[AJB]

For a few years now I've had a homemade booster for my Powrflite.
Never used it as a booster, but if a vac motor goes down, I can put it on
the top and continue cleaning. Effectively switching from series to parallel.
this has worked very well, although not getting the full benefit of CFMs, due
to one motor having to turn the non working one, and only 1.5 inch port and
hose.
Today I received a Lamb 6.6 motor to play with, I converted my machine to
Lamb 117123s before Amtech did, so have been using them a long time. I
thought the best way to begin would be to adjust the mountings on my booster,
and try it out that way.
It seems to appear very powerful, and quite impressive, until switching on one
of the 117123s. Then it ground to a halt and started turning backwards!!.
The 117123 absolutely p#**ed all over it. What a disappointment. I'm now
thinking there's no point in continuing to play as it's clearly inferior to the 117123s.

[john martin]

For a few years now I've had a homemade booster for my Powrflite.
Never used it as a booster, but if a vac motor goes down, I can put it on
the top and continue cleaning. Effectively switching from series to parallel.
this has worked very well, although not getting the full benefit of CFMs, due
to one motor having to turn the non working one, and only 1.5 inch port and
hose.
Today I received a Lamb 6.6 motor to play with, I converted my machine to
Lamb 117123s before Amtech did, so have been using them a long time. I
thought the best way to begin would be to adjust the mountings on my booster,
and try it out that way.
It seems to appear very powerful, and quite impressive, until switching on one
of the 117123s. Then it ground to a halt and started turning backwards!!.
The 117123 absolutely p#**ed all over it. What a disappointment. I'm now
thinking there's no point in continuing to play as it's clearly inferior to the 117123s.

So your booster is connected to the lid ? 
And you switched it on with one of the internal vacs ?  Not sure why it stopped , the three stage would have more lift alright , perhaps the imbalance affected it ?
Im not sure if inferior is the correct word  , just that they have being over hyped out of proportion .

[Chris R]

Some 6.6 vacs that have been sold on eBay recently are cheap copies.
How much did you pay for yours? £75 on eBay.

[john martin]

Some 6.6 vacs that have been sold on eBay recently are cheap copies.
How much did you pay for yours? £75 on eBay.

any link to that ?

[CleanerCarpets]

Chris - i think you are talking about 5.7 motors on ebay

[Ian Gourlay]

What I never could get my head around with Aluns lid adaptation for an extra motor was how come the third motor did not suck the waste water out of the tank .

[AJB]

Ian the normal vac inlet ball cage blocks long before the water
level reaches the lid. The hose inlet faces away from the
stack and lid.
Had another play today, with completely different results,
cleaned the suite and lounge carpet. 50:50 as series and parallel.
Cleaning wise same results, Wonderwand stuck to carpet in series
and sounded so much more powerful, it was howling!!.
However the second half cleaned in series was dry within an hour.
The first in parallel took 2 hours.
I hear so much about cheap copies it makes me laugh, the market for
vac motors of this sort is far too small for the expense of tooling etc
needed to produce them, most are produced under licence in other
factories. Lamb make them in Mexico, USA and the Czech republic.
By the way it was £70 not £75.
Genuine Lamb motors are nothing compared to what they used to be like.
The quality and life expectancy is poor nowadays.

[john martin]

Ian the normal vac inlet ball cage blocks long before the water
level reaches the lid. The hose inlet faces away from the
stack and lid.
Had another play today, with completely different results,
cleaned the suite and lounge carpet. 50:50 as series and parallel.
Cleaning wise same results, Wonderwand stuck to carpet in series
and sounded so much more powerful, it was howling!!.
However the second half cleaned in series was dry within an hour.
The first in parallel took 2 hours.
I hear so much about cheap copies it makes me laugh, the market for
vac motors of this sort is far too small for the expense of tooling etc
needed to produce them, most are produced under licence in other
factories. Lamb make them in Mexico, USA and the Czech republic.
By the way it was £70 not £75.
Genuine Lamb motors are nothing compared to what they used to be like.
The quality and life expectancy is poor nowadays.

what motor are you using that was 70 ?   what was your setup in series ?

[AJB]

I use as described originally 2 x 117123s in series.
The booster is not used as a booster but as a back
up in case a motor goes down. So when I was running
in parallel it was one of the 117123s either pulling or
blowing through a non running motor, and a 6.6 sitting
on top of the machine in place of the porthole lid. this
arrangement means that should a vac motor go down, I
can be cleaning again within 2 minutes.

The £70 motor was one of two for sale in Sunderland. see
the attached pic'.

[john martin]

I use as described originally 2 x 117123s in series.
The booster is not used as a booster but as a back
up in case a motor goes down. So when I was running
in parallel it was one of the 117123s either pulling or
blowing through a non running motor, and a 6.6 sitting
on top of the machine in place of the porthole lid. this
arrangement means that should a vac motor go down, I
can be cleaning again within 2 minutes.

The £70 motor was one of two for sale in Sunderland. see
the attached pic'.

Interesting ... i see .     I agree , i have become a series convert since using the Enforcer .
If you have a lift gauge perhaps you could measure the 6.6 to compare   :v

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Andrew what psi do you tend to use?

Very interesting regards drying times.

Shaun

[AJB]

Hi Shaun

it's Alun actually, I nearly always clean at 200 psi.
Although when seriously manky I occasionally go
right up to 500 psi. Today I ran at the usual 200 psi.
Pure wool short medium pile carpet that was here
when we moved in 18 years ago.
Strangely enough I find no discernible difference in
drying times whatever pressure I run at, but boy do
I notice a difference in how fast the tank empties.
18 minutes run time at 500 psi, and I always use heat.
I haven't bothered measuring temps for a few years now,
but you can't handle the brass connectors, at a guess I'd
say about 80 C +.
As far as drying times are concerned running parallel for me
is not optimised as I'm using 1.5" hose. 40ft minimum.
I tried playing around a couple of years ago making a manifold
so I could run the 2 117123s in true parallel, but performance
was woeful so I never actually cleaned anything set up like
that. I've always had VO machines, I find parallel appears to
be more powerful, but actual performance is significantly lower.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Sorry Alun I was following Andrew on another thread.

Shaun

[Robin Ray]

Interesting results Alun.

Rob Allen of TMF did a similar test some time ago with a range of different machines and had similar results from what I hear.

Do you find the wonder wand improves drying times a lot?

[AJB]

I love the Wonderwand, but it takes a few weeks to really get
used to it. At first you doubt it's effectiveness as it moves so easily.
But once you get a real minger it suddenly all falls into place, whack up
the pressure and cut through the cr*p, without any chance of over wetting.
lot's of cleaners boast of 800psi pumps but I can assure you they are cleaning
at 200 ish psi. The wonderwand is capable of 1200 psi, you can also spray
on forward strokes which really does shear the muck off.
Also the only carpets I do ANY drying strokes on are Belgium Wiltons.

PS ok Shaun no problem I've been called everything under the sun in my
time so Andrew is pretty tame 

[John Kelly]

Cheap copies probably refers to motors advertised as Ametek but then in the description they are described as compatible. Thats where people get caught out.