[Seymour Sunshine]

What is the machine on the left in this picture? It looks like a CRB. Is it worth having?

[Mike Halliday]

Its either a powerbrush....... like a motorised wand with a built in rotating scrubbing brush.... it sprays scrubs then suck up the soiled water..

yes its worth having they cost about £1300 new

or it might be a pilelifter.. (a vacuum cleaner on steroids)


the photos a bit unclear

[garry22]

It's an Ashcombe powerbrush (not a pile lifter).

It plugs on to the end of your solution / vac hose and has a vibrating brush to agitate the carpet, whilst applying solution then vaccing it away..

It is very similar to one used by one of the forum members who uses Extracta stuff (except for the way the brush works. Vibrating rather than rotating).

Is it worth having? If you have a powerful enough portable then yes, especially if the price is right.

Hope that helps.

[Colin Day]

The Extracta Scrubba has a "Paddle Brush" which quickly flaps back and forth...

[garry22]

In that case Colin, I've made a mistake about Extracta. The Ashcombe ones have a back and forth brush as well.

[ian harper]

hi

[MAX Carpets]

Ashcombe Distributors, Ely, Cambs..........................RIPPED ME OF BIG TIME!!

[Kinver_Clean]

Forerunners to Alltec.
They are just about OK if you use detergent in the tank.
I have one here if you want to pick it up. (Its been on the junk heap for 12 months!!)

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I bought my first machiine from Lloyd Owens at Ashcombe, an Extracta.

Lloyd managed to get Extracta to let him have the plans for their machine and power tool but were less than impressed when the Ashcombe Elite appeared as a white version with a few adjustments.

Lloyd went down during the recesion of the early nineties.

Cheers

Doug

[Seymour Sunshine]

Forerunners to Alltec.
They are just about OK if you use detergent in the tank.
I have one here if you want to pick it up. (Its been on the junk heap for 12 months!!)

I see that you're in Kiddie - the carpet town! I'm only about 20 miles from you. If you're serious, I'll certainly take it off your hands. I'm starting on the thinnest shoestring you've ever seen.

[L.Doubtfire - The Blade Runner]

I know this is a little bit off the thread,but regarding older type
Machines.
I wonder if there are any old stainless steel and copper Stimvak
Mk 4 and Mk 5 still out there and working.
Also Von Shrader machines.As I understand it,some original models
Made in 1947 are still in use to this day in the USA.
I wonder what the body work is like.I`ve heard they come under
Possible collectors items,even by people not involved in the carpet
And soft furnishing cleaning industry.
Are there any members who could add or shed more light on the above


Lewis  Doubtfire

[Kinver_Clean]

There is someone who has my original Stimvac Mini that he uses for his own carpets. It was new to me in Oct 1980 and did several years service in a residential home. I then had an Italian job in around 1983-4 which had a stainless tank with a saddle water tank- Twin vac with a 100 pump- so not a lot new there then. I still have that as well. A right hoarder.
I will look it out and let you know.

[clinton]

I use the elite about 18 yers ago and a good machine for a single vac..

[Craigp]

My first machine was one of these - Ashcombe Elite DL. 10 years ago and it was 15 years old when I bought it.

Amazing that it's still going must be 25 years old, haha.

Btw I had a later Alltec power scrub and it was Rotating brush not vibrating which was good cus it helped pull it's self along. It was a good tool.

Course it may be single vac but it was bigger vac than then use in the twin vacs.

[Jim_77]

Mike, the photo's a bit unclear, especially the sticker on the front of the machine that says"powerbrush"

[Steve Rothwell]

The guy is asking £980 as a buy it now price.......

[L.Doubtfire - The Blade Runner]

Like Craig,I went in for exactly the same model as whats in the
Photo.Secondhand about a year old I think at the time ( around
1988 I think).
After using the Invader 5 for `yonks`doing pubs and clubs,any
Large area,it was great using the Elite with the PowerBrush
Attached.The ordinary wand had a row of bristles at the back to
Assist with aggitation,on Antron stainmaster tufted carpets which
Around that time were becoming popular it was a dream to use.
Axminters / Wiltons wer`nt too bad either if heavily soiled.
The only real drawback I found was the ( well in those days it was)
Large capacity of the machine.Lugging it around etc.Truck mounts
Were just starting to get known over here I think ( Anybody remembers
`Jimmy`s Mailbox`? All BaneClean machines.


Lewis  Doubtfire

[Simon Moat]

The powerbrush is a great bit of kit for commercials, i've a scrubba that's a real workhorse.

I'm sure someone (possibly Aquakleen?) recently posted a video on here of a pub clean in the North East using a scubba and Extracta Exel with psi set at 50, looked a fantastic end result.

[JandS]

Still got 2 Stimvaks in garage.
The small Toto and the large Maestro.
Use the Maestro on large jobs, fill the Ninja and
the Stimvak up and pump from Stimvak to Ninja
in between extracting and pre spraying next area.
Used the Toto as a spotter but the just stopped
working and haven't got round to fixing it yet.
Thinking of using that as a pre sprayer on larger
jobs.

John

[Craigp]

Lewis, I bought mine off my Dad, he bought it new in 1987 - Same time

Yeah the power brush was great, got good results with it!