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I also need to add another thought. The vac part of our cleaning process is so very important! If we fail to do this step correctly then the rest of the process is worthless. Air Flow in the vac is what it is all about. That is what Dyson uses for their marketing. But our vacuumm starts out with way more air flow than the Dyson, so as long as we keep that air flow our Hoover will kick the Dyson’s a@#. I have sold a few Hoovers to former Dyson owners and they love them.
Anyway, this subject is at the top of my list to get right. I am actually pretty obsessed with it. I usually spend way more time vacuumming than on the buffing. So please keep the input coming
Dave,
Thanks for your response. The cost is exactly why I reconcidered using the dirt cup and tried it again. I truly was hoping it wood work. But to me and my techs, it just wasn’t a tuff decission to stick with the full bag. I also now have a way of tracking exactly what I spend on bags. BTW I didn’t even know HB sold the bags.
However, I don’t know about your experience but when I first had the dirt cup it drove me absolutely bonkers when I would turn on the vac in someones home and a puff of dust would come flying out of the bag. So I started cleaning the bag after every job. This takes at least 5 – 10 min to vac it out well enough with the porta vac. Plus I had to clean the vac hood every time and there was always dirt getting in places I couldn’t get to without taking the vac hood off. When I got home I would use my air compressor to blow out the bag. You can’t imagine how much dust is in that bag. So another 10 minutes is used to get it ready for the next day. Now we are looking at a significant amount of time. I am not going to do the math but time is money. Next I started to buy bags and customize them to fit the dirt cup bag. This helped prevent the dust poof when starting the vac. It worked but was time consuming. I only changed that bag out about 2 times a week. But I still couldn’t stand the dirt getting all over my vac every time I took the dirt cup off. So for my own sanity I really didn’t have a choice. Did I mention I have a bit of OCD.
Another benefit is in my sales. I can tell people I use alergen filtration when vacuumming (If needed). I also tell customers that I use a new bag each time so I am not bringing any body elses dirt into their home. This works great for people with alergies. As far as telling when the bag is full, I think it comes with experience. I don’t go by how full the bag is but rather how much air flow. If you are dealing with very fine silt like powder, it will clog the bag and it won’t be very full. Whith the dirt cup you wouldn’t notice this either, but you would need to clean the upper bag to get the airflow back. All I have to do is change the paper bag and I am on my way.
Last but not least. Just charge one more dollar or three, whatever the cost of the bag. I hope you wouldn’t loose a job because of on or two extra dollars. I would appreciate more imput.The dirt cup is the worst ever! Made the mistake of trying it again this week. Bad mistake. My techs weren’t so happy about it either.
I buy my bags at Sears. The regular bags are $10 for 15 bags. The allergen filtration bags are $10 for 8. I really like the allergen filtration ones. I change the bag after each job. I don’t like to take any dirt from one job to the next, especially pet dander and hair. I use the regular bags on rental move outs and the like.
When you buy on line, doesn’t the shipping and handling make the bags way more expensive?
I don’t use the claw all that much, but I do know that the directions explain that when using the claw it is important to make sure the area is extremely saturated. This allows the claw to create the initial suction needed. I actually poor extra water on the spot before putting the claw on. Then press down and let it get ahold. then you can let it sit by itself. It’s not really a lot faster but it does like Cody says, let you go do something else while it works.
My experience is just the opposite. However, over time as your vac motor wears out, it will become louder and louder.
I personally can’t figure out how anyone can use the dirt cup. I switched to the full bag quite some time ago and it does a much better job. Obviously there is more surface area for air flow. If I have an extremely dirty carpet, especially with a fine type of dirt it is quick and easy to change the bag.Just this past week I thought I would try the dirt cup again. What a mistake! The upper bag got clogged fast. After the job, gettting the upper bag cleaned out took way too much time. No matter how much I shook and hit and so forth, I could not get all the dirt down into the dirt cup. Therefore when I took the dirt cup off, of course dirt fell out of the bag and all over the vac. With the full bag set up, I can use allergen filtration bags or regular bags. I don’t have to blow out the outer bag as often. I won’t be going back to the dirt cup ever again. My techs agreed. They hated the dirt cup.
