[justin brown]

looking for some advice here please.  i currently have a airflex turbo with wand but i am looking now to get a rotary machine as well to help with agitation and cleaning of heavily soiled carpet/ traffic areas. the rotovac360 was a consideration but i have been offered an amazibg deal where i can get a brand new numpower NPR1515 (http://www.numatic.co.uk/products4.aspx?id=254) very cheap. Would this improve my cleaning rather than use a wand? i know i would have to extract the water out after but it may just help?

[Joe H]

If you just want to agitate the prespray into the carpet then there are various means of doing this.

long handled brush
Sebo due which is a fairly lightweight twin rotating brush electrically driven (called CRB - counter rotating brushes)
or something more heavy duty like the Envirodry, Host, Flexi5, TM4 which are all CRB machines
or something like the Numatic NPR1515 you posted about.

They will all agitate the carpet to a greater of lesser degree of efficiency.  A means of extracting the soil is still required and can either be sucked out or bonneted up - again with degrees of efficiency.

The Rotovac 360i can be fitted with a head that will do this as well but would be very costly means of doing it. But the RV360i is also very versatile. There are 5 heads making it suitable for agitation, extraction, hard floors, bonneting and stairs.
So you get 5 machines in 1 if you invest in the 5 heads.
This means carrying less tools in the van and less to take into clients premises. Depends on how you want to work.

The 1515 with the correct brush will do a good job, put a bonnet on it and it will wipe up some soiling. Many cleaning businesses are built on this principle and are successful.
Some will use it to agitate, use an extraction machine to remove the soiling, then use the 1515 to bonnet the carpet as a drying aid perhaps to prevent wickback.

I have had the RV360i on trial for a week as a extraction device and it really does a good job, can be used on low pressure machines, cleans very well and leaves carpets dryer then the wand (IMO)

Choice is your of course.

[Barry Livingstone]

I got a great deal from John Kelly for one and it paid for itself in Two Jobs!!!

[andrew christopher]

I bought the bonnet cleaning package from john kelly at restormate, got lots of advice. use rotary with brush on bad carpets for agitation and for bonneting with rotobrite which iv found very good on coffee and drink stains on low profile carpets

[Robert Watson]

Hi Joe, who sells the RV360i. I do like the looks of it.
Cheers,
Rab.

[Joe H]

Hi Robert

Ashbys, and they look the cheapest but they dont include the price of a head which are £295 each, which makes them not the cheapest..

Altec, you may find a price but when I email to ask I dont get a reply, so I give up

Solutions Cornwall and they do a good price with a head of your choice (theres 5 all at the same price).

[Robert Watson]

Thanks Joe.

[derek west]

whats your budget?

[justin brown]

hi derek,

i could i suppose at a push by the rotovac, but the numatic 1515 wont cost me a penny so it must be better VFM!

[Joe H]

Iif the 1515 is going to cost you very little it is worth getting, but it is quiet a different machine to the RV360i - no comparison really re capabilities, different animals altogether.

[derek west]

go for the bonnet and invest in an envirodri for scrubbing. perfect combination.

[justin brown]

joe, derek...............as always you have been really helpful. thank you

[David Rogers]

I bought a new Envirodri GEN4 a week ago, from John Williams (CareClean UK)...... brilliant agitation, use it on wet and dry jobs now. Once you know what you're doing with it, they really give brilliant results.

BUT....... Envirodri have started supplying them with the white & gold brushes (softer than the standard white brushes that used to come with the machine). I found these too weak. John kindly swapped them for a set of white brushes and the machine just came to life.

It's so good, I'm seriously tempted to sell up my HWEs, and go solely down the Dry and Bonnet routes..... (and I used to LOVE my HWEs!!).

Doing the dry stuff has been a labour of love for me: although it's very low risk, it's also very east to get wrong! If you just vacuum, chuck the sponges down, agitate and 'hoover 'em up' you'll get crappy results.  As with HWE it's all in the pre-vac, prespray and prep work on stains, spots and traffic marks. Get those parts right, then get the sponges down, spend some good time with them with the Agitator, then vac and I am finding I get results that are at least as good as I'd get with a 400psi portie HWE.

Chem costs are a little higher than with HWE, but when you get home from a 5 hour dry job, you don't feel anywhere near as drained as from 5 hours on the wand!

Regards,

David