[Billy Russell]

Hi all,

After months of research i've now gone and ordered the scorpion! The only major complaint i found was it was ugly! i've got to be fair i couldn't care less what the machine looked like all i care about is what the carpet looks like after i've finished!

I know each machine has it's pros and cons and i narrowed it down to 2 machines!  Thee above and the airflex pro! i've had ago with both and to be fair there very similar but for some reason my gut feeling was telling me to go for the scorpion!  I've been talking to nick by email and by phone and the service seems to be top notch! thats not to take anything away from matt at cleansmart he is a very nice  chap that was more than helpful when i popped up to have a look!

I've been trying to get hold of Mr Wainwright i hear he has a Van mounted scorpion set up! i was wondering if i could pop along and have a look as he's not far from me!

Has anyone got his number?

Thanks for reading my rambles


Billy

[Joe H]

Billy

As for the after sales service - whichever of those 2 suppliers you chose you would have got good service.
I have bought a brand new machine from Matt in the past and now have a 2nd hand Scorpion. Both Nick and Matt run good businesses and focus on good service to the customer.

[Simon Gerrard]

Will,
You should have gone the whole hog and got a Truck Mount and really put your business into overdrive.

Simon

[Colin Day]

Shouldn't that be "Overdrawn" Simon?

[Simon Gerrard]

Colin,

My first TM cost £7,500 nearly thirty years ago, which was a fortune back then  and yet today you can get an entry level TM like the Prowler of Phoenix for a mere £8,500 which is peanuts considering how much they earn for your business.

Simon

[Colin Day]

T'was but a wee joke Simon....

But... If you want to be serious, a porty costs £3.5k ish and a Prowlers about £7k... I, for one, will need a new van too! So the cost of a TM is going to be a considerable amount more than an upgrade on your porty.... :

2 years in, I still couldn't justify owning a TM for now... But when the time/demand/availability of cash comes, I'll upgrade to a TM....

[Billy Russell]

Hi Simon I would love a truckmount but to cut a long story short I'm part of a family run contract cleaning company (my mum being the MD   ) I've always been the one who does all the carpets windows hard floors etc etc as add ons and I've gone to her with a business plan because I think I can make good money in this my last few years without doing any sort of proper selling except for a line in the phone book     Tells me that! So I had a budget to work towards and I think if everything goes to plan I could have a truckmount within 12 to18 months the budget I had had to extend to a new van which will be with me in the next 3 months for now I have to put up with my little kangoo   but the last few weeks have been positive I've had 15 quotes last week and got all but 1 did 3 of the jobs today and got 2 neighbours! I'm excitied for the future and that truckmount will be mine all mine I tell you!  

it's taken me about 20 mins to write this my son said I could use his iPod touch

Who am I trying to kid  

[Simon Gerrard]

Colin,

Sorry, I did jump on my soap box a bit quickly there, it's my age

Simon

[Colin Day]

Colin,

Sorry, I did jump on my soap box a bit quickly there, it's my age

Simon

No worries Simon.....

[Ben Lugg]

Hi Will,
I Used to work in Ross, in the Royal Hotel up on the hill many moons ago, nice part of the country. Good luck with your new machine 

Ben.

[Neil Williams]

Thay say you can run a Scorpian at 200 feet with little if no loss of performance, can't say I've tried that but regulary run at 50 feet with the scorpian left in the vehicle, which is enough length to deal with just about everything domestic.
I have modified mine with an electric element to heat to 70 defrees, and also a water feed from a 250L water tank with a ballcock fitted into the cover.
Downside of the scorpian are the floats to protect the suction motors, they really are next to useless.

I too would like a TM but it's not a priority at the moment.

[elliott cleaning]

Hi all,

....... The only major complaint i found was it was ugly! ..........


Billy

You've got to live with it day in day out  -  could eventually become a problem

You married Billy?

[Billy Russell]

Hi all,

....... The only major complaint i found was it was ugly! ..........


Billy

You've got to live with it day in day out  -  could eventually become a problem

You married Billy?

My wife would say yes he's married to his work! and bloody football

[Billy Russell]

hi ben,


Must admit i like ross! we've had are cleaning business there for about 22yrs but i moved out of there about 8yrs ago to just outside hereford! but travel there everyday to the office i'm sure in a few years time i'll move back!

[richie]

Simon,
Was the first truckmount you used or bought all them years ago a Prochem 75 or something like that? The first one i used was the Prochem 150 which had a 16hp Onan engine, number 3 vac blower and the water was heated by a parafin burner. Bloody good machine considoring that was 20 years ago. I remember the machine after that was  Prochem Cub that had heat exchanger technology and to be honest the heat was no where near as good as the old 150 was.

Neil,
Ive run the Sorpion on 100 feet of vac hose in the past which was ok.  Did try 150 feet but found it was to much really.

Richie.

[Simon Gerrard]

Richie,

It was the Prochem 100A. No electric start - rope pull. Diesel fired burner which after a year or two get rather temperamental but one hell of a machine in comparison to the portables that I'd been used to. It also got us our first foothold in the commercial market with a nationwide contract that we held for ten or so years.

Simon

[Joe H]

At 200' you would defo be needing the booster box (4th vac) in the line.

Regarding "its ugly", never bothered me, when I am working I am not looking at the machine - more interested in whats going on at the carpet end of the business.
Client not bothered either if "its ugly", its been said before - all they want is clean carpets, and thats what the Scorpion does, together with good cleaning fluids and a good operator.

[richie]

Hi Simon, i think the 150 was just a updated version of the 100A really,  I loved that machine, the heat was brilliant and constant.  We had the same prolem with the burner system regarding been tempermental....Prochem Europe still have all the bits available for the 150 even the burner system parts...

Richie.

[Simon Gerrard]

Richie,

We used to think those first truck mounts were the bees knees, cutting edge technology that surely couldn't be surpassed. And now thirty years later a machine bristling with computers and sensors developing so much power it can clean three carpets at the same time up to 1,00 feet away at way over 200 degrees. Golly. What will we have in another thirty years???


Joe,
I thought you had a Prowler?

Simon

[richie]

I know what you mean Simon, 20 years ago when i used the Prochem 150 for the first time i had a good look around it and thought........this is amazing but complicated, but now i think it was very basic. Head office had a Prochem Performer 800A and when i first saw / used that i was amazed, so much bigger with so much more performance.  It was alot more complicated and the fact that a carpet cleaning machine was pwered by what was basically a Nissan car engine blew my mind. As you said, all those years ago we thought that truckmounts could not possibly get any better or complex but they have  The Performer 800A was a fantastic unit that was often run day and night.  Guys would during the day use it cleaning nightclubs they would then get back to the office and another 2 guys would refuel, restock with chemicals then take it out working all night at huge retail shops or bingo halls and places like that.....  The machine itself required very little maintenance.  That particular truckmount was running between 8 and 15 hours each day at least 5 days a week.  Im sure it had in the region of 20,000 hours on the clock before the van was stolen and found the following day burned out & pushed off a quary cliff.

Richie.