Equipment advice please

Just bought a rotovac shear dry upholstery tool, tried it out on my home sofa and some upholstered chairs i have, seems to work well. problem is when I get a call to do just upholstery I don't really want to lug my Mytee LTD5 in a home just to clean a sofa. So I am trying to find a good spotting/upholstery only machine. I was considering the 8070 Mytee Lite™ Heated Carpet Extractor.
What do you guys use and or recommend

You will not be happy with any spot extractor in my view. I tried that same approach 3 years ago with a Mytee 3 gallon model. It had decent vacuum at 200 cfm, but it really didn't impress me and often needed to have the water changed out before the sofa was done.

Maybe a rotovac CFX would work well, but it isn't any smaller than the portable you already have.

If there are heavy soils present or stains, you are stuck rolling in that Mytee LTD5 in my opinion. Of course, nobody says that you can't move the furniture to the truck instead of moving the machine into the house.

I prefer to take the furniture out to the truck when I do furniture. It puts on a good show to the neighbors plus the Sun adds some oxidizing benefit (ozone effect) and it dries faster. Just throw a moving blanket or tarp down and go at it.

I use to use a small extractor; 5-6 gal capacity. 1 recliner fills it up with my drimaster.

Fore go the heat you'll end up popping breakers with that Mytee machine.

The Spot Extractor from Jon Don is bullet proof. I have had for over 5 years and never replace the vac or pump. Hold on a second let me go knock on wood.

Mark is right with the flow the mytee tool you'll be filling up the tank real quick. Before I bought a truckmount I used it for upholstery, pet damage, and spot treating.

A few months ago I got a call back from the theater about a spot coming back in the hallway. It was a pretty good size spill Im sure it happened after I cleaned it. Rather then running 200 feet of hose I pulled that spot extractor out and was done in no time

Like Mo points out, those spot extractors are good for that...spots. They don't work real well for entire furniture items.

I have a Scandia spot machine. It does not have high PSI or amazing suck. But it does a nice job on spot cleaning, and furniture.

I just use a cheapo type, steel, single jet upholstery tool with it. It only holds 2 or three gallons of water.

I'd forgo the heat too.

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen. Seems like all the spotting machines have 3gal or less tanks which I didn't think was much to begin with but figured at around 100psi or less you would not go thru water that fast, like you would at 500psi when doing carpet. I'll have to keep thinking what to do/use

It is never easy is it? There is always a need for another machine, tool, or chemical in this industry. The problem is there often isn't enough money in it to produce one on a small scale.

Take chemicals, you decide that you want a custom prespray. After-all, you have been cleaning forever and you know what you want, but maybe can't find it without mixing half a dozen products, so you approach a chemical producer with your wants.

They tell you sure, we can make that, but you will need to purchase 30 cases of it for us to do it. Umm, you go back to mixing a half dozen products.

Been there a couple of times now.

You are right with both accounts with the water with spot machines. Lower PSI and less consumption.

Of coarse with furniture fabric, I wouldn't want to use a lot of water anyway, generally. But then I use a cheapy upholstery tool, and not one of the better ones.

No, these machines would be more hassle then they are worth for more than a chair and smaller sofa. You can easily do a chair on a water fill up. Maybe or maybe not on a couch.


As to the chems you commented on Rob, its the same for window cleaners. One guy is trying to help us in the industry, but not with making what we need. He is just showing us what to mix and where to get the supplies.
I don't have time to fart around making the products I need. I need them pre made and the manufactures won't do it.

I may have mentioned this before Freemind, but have you ever tried the concentrated cleaners from "Advantage"?

Despite the weird marketing and sales method, that stuff is incredible on glass. I use it on all my vehicle's glass and it really dazzles on the cell phone screens.

https://www.amazon.com/ADVANAGE-20X-Multi-Purpose-Cleaner-Green/dp/B005LK6GQ6

It is a good cleaner, but the best part is that it is smudge-proof when you are done. On a business store front, that could be a huge selling point to me.

I don't like using anything that "seals" glass unless it is in danger of hard water spotting.
It's not the every day cleaners that are the issue. It's the products to clean bug crap, tree crap, and air pollution off the glass. Even fingerprints on greasy spoons, give window guys headaches.
It's a need for reliable and cheap polishing pads and media for hardwater stains.
There are some commercial solutions on the market, but they tend to be expensive and not the greatest products.

Of our biggest headaches, are the need to scrape or steel wool glass for any reason. The risks for potential damage are HUGE. We need chemical solutions and low risk agitation solutions for the issues.

I wouldn't think "0000" steel wool would create any risk on glass. I use it to polish guitar fretboards without damage, but scraping is another matter.

Interesting stuff.

Yes, it can. Steel wool can pick up fabrication debris like a blade can. It can also leave swirl marks on certain types of glass.

How about this idea==Use the rotovac CFX continous flow extractor for upholstery just hook up to sink for unlimited water, run the drain line to where ever is convenient and have at it.. Just a thought, what do you guys think

If you're going port go to CL . You can find something around 300. We use a port on commercial upholstery. But in home it's quicker to use the TM. No buckets. No mess.

