Profitable Upholstery Cleaning

The energy crunch of 2008 has caused many truck mount oriented carpet cleaners to rethink using their truck mount for upholstery cleaning use. When one considers that such equipment uses between 1.5 and 3 gallons of gasoline per hour, it makes sense to reduce one's fuel costs from 6.00 - 18.00 per hour (or more) to 0 by using an electric powered portable machine and the customers electricity.

However, those veterans who remember using such portable equipment in the past are rightly concerned that there might be a higher labor cost or less soil removal that would more than negate the energy savings.

Those fears arise from the fact that the "upholstery cleaning equipment" that was used in the 80's and early 90's was deliberately "underpowered". In those days, low pressure solution pumps were used with tools that had very fine jets. This slow pressure, low flow cleaning was need to prevent overwetting.

Many of these same machines also had very small vacuum motors, as most of the power was diverted to heat exchangers or the technology needed to create a machine that could handle both solvents or water based detergents.

Those days are long gone.

Now, because of the "Dry Tools" now available, such as the Drimaster, HyDry, or Hydrokinetic Upholstery Tools, cleaners are no longer forced to use underpowered equipment. In fact, these "Dry" or "Redirected Flow" tools work best with higher water pressures and water flow.

I have had great success with the Kleenrite Sphere with this type of tool and system of cleaning. The Sphere that I use has a 200 PSI Pump, a Three Stage Vacuum Motor, and a 1750 Watt heater. With it I can achieve performance nearing that of a truck mount, use the Dry Tools that prevent bleeding, browning, and shrinkage, and the low pH preconditioners and rinses that also give maximum performance with minimal risk.

Such equipment and tools together cost less than 2000.00, and rapidly pay for themselves in their energy efficiency, fast productivity, and great results.