what is this thing?

[vacuumfreeeke]

It says "certified pile brush". I've never seen anything like this before. If it's just a fluffer, I could probably do the same thing with a Kirby boars hair bristle brush. Does this act like a vacuum too? Who makes it? Is it used by professional carpet cleaners?



http://orlando.craigslist.org/bfs/1111799286.html

 

[brandon_w_t]

Hmmm

Looks like a floor buffer or something. Who knows.

 

[briankirbyclass]

I think those are the types of machines that were/are used to work in the "Capture" type spongy carpet cleaner.
Remember that stuff?

 

[jdinstl]

Commercial Grade Pile Lifter

It's a commercial grade pile brush for carpeting. Ever been in a less-than-well-kept house and seen cut-pile carpeting that's been tracked down nearly flat?

The average home steam clean machine, or vacuum cleaner brushroll doesn't have enough "oomph" to comb it back up.This machine can. It has no vacuum ability, it's just a very heavy duty brushroll with a very powerful motor. The machine itself weighs a ton as well.

What a good commercial carpet cleaning company will do is work in any pre-treatment or stain removers, usually with a carpet brush. For really heavy dirt, or commercial applications, like a movie theatre lobby, a restaurant, etc., you can use this machine to really work the solution in. Then follow up with extraction steam vac. Another run with this monster after the extraction, let it dry, and the carpet pile stands up like new.

Given that the style is now Berber-like carpeting and area rugs, more and more of these machines are showing up on Craigslist, as they're not being used as much.

John

 

[bisonian]

John, you're on the right track. But this machine DOES have a separate high-powered vacuum motor.

"Certified" in this case is the brand name, not a description. See the link below for more info. Note the weight -- 67 LBS.

http://www.baneclene.com/catalog/pile-lifter.pdf

 

[jdinstl]

Well I'll be danged...

....a vacuum indeed! That also precludes using it for pre-treat agitation as it's no doubt a dry vac. Wish I had that puppy when I had my company. Would have been great for between-extraction work.

I had (and still have) a Tornado Marathon extractor with a 900RPM brushroll -- that weighs 80lbs EMPTY! Add 20 gallons of water/solution and it's a beast.

John

 

[tolivac]

Yes it is a "Vacuum Indeed"This is on one of my most wanted machines-esp a vintage one.Was all beautiful chrome with a Certified vacuum motor-not a Royal one.The machine does have two motors-an induction one to spin the huge drum shaped roller brush.then a suction only motor to vacuum up the debris the pile roller bursh dishlodges-another thing about these is the brush roll bristles reach all the way down to the backing of the carpet-regular uprights don't do this.That is why these "pile Lifter" machines deep clean and "lift" the pile of the carpet.The machines look more like lawn mowers than vacuum cleaners-I have seen these in person and its much like running a lawn mower. You push the machine only in one direction and use it --just like a lawn mower.You pretend the carpet is a "lawn" and vacuum it with the pile lifter machine in that manner-pushing and pulling the pile lifter will fatigue you quickly-guess it will build up muscles-but will damage the carpet you are trying to pile lift.The machines are customarily used by carpet cleaning services-its applied to the carpet before the cleaning process-then again after the carpets have dried to reset and lift the pile and dislodge dirt the carpet cleaning process loosened up.