, I had a nice good mpg 06 Tacoma but had to go bigger. Stupid me, oh stupid me.

[locko-fabara]

Yeah, sorry I bought a 07 Toyota Tundra, I had a nice good mpg 06 Tacoma but had to go bigger. Stupid me, oh stupid me.

I have a toyota tacoma 2005, and I wasthinking to get the Tundra, but I think I will get or the FJ Cruiser or the 4Runner

[bonesheal]

I guess I've been pretty lucky. There have been times when I would like to take the Butler System to a shop to have it fixed, but I have to admit they are really good at troubleshooting and explaining how to fix things, they get the parts to me overnight, etc. I may get a slide-in next time just so I can work with my local distributor, but I can't say anything bad about Butler.

[ECOPRO]

I have a toyota tacoma 2005, and I wasthinking to get the Tundra, but I think I will get or the FJ Cruiser or the 4Runner

DONT DO IT!!!! Get a Prius the Mpg is horible on the larger toys.

[Chadly]

Multi Sprayer Cordless sprayer. Have a handful of them and spent more money on fixing them than what they costed us new. I even dropped them off at Multi Sprayer to have him fix them 2 times. They are just plain junk!


Cobb Airwatt series Vac motors. Red flag was when I got them that there was a build date 4 years earlier than that day. They were also nicked up, but thought they were sitting on Cobbys shelf for 4 years. I even called Cobby before I put them on, but he assured me that they were good. Wrong, they were both junk after 1 minute. I got 30-40% of my money back out of that deal after it was said and done. But I was the wrong one out of this deal. Great way to loose a customer who spent a few $$$ there.


For truckmounts- our Gennie. I wish I would of realized how big and fat that thing was before I bought it. It really needs a Sprinter van.


Granger and their 1/2 pipe water strainers. These are or were the ones that Clark used on the Brute OP machine. I must of went through 10 of them now. Amazing that a $4 thing can be such a pain. Same thing goes with their Dayton line of belts. Never had one that lasted more than a few hundered hours.


PMF and their valves on UPH tools. How many have you guys been through?


Steamin Demons- Always something going on with it. From auto pump out not working, to clogging up, or the valves breaking. And the little buttons or switches breaking off all the time too. I was happy when I sold the "good" one that I had to a "high end" commercial cleaner.


Steamway- Hydra whoever uph tool. Junk valves and all the paint flaked off within 6 months.


And almost anything from PowrFlite. It seems like half the stuff we get from there is advertised as what we use and just like what we buy from whoever, but when we get it- its a cheap knock off. Perfect example is the green stripe pads and their hand held pump up sprayer.


Next thing is hand held pump ups. It seems like every one of them break, or the valve sticks on the ON position. The only good ones I found so far are from Namco.

[tophatcc]

My mistake was an extremely costly one. I bought a new model truck mount machine (25k). It was one of the first 10 to come off the assembly line. I do sorely regret it and I warn anyone, do NOT buy the first runs of new models unless you KNOW it was field tested. We as carpet cleaners COULD be the guinea pigs. If a machine is not field tested the we as cleaners BECOME the field test and it comes at OUR expense depending on the manufactures reputation. I ended up paying almost DOUBLE for my machine, endured lies of modifying incorrectly and untold heartache. So I warn ALL, never buy the 1st runs unless you know it was field tested. It can ruin the less financially well off.

Great thread!

So what was the machine and who were the manufacturers? Dont sit on the fence.

[floorguy_724]

Yeah, sorry I bought a 07 Toyota Tundra, I had a nice good mpg 06 Tacoma but had to go bigger. Stupid me, oh stupid me.

I have a toyota tacoma 2005, and I wasthinking to get the Tundra, but I think I will get or the FJ Cruiser or the 4Runner

DONT DO IT!!!! Get a Prius the Mpg is horible on the larger toys.

I have a 2006 Tacoma also, it is the best truck I have ever had!!! I have been full circle with every truck and car that was worth a ****! The Tacoma is by far the best by a long shot!!


EDIT: It has air ride on the back now for all of my heavy loads!

[Rob Allen]

So what was the machine and who were the manufacturers? Dont sit on the fence.

White Magic Triton LS.

[Rob Allen]

Huge mistake was buying Kunkle valves from Greenie for my all my 5.9 blowers. He said it would improve my performance when in fact it did just the opposite and caused damage. Kevin Price pointed out recently that it is a technological mistake to put the Kunkle valve on machines with 5.9 blowers and Greenie should have known better. Buyer beware.

[Frank DiGi]

White Magic Triton LS.

Same here times 2! Think there should been more testing before they release this model for use.... my feelings....

[CarpetCleaningLincoln]

Rotary DriMaster. Good thing it brought in a great used price at the time.

[sam miller]

Ya Rotary dri master for me bought it new its good for light to moderately soiled carpet and the carpets dry fast. but I never use it takes longer to use then a wand and if theres any kind of soil on the carpet it doesnt clean well.
the thing is it use double the water but picks it right back up it doesnt flush soil it cleans the tips So I wouldnt reccommend it or ever buy another one.

also bought a $900.00 airduct attatchment put air duct cleaning in my ad and have had one customer intrested glad I didnt jump out there on a $ 4-5 thousand dollar package to expend into this service.

ps I dont push it at all either I do love my Rx-20 for the big super dirty jobs its a beast.

[matt7]

Man I'm so madd I brought that upholstery tool the box head kind with the internal jet I used it once what a waste $89.99
Oh yea when I first cleaning I use zep from homedepot don't laugh I was green
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The "hightraffic" in the red jug? Actually it works okay except it foams like hell, I tried it too when I first started and still keep some on the truck just for spotting but rarely use it.