Rotovac CFX solves the water issue and has good vacuum, but you still have to go through the dance of connections and risks that go with it.

I spent 2 years as a Steamin Demon user back in the day, so I had to connect to the sink, shower, etc. on all jobs. Fittings can be complicated at times and the first time the customer sees you dumping the waste into the sink or worse, the hose slips out of the toilet and sprays the bathroom.....you will wish you were invisible.

TM is still the most efficient, but you can run the portable out of the van and just hoses into the house. On furniture, you don't need high psi nor vacuum to get it done.

Kevin I would set your mytee up to be mounted in the van and get some more hose,   you still be able to take it out for carpets but also have the advantage of using it like an ETM  

youll have to extend the cords and prob grab some more vac line but for doing upholstery you should have plenty of vac power parked in the driveway.  

Ive ran 100ft before off of a 3 stage 2 vac set up.  

as long as the shear dry tool is sucking in the constant flow then it should be fine.

might go with a 6gal "Clean Storm" machine from steambrite to use for spotting and upholstery. anyone ever use one of those

I like the looks of it, especially the 2 inch ports, but it suffers the same problem with all portables......impact is low due to low flow. On upholstery, it would not be a big deal, but for everything else, it will be weak.

Like most portables, this thing puts out about 1 gpm of flow, which really kind of sucks. Have you ever taken a shower at a hotel with low-flow shower heads? You damn near walk away dry with .97 gpm shower head compared to the 3.4 gpm found in most homes.

That was why the Steamin Demon was such a good machine for years as it still had the higher flow of a Truckmount, but it was only useful on carpet and not stairs or upholstery.

It would do the job for upholstery, but that would be an expensive machine just for upholstery. I don't think that it would clean a carpet very well.

I would love to get a good back-up portable for smaller jobs this winter myself, but to find one with a good design, good flow, heat, and good recovery just doesn't exist without spending a fortune.

why go with a 6gal "spotter" just to save bringing in the mytee speedster.

just roll the machine onto the porch, have a minimum charge and either way on any job you rolling it out for a minimum.

I dont really see a spotting machine saving you much time

I always wanted to build me a backpack spotting machine with a 4 foot hose.  I don't like to deal with hoses laying on the ground at all.

OK maybe veering away from a small spotting machine just to use for upholstery as ACpower1 said I can run it from the van or out on the porch, I already have plenty of hose to do just that. Even if i had to run 150ft of hose the Mytee LTD5 would still have plenty of suction for upholstery, lets face it, you don't need as much suction or PSI for that matter to clean upholstery. I do however always want as much suction as possible for carpets The LTD5 works very well using 50ft of vac hose from machine right to wand. parking it right outside the front door 50ft works for most of my jobs, for the times i need a little more i will either briefly bring it inside of stick another 15 ft hose on then remove when not needed. I do however want to be able to leave the LTD5 out in the van or on the ground right by it and run it off a generator but don't think the suction would be good enough at 100 or 150ft hose run, would it work? Yes but suction would suffer too much for my liking. So I am thinking of getting the Mytee 7000s flood hog ( duel 3stage HP vac mtrs) or the Mytee 7303 air hog ( single 3stage HP vac mtr)and just put that outside the front door and use customer power for that. However the weight difference between the flood hag and LTD5 is only is only 10 pounds, so from that aspect its almost not worth it to have two heavy pieces of equipment. the weight difference between the LTD5 and the 7303 vac booster is 89 pounds lighter, so that would make more sense and be a lot easier plus i would need only on power cord instead of two. so if i had to run up to 50ft of hose from van to door then another 50 off booster for a total of 100ft I believe i should have a lot better suction then just 100ft from LTD5 alone. What say you guys, anybody doing anything similar to that.

I think you have reached that point where a portable is no longer a good fit for you. I think you need a TM at this point. You will end up buying multiple pieces of portable equipment to achieve your goals and at the costs of those items, you could probably find yourself a used TM.

You want lightweight? A wand and hose will always be lighter. You like strong suction....that is a TM. You want one machine that can do upholstery, carpet, tile, etc.....that is a TM.

I know you don't really want one and they can be a big expense, but we have all gone down that road and then wished we had just gone with a TM from the start. There is just nothing more efficient than a TM these days.

That would be my advice, look around local and see what you can find for a TM. I know that isn't what you asked, but I feel that it would be the right direction for you.

I have heard of guys running the little air hog at the door with success.

However, you are adding another component that needs a cord. You run a generator now, so that negates the motor on a TM.

Honestly, if you are at the point you need more than a porty and a rotary, you just should buy a TM. Portys are a pain. I own one too.

And here, there is no way to get into the homes of good paying clients, with a porty.

Had I went straight to a TM, I probably would not be cleaning glass.

I kinda went off rambling there, but Rob is right. If you need more than the porty, it's time for a TM.

I would have to agree with both of the above.     I spent a lot of money and time messing with portable and then an electric truck mount,   all said and done I could have had a decent TM for under 10 grand long ago.  

Its not at all hard to pull 10 grand in 1 month running a TM in a decent market,    also in a highly competitive industry your competition just got a whole lot smaller.       At least around here there are about 10 companies running portables to every one running a TM