Well I bit the bullet and ordered a Zipper Wand

We got a call to bid a pizza joint and got it. So we did the first cleaning the other night. I did this one a little different, I have read that guys are using VCT pads to do the pre scrubbing so I went and got several ones and gave it a try...we filled the tank on the 175 and away we went.......
Holy cow what difference I have always just used a cotton bonnet, totally blew me away,so much so I can honestly say encapo may be possible.
Anyway I borrowed my friends CX15 and gave it a try, it was good but I did not like the only backwards cleaning path, don't get me wrong it did a awesome job but only going backwards has its downfalls.
Yes you only go backwards with a wand but....you still need to go forward but, you are still getting a dry pass out of that movement it is not really a wasted movement.
With the CX you can not do a dry pass...they say it is not needed, but since when have you heard dry passes are not a good thing?
Only now, is this because the tool CAN'T do it ? I wonder, also the tool is so light that the hose can cause it to tilt and lose suction and you would have to tilt go forward replant and repeat.
My wife also said the carpet did not look the same as with our wand she said it looked like it was stripping, I do not really think it was stripping, I think it was more due to the wider head not sealing well on some of the cgd carpet due to unevenness caused by the concrete floor under it, but still this involved resetting the tool at a different angle kinda a pain.
So I went back to the wand.
So this got me thinking we still had to pre scrub the carpet there was NO WAY around that, and after that the wand still out cleaned and was way easier to handle and make changes due to the floor not being level, mind you is was not bad but just enough to cause 15" CX head to float a bit.
So if the wand did better why would the Zipper be better than the wand, you gain forward cleaning, plus backwards cleaning, easier stoke change, and going under tables with a cleaning forward stoke seems better than going under plant tool and pull outward....the forward stoke is not there with the CX no matter how hard you try it will not clean going forward.
My zipper is coming down on Monday I will keep you posted on what I think about it once I get it
Oh yeah the owner called and left a message that she had not seen the carpet that color since the day they installed it, she was super super happy.

Way to go!
I've seen enough if not all of "Saiger clean" videos, you should have fun with it.

I don't want to take shots at the Zipper, but I write this to give you some heads up after using it on over 10k sqft of cgd cleaning.

1. I know they claim it, but it does not clean in both directions. I don't accept that claim as the jets are on one end and only facing in one direction. So, when moving in the other direction, the jets and the vac shoe are nowhere near each other.

To actually clean, that spray needs to be recovered as it impacts the fibers. The zipper cleans in one direction, wets the carpet in the other for a vacuum pass several inches later....no shearing action, no impact.

As a wand builder, I hope I am explaining this correctly and you see my point. Just look underneath that zipper and tell me how it is cleaning in both directions.

What it does do is vac in both directions so you can get excellent recovery in each pass without having to dry stroke and thus save time. Well, in theory, but not always the case due to point number 2.

2. Keeping both vac shoes sealed onto the surface is very difficult on a cgd where the cement below was not leveled off very well. If you had trouble holding a vacuum lock with the wand....best of luck with 2 slots on the Zipper. On one of my contracts, it never could hold a lock and it drove me crazy.

Now, if it had dual sets of jets and the glide shoes floated on springs......then you would have a beast that could dominate the industry by providing that cleaning in both directions.

Unfortunately, those suggestions were cast aside quickly by the designer. It is a shame as the man can really design a great looking tool, but it fails to live up to the hype in my opinion. Maybe the new handle reduces this problem...I hope it did, but I have my doubts.

Let us know what you discover.....others claim that it doubles their productivity and cures small children of the plague. My guess is that you will find the truth is somewhere else.

Hope it works out for you, being an expensive tool.

Did you use the commercial jets or the residential on the CX?
I have one and only used it on residential. it blew away the wand but still no where near my rx-20 or the 360i....

Jets all angled forward to impact the front vac shoe when walking backwards....even called a "walk behind wand".  Cleans in both directions?



I'm done now, I apologize for attacking this tool again. I was just so optimistic about that tool after drooling over it for years and hearing people making these lofty claims about its performance that the disappointment left a scar.

You will know soon enough Tom and I hope it turns out to be your dream tool, but if not, maybe you can sell it while the stories of legend are still more popular than my experience.

Preach on Brother, you aren't sayin' anything untrue.

I could tear it a much bigger one, but it's not worth the time.

No, I'm done.

Tom is smart enough to re-design the thing and make it fly. Hope it works out.

