I'm switching methods

[StevenB.]

Good one Grant.

Now here is what I am currently doing. I have purchased a nice white mini van and setting it up exclusively as a LMV. Low moisture vehicle. I will eventually take pics and few videos. I love encap and think it has a strong place in our field but HWE is still king of residential. I don't see me replacing it within 10 years. But I will keep my eyes and ears open. Until then we finally have a dedicated LMV.

One of my favorite things about it here in the TMF, is going back and reading old threads that are relevant as hell to today's threads. Some boards discourage the practice and some members scowl at the thought of bumping an old topic. I've learned a bunch about using and maintaining my crb reading these old threads.
What ever happened to the van? It sounds similar to the direction I went.

 

[Sarah C.]

I do straight VLM, and most of work is residential.

 

[StevenB.]

I do mostly residential and have no plans of using my CRB as a standalone on most jobs. I do like the idea of using it as a standalone in certain situations. I'm running my setup from a Transit Connect so space and utility is a premium. I use an Airhog and water otter for HWE. I ran the CRB in a couple of small areas from a spot dye job. The tenant moving out and my buddy who cleaned the carpet the day before with a Truckmount and 360i. My buddy had never seen a crb up close before. I let him play with it and listened to the commentary while mixing the dyes downstairs.

I prefaced the use by stating this machine will make us all look bad if used as a post inspection for worn carpets with hair embedded in the fibers. It didn't disappoint. The carpet just looked cleaner and newer from just the pile lifting alone. I just used one tray and nothing but my dye stuff. I felt like I could have bumped the customer for pile lifting but not at my friends expense. We talked about it later...He has now put a new CRB on his priority list

 

[Chris Henry]

It won't be long before Bissell and Hoover have their encap machines mass produced for residential retail. They have taken note of the VLM being used by cleaners and are developing their versions of CRB. Don't put away the truckmounts just yet.

 

[Joe cool]

VLM is not a opion on this mess . nothing fancey for me and only 2 chems total used .

 

[jtsunbrite]

amen, I agree

 

[BonnetPro]

Hope you showed the customer in the middle of that job. Makes them happier to write your check. They had dogs?

 

[rob allen]

It seems like VLM has a lot of potential to shake up the industry, especially if a lot of HWE veterans are too stuck in their ways to add it to their arsenal.

Truth

 

[Sean M Collins]

This is my main worry about losing business. We don't have to fear too much about Rug Drs because their suction sucks, they soap carpets to hell, hard to use, long dry times. What we have to worry about is the VLM Rug Dr or equivalent. Shark already has an encap machine out for residential. When someone makes a premium home encap machine and customers figure out all they need is to use a cheap sprayer to spray their carpets and run a cheap brush machine over their carpets it could hit our pocket books. As bad as the Rug Dr is, it is still our biggest competition. More customers choose to use a Rug Dr then any other competing carpet cleaning company.

As a premium cleaner MY customers laugh at the thought of a rug doctor ... my competition are other good cleaners and myself

 

[ripleyservices]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I keep hearing Rob's (TMF's) crb referred to as a "Brush Pro". Isn't it a Strong Industries machine? http://www.strongindustriescorp.com/

We use cimex on virtually all commercial now. I'm not sure it would be practical in home. I've tried a Strong CRB in my own home and it's good...but not as good as HWE in my opinion. BUT a good encap job would likely be better than a poor HWE job so.... We have actually done have of a routine commercial client (cdg) with HWE and half with cimex encap. My opinion...if anything encap looked better/more consistent upon completion and the encap side looked slightly better 3 months later. ZERO wicking issues with encap...routine wicking with HWE.

I'm curious how the oribitals like Orbot Vibe and Mytee Eco 17 compare to cimex/crb combo for commercial and residential encap.

 

[Chris Henry]

Has anybody ever heard or read that most VLM methods only clean about 1/3 to half of the fiber? I thought I read that somewhere.

Regarding problems with wicking with HWE, using an acid side rinse usually eliminates that problem. Acid rinses also help prevent resoling as well.
I love using VLM in my daily cleaning but I have a healthy understanding that it is used for maintenance cleaning and HWE is used for restorative cleaning.
VLM is awesome but HWE is a deeper clean.

 

[Sean M Collins]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I keep hearing Rob's (TMF's) crb referred to as a "Brush Pro". Isn't it a Strong Industries machine? http://www.strongindustriescorp.com/

We use cimex on virtually all commercial now. I'm not sure it would be practical in home. I've tried a Strong CRB in my own home and it's good...but not as good as HWE in my opinion. BUT a good encap job would likely be better than a poor HWE job so.... We have actually done have of a routine commercial client (cdg) with HWE and half with cimex encap. My opinion...if anything encap looked better/more consistent upon completion and the encap side looked slightly better 3 months later. ZERO wicking issues with encap...routine wicking with HWE.

I'm curious how the oribitals like Orbot Vibe and Mytee Eco 17 compare to cimex/crb combo for commercial and residential encap.

If you're getting routine wicking with HWE more than likely your not getting dry times low enough I get 1-3 hr dry times with wicking almost never

 

[Lefty724]

Holy crap, I’ve been gone for a long time!!!

Can’t believe this thread is going on 4 years now lol.

How is the VLM truck going Rob? Any updates?

 

[AlamoExpress]

Bumping so we can hear how Rob's VLM truck is going. Super interested in his thoughts, feedback & updates!

 

[jtsunbrite]

I have done some vlm and I was impressed with it but I still HWE afterwards so its really clean and rinsed.

I am not knocking VLM ,, I love the chems associated with it....

 

[Michael Robinson]

My understanding is that VLM has gotten by far the best ATP testing ratings of any cleaning methods.

 

[ACP]

My understanding is that VLM has gotten by far the best ATP testing ratings of any cleaning methods.

maybe but in the real world you really gotta have both.

We do many many jobs per year where if you were VLM only you would have to walk away

or maybe you could do it, but it would take you so long you might as well walk and we would be done in 1-2hrs with excellent dry times and no wicking

 

[StevenB.]

maybe but in the real world you really gotta have both.

We do many many jobs per year where if you were VLM only you would have to walk away

or maybe you could do it, but it would take you so long you might as well walk and we would be done in 1-2hrs with excellent dry times and no wicking

I wouldn't want to be vlm only. I could make it work if I had to. But I wouldn't choose to.