Commercial vacuums used in industry

[marks_here]

Ok so for a couple years I've been working for a resort in the housekeeping department. I've never seen 1 department go through so many vacuums as they are. We had metal Royal which the wheels kept falling off, then we got the Hoover Hushtones which didn't hold up I managed to get 2 before they were thrown out one I had to fix because someone vacuumed up hot ashes and burned a hole in it, then the Sanitaire Ion, Sanitaire red/grey hood which are falling apart, Bissell Big Green hard plastic body which didn't even make it a half season, they are now trying 1 Oreck and 5 Hoover Taskvac bagless. Our new season is about to start and I'm wondering what they're going to be sending us next since most of the decent ones get stolen plus I'm doing commercial laundry I work with huge extractors/originators, 1 towel folder and 1 iron finisher which is a miracle if i can get through the day w/out something getting caught in it! From what I've seen it looks like the plastic they're using on then now is not what they used to use many years ago.

 

[blackheart]

Curious

Which hushtone were you using? Hushtone seems to refer to a lineup of machines. Also wow that's a lot of machines to go through, what exactly are you guys cleaning up with them?

 

[marks_here]

The upright CH54113 w/IntelliBelt. They only had 2 of them when I was hired on. We take care of timeshare villas 458 units some have 4 bedrooms split levels, other are 2 bedroom even several studio villas which are neat w/murphy bed

 

[blackheart]

Gotcha.

I've got one of those I kinda like it aside from the weight. For the price it has a lot of feature to it, though i've been questioning it's ability to hold up in commercial use.

Anyways I'm guessing your co workers are quite hard on the machines. Have they tried a Proteam 1500xp? those seem pretty sturdy. Or perhaps the Titan commercial unit would be a good fit due to it's low price point. Perhaps even a backpack unit, though many cleaners tend to hate them.

I clean at a school, our main units are windsor versamatic pluses but people around here still manage to break them so I don't think they'd be a good fit especially with the high price tag. We also have Proteam Supercoach backpacks but very few of us utilize them.

 

[marks_here]

I don't know what corporate will be sending we had a Cleanmax I seen it only once then it disappeared things seem to walk out of the building due to no one checking what comes back in. The cleaning crew is very rough on things, I've suggested many times on how to stop it and make people accountable but they won't so it's not my worry.

 

[lesinutah]

Hmm

I know the proteam coach commercial vacuum is probably most popular out there. It's a backpack vac. It's selling point is you can vacuum twice as fast as other commercial vacuums.
I know you may be looking into upright. I do think proteam has a high CFM and cover large areas quickly. I thought I'd throw it out there.
Les

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

I really wish they would have vacuums more like this one...

~Ben

 

[lesinutah]

Yes

Mine has the Kirby sticker. The American Lincoln was on the fork. I'm wanting avocado green American Lincoln janitronic.

 

[speedqueen]

Tell them to get a Hoover Conquest, if someone manages to destroy it in short order I will be very surprised. They're practically indestructible, not as good as the far older model 918/913/91, but very close and far less maintenance, belts should last a while, fans won't break as easily. I just got one from a janitorial supplier that they got in trade, needed the carbon brushes freed up, a belt and a minor crack fixed, it's at least 33 years old, predates the 1987 Hoover serial number standardization.

https://www.amazon.com/Hoover-Commercial-C1800-010-Conquest-Cleaning/dp/B005NAT1U2

 

[madman]

Honestly wheels falling off a Royal seems to be the most minor problem experienced, among those examples!

 

[vacuumdevil]

Wow that's an amazing list of heavy duty things to go through.
I hope you're keeping track of what went wrong with what. I love hearing field reports.

I'm going to post videos of the two toughest commercial machines I know of right now maybe you'll get a chance to put them into service.






@speedqueen I was wondering if you we're aware that machine has changed internally significantly since TTI bought Hoover ? I've got reports that the motors are only lasting 500-1000 working hours at best. Back in the day the Hoover conquest sure was a great machine. I'm still looking for a clean example for the collection.

 

[speedqueen]

@vacuumdevil

I haven't seen any of the newer ones, but looking up part numbers on the modern one, the machine looks the same inside and motor(P/N: H-43517406) looks essentially the same as on my ancient model(U7069). Same housing shape, same brush holders, etc.

What exactly is failing on them, bearings, dead commutator sections?

Sales on them fell off sharply in my opinion as hoover took all the incentive away from dealers to sell them, and these types of machines won't sell themselves. ESSCO charges slightly more money than the unit can be bought from Amazon shipped for, and ESSCO charges freight atop that. There are no margins on them for dealers. SC899 Sanitaires have profit left for dealers, as well as many of the more modern high end clean-air types from niche brands like you showed above.

 

[luxlife]

That Advance upright is really interesting to me!

I was looking at it for familiar components and design elements to see if anything about it resembled some of their Rotafil/Lindhaus sourced models from the past few decades. This one looks completely different.

 

[n0oxy]

my suggestions

I would suggest a backpack, you can really clean fast with them especially if you use one of the sidewinder tools. Backpacks are interesting, there seems to be no middle ground with them, people either love them or they can't stand them.
When it comes to uprights, I would suggest a Sebo. If you only have to clean carpets, the Automatic X might be a good choice. If you also need to clean bare floors, the Felix might be a good choice.
Mike

 

[tolivac]

For heavy cleaning--NOTHING beats the NSS M1!!!!!I have backpack vacs-but don't like them-too clumsy having the thing on your back.Drather have the canister unit on the floor where it really belongs.The NSS motor brushes are rated to last 2500+ hrs.Most motor brushes are 500hrs.And the machine is easily and quickly serviced.My backpack-ProTeam FS 6 is mounted on a janitor cart.You can have other things on the cart besides the vacuum.And I have another cart that has an MD central vac on it.Sold thru the local dealer here a the Port-A-Vac".Sells LOTS of them mainly to churches.A car detailing place here has several.Have two at the transmitter site.