I understand what you are saying about the jets and angle of them.
The prep work we did on this carpet (and it had to be done) the Cx would not have cleaned it by itself either.
So the carpet just needed a good rinse, due to that we could have possibly got a forward and back flush/rinse pass.
With proper prep impact is not needed as badly.
Now the Cx can only go backward no matter what so your walk back to start is a WASTED trip
If your gonna walk back you might as well get a dry pass out of it. I believe in doing dry passes on carpet the Zip will give that back. I was doing Zip passes with my wand and getting a dry pass out of it also.
My wife will be able to run it for sure, the DP was sucking hard to the carpet, and she was not able to run it for very long, she would have done it but she would still be hurting today if she would have ran the wand on the whole job.
It is pricey but I think the quality is there in the craftsmanship to deserve the price tag, it looks very well built, and that demands a little more for it, just no way around that.

When the lounge was doing the zipper loaner years ago I recall the issue that some had with it were back pain and chattering. I believe the back pain issue was addressed withe the new ergonomic handle.

Let us know if you experience those two problems Tom. Good luck with the tool.

shaggy85233 wrote:Did you use the commercial jets or the residential on the CX?
I have one and only used it on residential. it blew away the wand but still no where near my rx-20 or the 360i....

Hey David have experienced any swirling on residential carpet that was difficult to groom out with the CX15.

The CX that I used left no circle start marks but you do need to trigger just before you set the tool to get the bar spinning and to get some solution on the carpet in front of the spinner bar up where the glide is, kinda hard to explain but if you use it you would understand better.
Also BOTH of my friends that have the CX do not use the com spray bar. Only the resi spray bar.
The com is more aggressive and did leave circle marks in resi carpet. The resi bar does just fine on cgd carpet so really no need to change it out.
They both feel this way and both came to the same answer just use the res on everything, and adjust pressure accordingly

The CX does a awesome job, please don't take it like I am saying it is a pos because it is not.
This just comes down to my own personal ideas and thoughts behind my decision.
Not trying to sway anybody away from the CX at all it does a great job.

Mo wrote:

shaggy85233 wrote:Did you use the commercial jets or the residential on the CX?
I have one and only used it on residential. it blew away the wand but still no where near my rx-20 or the 360i....

Hey David have experienced any swirling on residential carpet that was difficult to groom out with the CX15.

the only issue is when you first pull the trigger. the spray patter can indent the carpet and make it very hard to get out.

I think both the zipper and the cx just dont do anything my wand cant.

now a 360i is a different story but I dont believe a spinner for carpet holds any value.. just another hydra master gimmick

the zipper looks cool but would never fit my cleaning style because we hit all the filtration lines with the way our wands are set up and you just cant do that with the zipper.

To me the zipper is just a really well built, really nice looking, very expensive drag wand like what has been around for many years

Is the idea behind it to help cover lots of square footage more efficiently?

I went into the rotovac facility recently and talked with the owner about coming out with a Li Ion battery powered RV360.


I gave him my honest input after using the tool for 6 years and owning several plus owning all the older models of the powerwands


I told him the presprays have gotten so good that I just dont need the extra power cord which becomes very difficult when trying to get through houses day in and day out.

and when you do run into something that absolutely needs agitation then the crb just digs so much deeper


he of course said "just strap the power cord to your vac line" which Ive heard many times but thats another step that also takes more time.


I dont mind doing the edging with a separate tool, but that plus dealing with basically a third hose is just too much time wasted.

Chuck said he would seriously look into the possibilities of a Li Ion RV

Devon07 wrote:Is the idea behind it to help cover lots of square footage more efficiently?

That's the idea....and it would be true if you believe that it can clean in both directions. It does combine dry strokes, so you do improve in that way, but cgd doesn't need a lot of help to dry rapidly since the fiber is so short and there is no real backing nor pad.

As AC called it, it is a very well built and handsome tool based upon a great idea, but it sort of ends there. When it was introduced, it was at a time when there wasn't much competition as it beat all the small 11.5 inch wands and was drier than the rx20. It even beat the Steamin Demon which was basically an improved drag wand with a pump out.

I really think that had the maker released it to the market more instead of letting Cintas take it exclusively for so many years, it would be in the hall of fame and in every cleaners garage. Now, it is dated and doesn't dominate with the improved rotary units and large head wands. I cleaned almost as fast with my 15 inch Ti wand and nearly as dry.

wait....Cintas?

Ya with the knowledge I have now of chems and cleaning the only thing I am really interested in is a better wand.

I want to try the Mach, Pro Chem Ti, and the Dev Pro but also very happy with the VT14s we run

That's the one if I remember those days correctly. It became their tool for many years and it was off the market for us cleaners.

Isnt Cintas a uniform Co?

They got into commercial carpet cleaning big over 5 years ago I think. The used Aerotechs.

I knew they did medical supplies like Zee medical for first aid suppliers but carpet?

They are actually a big player in the city over from me doing office buildings.