Am I missing something, or doing something wrong? I just don’t understand why anyone would use the dirt cup especially after using the full bag set up. Please give me your opinions.
I hadn’t thought about that. But now that you mention it, I can see that the spray pattern isn’t as fine as before. I will be replacing my nozzle ASAP.
My techs like to use them on all types of carpet. If I have an extremely dirty carpet, i like to use either of the white pads until I can see it is close to being clean. This saves on the use of finishing towels.
BTW. In the mean time I had contacted another manager in a different city to try and talk to a regional manager. I ended up reporting the situation and they were nice about it and said they would get back to me. I haven’t heard from them but maybe they had something to do with him calling me the next day. Anyway, the nightmare is over for this time.
Thanks for all your advice. And I have learned some valuable lessons. The test will come to see if I can just walk away from a job after starting it.
Let me make a a few things clear then I will tell you the result. After this manager had gone on for quite some time ripping the job I had done, I did tell him I had cut my price in half. This didn’t seeem to sink in. I finally told him just to pay me what ever it was he was going to pay me and if he felt good about that then fine. He just kept going on and stupid me, I just couldn’t walk away and just kept listening to him say the same things over and over and complain and complain. I finally blew a fuse. I know it isn’t good but I just snapped. I finally told him if he was going to rip me off fine and I left. Now the good part of the story.
I have built a good friendship with another carpet cleaning company. In fact she does the carpet at this place and had referred me to him because she doesn’t do hard surface cleaning. I called her up and told her what had happened. She was extremely mad and said he had kind of pulled the same thing on her a few times. Well the next day she calls me and said that she was supposed to clean the carpets the previous night but had called the manager and told him if that was the way he was going to treat me that he could find someone else to do his carpets. He hung up on her. Not too long after her call, I got a call from the manager and he appologized and offered me a small amount more. I again told him to pay me what ever he wanted to pay me and he started in again about all the problems. I listened to him but didn’t get mad. When I got back to my office I went to figure out what I could afford to loose and came up with an amount I could deal with. I called him back and made the offer. He called his boss and they agreed to pay that amount. I owe that other lady big time. I do think I worked it out so she would be able to clean the carpets again. But wow! what an awesome person to do that for one of her competitors.I too liked the wax we used before the new cleaning solution came out. I still have some but we determined to use the new solution because it isn’t supposed to be as slick. But now that I know a little bit more, I will be able to explain to the customer that the new solution mainly just cleans and will make it look a little bit better.
I still have only had one job tracked to the ad on the radio. Been sponsering the weather for over three months now. I am close to pulling sponsership.
I hadn’t promised anything other than cleaning. My expectations were based on the training video. It sounded like it would take out some of the scratches and I would be able to see a distinct difference. You can tell it is clean by the feel of it, but the look of it just dosen’t show much difference. Have you had the experience of it making a big difference in how the floor looks when you are done?
BTW. When I told him that he told me it was wax when it wasn’t he told me I should have known it wasn’t since I am the proffessional and that even though I did find out it wasn’t wax it was my fault for bidding on wax removal and I that I was responsible for doing the job for the estimated price. So to answer your question, I guess I am responsible. Go figure.
All I can say right now is that when I went in to go over the cost he started in about what a terrible job we had done. Before he had told me he didn’t care as long as it looked better than it did. We spent 10 hours on our hands and knees scrapping the stuff off the floor. When it looked good we went several steps farther to make sure it would look nice. The cook came in just as we were leaveing and he said it looked great. That they had been putting that crap on the floor every day for two years. We were very pleased with what we had done.
For the next several days the manager won’t return my phone calls. So I talked to a different manager and he said everything looked great and the other manager shouldn’t have a problem paying the extras money. I cut my bill in half and faxed it in. The next day I finally get a call from the head manager. I set an appointment and go in to see him. Right off he starts telling me he isn’t happy and we did a terrible job. I tried to explain to him that we did what he had asked and more. He just kept complaining about everything and going on and on about what a terrible job I had done. Long story short he pissed me off. It wasn’t a pretty sight. I am going to contact a regonal manager and see what happens. Hopefully I will recover some of my money. I HATE PEOPLE LIKE THAT.
