picked up a mytee m12 dirt cheap with all the goodies

It was only used a few times. Like brand new with tile spinner,hand held spinner, hose ,wand. One of the vacs wasn't working. I got it home and figured out one of the hoses was routed wrong and caused it to knock one of the prongs off on the vac motor that the wire plugs to,easy fix. Other than that it looks like it was only used once or twice. $300. couldn't beat it.

Good finds southern comfort, that thing is pretty heavy huh?

Its a beast to load in a truck. It shouldn't be too bad going into my cargo trailer with ramp door. As long as I don't have a bunch of stairs to drag it up . In my area everything is mostly ground level anyway.

Excellent deal right there. Should pay for itself after the first 2 jobs.

The hose that broke the power lead t the vac was a pulse hose. It rubbed a deep gouge in it. Is the pulse hose anything special? I saw that pump tech claims it is. I was wanting to have new hose made up at the local tractor company, hydraulic hose.

I'm not certain what is so special about that hose, but hydraulic hose is massively stronger than any hoses being used in our industry.  The burst strength is not comparable, so as long as you can get a section to fit, I don't see why you couldn't do it.

they claim it dampens the jarring from the pump pulsing.

might just be their way to sell a 34 inch hose for $50

My ETM has a pulsation dampener hose on the pump. It does look like a hydrolic hose with a screwed on cap at the end of ir.

Oh, it doesn't have a pulse dampner in the system?  Maybe you can just put a loop in the hose run to create the same effect?

I'm sure ACE will be along to shed some light on the subject, but as long as the hose isn't installed rigid, there should be enough "give" to reduce pulsations...at least I would think so.  It works in household plumbing.

It takes the place of one of these on a pump powered by an engine. I would buy it

I found some online a lot cheaper than from mytee. 28 ft of it for $30. Ill take it and have it made up at the tractor company. beats paying $50 for less than 3 ft.

southernbred123 wrote:might just be their way to sell a 34 inch hose for $50

Hmmmmmmm I'm not really sure because I'm not familiar with it, and can't see the hose, but I'd guess the same thing..........just worded to make you think it's special, so you'll buy it from them.  Buy I'll throw out a couple guesses, with questions to answer, to see if I can help...

Can you post a picture of it?
Does it have fittings on the ends, or just regular hose the slips over barbed fittings?
Maybe if it's the hose that goes into the inlet side of the pump, it needs to be reinforced because of suction so it doesn't collapse?...
if that's the case, I would think regular vinyl nylon reinforced hose (clear vinyl with a white X braided nylon string in it)  from Ace would work fine........and then just loop it so it provides some dampening, like I think Rob said.

Pulse hose is a special hose, I wouldn't mess around with buying a regular hose, the pump's life is on the line, my pump costs around $ 1200, I bit the bullet and bought one a couple of years ago, and yes it is to dampened the pulsation from the pump.

All that a pulse hose does is allow some expansion to prevent psi spikes.  I don't think it needs to be overly expensive to accommodate that.

Try Dultmeier Sales, the car wash industry uses a lot of water pumps.

https://www.dultmeier.com/prod-search.php

(If it didn't show, search pulse hose....like $12)

It does extend pump life and lets you get proper pressure gauge readings. I'm going with the pulse hose and found some at the local agri supply. I did some rigging and had to cut the plug off the vac motor as it wouldn't hold solder. I attached a plug straight to the motor winding. It works like new. Thanks for all the help. I finally have what I think will be dependable equipment that opens up more lines of services to offer. There are several cc businesses closing in my area, I have worked for one of them years ago. I believe all that is left is stanley steamer. Other than that there are some that advertise here that are 40 miles away. I live in a small town with a population of 15,000. With a population of 46000 in the county. I'm positioned in the center of my county with borders within 20 miles of each direction. I hope it takes off for me.

Sounds like a very fertile market to be located in! Just focus on providing what SS can't so that you become the only real option and you will be rocking.

I have a long list of equipment for vct ,carpet, t&g and upholstery . Should I take them all on or focus on carpet and t&g. Its gonna be mostly just myself with a helper as needed.

southernbred123 wrote:I have a long list of equipment for vct ,carpet, t&g and upholstery . Should I take them all on or focus on carpet and t&g. Its gonna be mostly just myself with a helper as needed.

This is one of my favorite questions and a topic that I wrestle with all the time....is it better to specialize or offer a wide range of services? Obviously, the more services that you offer, the more work you will find, but also the more equipment / storage/ transportation/ maint. that goes along with it.

Look at the traditional "green cleaner" in this industry, he/she is designed to clean light to medium soiled homes for people that are concerned about smells and toxicity, yet they also carry a flame thrower prespray for jobs that are with heavy soil content. Why? Why doesn't the green cleaner pass on those kind of jobs instead of altering their brand?

It really comes down to your market. The green cleaner will not pass on the trashed cleanings because the green market wasn't large enough in their area of operation. In areas where that market is strong enough, there is no conflict and more specialization is going on.

In your case, I would offer everything at first and then after 6 months figure out what the market will support and drop off the stinkers so that you can get more lean and efficient with your costs. I have been guilty of having too many services for far too long and feel that streamlining is the smartest move for any company.

Can't be picky when you're starting up, I would provide as much specialty cleaning as possible, even a house cleaning service if at all possible, that way people don't need to call 2 separate companies and schedule 2 different times, you would have to set your price around the same price as SS, because if you set it too low, people are going to start wondering why is your service cheap ?

The pricing point is a key for you if SS is the only real competition. That franchise is known to be cheap and is often the company of choice for trashed rentals and apartments.

If I were you, I would set my price at their mark or maybe even slightly above them and target the non-trashed jobs.

Funny thing about cleaning trashed carpets, it takes more effort and chemicals to achieve yet it pays the least. I would stay out of that market and get good at customer service....clean look, polite approach, friendly business practices.

I see it all the time, a polite friendly cleaner will have more loyal customers even if they are a worse cleaner skill-wise. I think I am living proof that a hack can get customers if polite.

Even in a small town pike that, with no comp close to you; SOmuch potential. Do a good job and you will own the market.
If you have the right tools; carpet/upholstery and T&G. A small add on service is window cleaning.

+1 for Rob's last advice, I wanted to say price it higher than SS too but I don't want that to backfire on his face, with some online reviews ( if online has some market in your area ) you shouldn't have issues price your service higher than SS, but if not, it can be tough to compete, unless you're a tough salesman like Robert Ellis

Ah, shucks. Thanks for kind words....I will pay you later.

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:Even in a small town pike that, with no comp close to you; SOmuch potential. Do a good job and you will own the market.
If you have the right tools; carpet/upholstery and T&G. A small add on service is window cleaning.

My two cents, as a window cleaner, is that it isn't a small add on. At least not in my market.

I typically clean 2 story home on the waterfront. It typically takes 3-4 hours on each job. Just depends on how much glass there is. And if you have oxidation on the glass from frames/screens, you need a RO/DI water fed pole to tackle the job. A WFP set up can run you over 5 grand. Then there is the reoccurring expense of resin and RO filters.

Good glass can be cleaned with squeegees and mops, and is by far the cheapest route, but less time efficient.

I'm not trying to discourage others from cleaning glass, but I want to be upfront about it being an "add on".