Advice needed - best commercial canister vac?

[eurekaprince]

Hi everyone,

I work for a small synagogue in Toronto, and we just moved into a new building. We need to buy a good, industrial strength canister/tank vac that would be able to properly clean stone floors, polished wood floors and linoleum. It should also come with a long enough hose and some good attachments to be able to clean tall library bookshelves and upholstered seats.

Not sure if we need it be a wet-dry vac, but this might be a good feature as people coming into the building often track in wet snow and street salt onto the stone floor in the lobby.

We do have very low pile carpeting in the office and sanctuary, but I think that problem will be easily solved with a good basic Sanitaire upright. It's the cleaning of the other surfaces that needs to be looked at here.

It would be great to hear from our Vacuumland friends here in Canada, in order to know what is available in the stores here north of the US border.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Eurekaprince Brian

 

[singingrainbow]

What I would do

I would get a industrial shop vac for the bare floor areas and like you said a basic sanitaire for the carpets but shop vac may have industrial vacs with power brushes I cant remember

 

[eurekaprince]

Thanks Scott...

but which industrial shop vac would you recommend?

 

[singingrainbow]

I found it

If you go on shop vac.com click on vacs then on series and go down to industrial click on it and im shure you will find what you need and they do have one with a power brush.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you Scott.......this helps......

Any other suggestions from others?

 

[countryguy]

Electrolux used to make a commercial vac with longer hose as well as power brush.....don't know if they still do however.

Gary

 

[eurekaprince]

Hey there Gary!!

How are you?

I think we are going to go with two vacs - one Sanitaire upright for carpets, and a nice powerful Shop Vac with lots of tools and brushes for everything else.

Brian

 

[countryguy]

I am good Brian. Sounds like the Shop Vac will do what you need.

Gary

 

[electrolux-dude]

A Suggestion from Electrolux Dude

Hi, Brian, I have a suggestion, you might check out the website for Pro-Team. They carry the back-pack models of vacuums. The back packs have a relatively short hose, however, but they do have a long, S-Bend style wand and a floor tool. They are dry pickup only, but I have heard great things about them. Anyway--Check them out, they have several models, with the Super Coach model being the top of the line.
Nathan
Electrolux-Dude

 

[riccarlover]

About the ProTeam Backpacks...

If you have carpet in this environment, go with this:


http://www.centralvacuumfactory.com...erk-power-nozzle-commercial-103242-p-992.html

 

[tolivac]

For Church cleaning and other commercial-insitutional buildings--Go with a NSS M1 vacuum-Its dry pickup only-but is much better than shop-vac style machines.It also has a long hose and wands so it can reach high up places found in churches.They even provide a church cleaning kit for the machine.You buy the machine and cleaning attachments separately-buts its worth it! and the machine can last 50 years.I own three.The machine can be equipped with a powernozzle so it can vacuum carpets.However I would recommend a separate upright vacuum for that job.Royal or Sanitaire.

http://www.nss.com/prod_vac_m1.php

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you for all these great ideas......

Our cleaning service actually leaves behind a small Pro-Team backpack vac after they do their once a week clean-up, but I find it too impractical for those of us who are working in the office, primarily because the hose is too short, the bag is too small and you can only really use it when it is strapped to your back. For instance, if we have some contractor who has just come in to do some renovation or installation, and I just want to clean up the sawdust that was left behind, the hose is just too short - the unit ends up being dragged along the floor. And none of our volunteers wants to strap on that dirty machine onto their backs if they are helping out in the building. We need a normal, classic shop vac on wheels with a long hose and an onboard basket full of attachments.

This NSS M1 looks kind of cool - but I will have to contact them to find out if they are available in Canada and if they also offer service and parts in Canada. Shop-Vac has their own Canadian website.

