I am a dry cleaner who purchased our biggest competitor who had a carpet/tile cleaning service on the side. They were using Host products & machines (dry process) for cleaning carpet, and scrubbing grout lines with brushes and a scrubber for the topical tile. I purchased a King Cobra 1200 unit as an upgrade to doing that, but we're getting a good amount of work (dry cleaning will always be our main business) and I'm getting tired of moving the Cobra around and working around the wires. So we're finally purchasing a truck mount.

I have two sellers nearby that have vans with truck mounts already installed, but they're not much to look at. They want $7700 and $6500. I have another seller with a truck mount that has dual wand capability (Fox 8500D) and has ~1400 hours of use. Apparently it does need some maintenance. One of the heat exchanges needs a new housing unit, some of the wires need to be replaced, and perhaps the high pressure pump too. I would have to get it installed and it looks like I'm going with a trailer that I can hitch onto the back of one of our dry cleaning vans. To get it installed, buy the trailer, buy the mount, I'm probably looking at ~$11,500.

My question is, do I really want to spend this much for dual wand capability? Are the hours of the machine that important? Or should I purchase something already installed, despite it being pretty beat up equipment, just so I can start working now?

Thanks for your time.