I am beginning to think that having wet pick-up ability will be needed, though. We have two kitchens with sinks and a dishwasher, plenty of washrooms on three levels, and the stone floor in our lobby has a tendency to get wet from melting snow and ice dragged in by boots in the winter. Our floor mats don't cover the entire lobby and indoor stairway. So I think a wet-dry shop vac is what we may really need.

By the way, I think I will also take Vacuumland Advice and try to get a Sanitaire with an all-brush Vibra-Groomer One (beater bars removed). Our wall-to-wall carpets are very low pile and I am sure they are glued to the concrete floor.

Again - many thanks to everyone who has (have?) responded!

Eurekaprince B

 

[elux89]

Try Taski Ventos at Wood Wyant

Brian,
Since you're in Canada like myself, have you tried the commercial janitorial supply companies such as Wood Wyant?? They are the Taski distributor in Canada. We have been using Taski products for twenty or so years with great success. In the past year or two, they have come out with a new dry vac called the Ventos, the predecessor was the Bora 12. I believe the Ventos now has the standard 1.25 inch tools whereas the Bora came equipped with 1.5 inch. Definitely use the fleece (filtrete) style bags over paper, filtration is very good with the fleece and airflow is not compromised as the bag fills. They do have a wet dry version called the vacumat, but I have no experience with this model. The thing about the Ventos 15 is the price is around $399 Canadian. Great price for a high performance commercial vac. Definitely look into the Taski line, you won't be disappointed. The taski buffers might be a little pricey, but durability is great and their user friendly, the vacs in my opinion are a bargain considering durability, performance, and user friendly.

Vernon

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you Vernon!

Great information - I will check this out immediately.

Have a great weekend.

Brian

 

[eluxca]

Brian,

I have had Alto Attix (nee WAP) wet/dry vacuums for years and there is nothing finer out there. There are built like tanks, have tremendous suction and airflow, great filtration with Goretex filters and are very quiet for a commercial/industrial vacuum. I currently have an Attix 12 RDF which is really more machine than I need. It can be fitted with a power nozzle for carpeting if needed.

You'll find these machines at tool rental companies where they get a real beating and keep on going. They're not a bargain by any means, but in church/synagogue use it will outlive most of the congregants.

John

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you John.....

These Alto Attix machines look great, but I am having trouble finding a website that shows they are available in Canada. We are going to need a machine that has a dealer who can service it right here in Toronto. Alto seems to be now owned by Nilfisk of Denmark, and the Nilfisk Canada websites are not showing these Alto/Wap vacs. Nilfisk Advance now seems to own a lot of the formerly independent commercial vac names including Clark and Kent - what a "Superman" combination! They should make a Clark Kent vacuum.....

But I much appreciate the time you took to write - I'll keep my eyes open for these vacs as well.

Eurekaprince

 

[eluxca]

Sorry, since they are available here I assumed Canada would have them, too. Odd, isn't it?

Karcher makes a decent commercial machine and they definitely available in Canada. Good luck in the search - that's the most exciting part!

John

 

[piano_god]

Commercial canisters...

Many good ones have been mentioned. Here are a few others you might want to have a look at as well...

Numatic Henry (www.nacecare.com)

Numatic NVH200 (www.nacecare.com)

Nilfisk GD 110 (www.nilfisk.ca)

NSS Designer Dry (www.nss.com)

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you for the detailed info and websites Scott....

My list is now getting longer....and so the search should be fun.

Some of those Numatics are adorable!!!!! They really should give the more robust machines more macho names - like Chuck or Doug or Eddie! Or as a I said above, Nilfisk should have one called Clark Kent!

It's interesting though.....of all the companies offering commercial vacs in Canada, Shop-Vac seems to have the most extensive product line and the most broad range of options and attachments. You can even order the machines directly from the Canadian distribution centre.

But I do appreciate hearing about all the personal experiences you guys have had with commercial canisters, and your personal recommendations are extremely valuable - thank you all.

Now how do I explain to my boss about Vacuumland and where I got all my information?????????

Have a great week everyone!

Brian