Domestic Vacuums in Commercial Settings

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Dollar Tree

At my local Dollar Tree, they used to have a Sanitaire, but then the last time I went in there I saw in the spot that the sanitaire sat in a PUSH SWEEPER!!!! They ditched the upright for a sweeper!!! Not even a good one! The standard $20.00 bissell easysweep
 
My Dad's friend owns a massive Holy place of worship and he uses only ONE Dyson DC27 multi floor in there!
 
Dollar Tree

We have 2 crummy (or worn out) Royal rubber bladed push sweepers at our store, I have used both and neither works very well. I wish we had a sanitaire at our store. I vacuumed the store monday night with the Proteam Running vac (it is vacuumed every night) and ended up changing the bag twice. It starts out with good suction, then loses most of it as the bag gets around 1/4 full.. annoying to say the least.
 
Back in 1976 the holiday inn ft. myers beach used kirby classic III , they had a couple of them stolen so they had to bring them in the rooms when the cleaning staff went to lunch, then a few years later they got the hoover u4119 then I told them about the sanitaire which they used I guess until my last visit there which was in 1996.
 
At a local cafeteria they have used a dyson DC01 for as long as I can remember, they also have a dyson DC04 which is not used as often but still is quite old. Also a wilkinsons store near me used to have a non clutched DC04 but it was all hard floors lol
 
The Non Clutch DC04...

It was probably a Constantmax- the Wilkinson in Canterbury had one despite everything apart from the doormats being hard floor..
Seamus
 
Nah it wasn't, it was the green one, the constant max one was red, and was only 1100watts I think, and yeah they only have carpeted doormats, however I suppose it was always kept next to the door.
 
The misconception about commercial vacuums ...

... is that they're more powerful performers than domestic models, which is generally not true at all. In fact, many, if not most, commercial models do not perform as well as domestic models in the home because they're designed for *endurance* more than *performance*.

Most commercial carpets are made from barely-there nap; it's extremely rare to see the kind of plush carpeting we have in our homes in commercial settings. Commercial vacuums are generally designed, therefore, to handle this low-resistance carpeting. And the motors in these units aren't designed necessarily for more power, but longer endurance; they're designed to be run 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, as opposed to domestic models that are designed for, at best, an hour or two a couple times a week.
 
I was at a garden centre today, it was huge, and one person was using this numatic micro filter for hours, and she had no where near finished, also the micro filter have an extra huge filter round the motor so I imagine it gets incredibly hot. Also I imagine they were using it bagless as despite it having micro filtration it was starting to smell of dirt!
 
It is getting worse

Yesterday I caught a Target employee using an Electrolux Ergorapido stick vac to clean their filthy entry carpet. The battery sounded like it was going to die any second. A few months ago I saw them using a Bissell Cleanveiw; must not have lasted long. When will anybody learn you can not use domestic vacuums in commercial settings?!
 
More domestics.

Our custodial team always gets domestic vacuums i am not too happy with what they give us i keep pushing for a bagged unit but i keep hearing that they don't want to buy bags (the cheapest bags for the unit i had in mind were $1 a piece) i kept explaining that bags would give better performance would require a lot less upkeep for us within the time i've been on this team we've had a bissell powerforce bagged (shortly) i don't know what happened to that one it was gone not too long after i joined. It was then replaced with a powerforce bagless and i hated that thing with a passion i would encourage my co workers to clean out the cup and filters hours before they had to use it, if they had to use it that is, to allow it time to dry.

Their newest vac is one of those eureka endeavor NLS i've not used it yet but i'm really not expecting much from it.
 
Another reason why some businesses use domestic vacuums is because OSHA requirements for grounded plugs are rarely ever enforced. I think hospitals and health care settings come under more scrutiny.
 
incresting numbers of stores in the UK are using G-Tech coordless power sweepers(i believe shark do something of the like in the US). WHY????? its a sweeper, it has no suction, just a spinning brush, and they expect to clean their whole store every day! its just stupid!
 
In my working life:

Bakery - They had a Goblin Tipo when I started. That was rubbish, and went soon after I joined. I gave them a Goblin Rio (early one) which to be honest wasn't much better!

Everywhere else was either Numatic (Crowns plaza, Super drug and the office I work east now, or Taski (Sainsburys) Everywhere I have seen staff cleaning haver been numatic too.

There was as lindhaus upright at the crowns plaza which was beautiful. Sadly they wouldn't buy bags for it so I used to connect henry up to the suction port and use it as a glorified power nozzle.

They also had a massive nilfisk vac, concert hall type thing. When I joined it was rubbish, but I cleaned it out and used it whenever I could. Sadly it was easier to run henry round
 
Sanitaire/Eureka F&G uprights/Hoover Convertibles/Decades/Elites/Legacys/Concepts/WindTunnels/PortaPowers/SteamVacs/Royal All Metal uprights/Kirby uprights were originally used in residential settings years ago. They need to bring these back to the residential market ASAP! They are excellent machines!
 
Commercial users need to start using these machines ASAP! Sanitaire/Eureka F&G uprights/Hoover Convertibles/Decades/Elites/Legacys/Concepts/WindTunnels/PortaPowers/SteamVacs/Royal All Metal uprights/Kirby uprights These are great for commercial settings!
 
When I worked in housekeeping at a hotel in South Florida, they started with the hoover industrial (too heavy, lasted a long time) then they started getting the eureka's from k-mart until osha said they had to be 3-prong so maintenance cut off the ends & put on a 3-prong plug & when we got inspected LOL got fined $500 for every vacuum not grounded, went to the hoover commercial (like the elite in orange, no height adj.)which they were so-so IF you could keep the wheels on & the fans from not breaking. I tried to tell them which machines to get but it all comes down to budget and a bonus for the manager at the end of the month for not spending alot of money.
 
Today I saw a guy using a little ancient G-tech sweeper at an electricals store. They demo-ed it to a customer. That must have put the customer off as the battery lasted about 2 minutes and it was caked in dirt. And you couldn't see the brush roll for muck and hair. It was only this bad as they have had it for years lol
But previously they had a dyson dc04 and a Panasonic upright, why did they dump these for a crappy little sweeper??
 
Oh goodness,

I always see residential type vacuum cleaners in commercial settings. A grocery store near me used to have an Oreck with the handle on backwards, and that has been replaced with one of those terrible Bissell Powerforce machines. Quite a while ago I saw a Dirt Devil of some sort being used in a Kohl's store, I remember that it was a machine I've never seen before.

I once saw a motel using bagless Dirt Devils to clean their rooms (I wasn't staying in that motel, I just saw the maid's cart while driving by).

My dad recently bought a Bissell Easy Vac for a room at the office he works at. He just went to Walmart and bought the cheapest vacuum there. I kind of can't believe I let him do that, he's told me about how dirty it has gotten already and I'm not even sure if he still has it.
 
In my town in Scotland we tend to have a number of private shops that use domestic uprights and canisters. The biggest amount of old uprights seem to be the Hoover Turbopower 1, 2 and 3 series; mostly battered, scraped and abused they appear to just keep on going. More modern businesses like recently opened cafes have bag-less Vax Swift/Dirt Devil paper pleated cone uprights.
 
I'm going to guess that the reason for the use of domestic vacuums in commercial settings is because some business owners don't know that commercial vacuums cleaners even exist, or they don't know that they need commercial vacuum. This thread kind of reminds me of my grandma telling me about the vacuum at the place she works at (which from what she told me I could guess was some sort of Hoover twin chamber) being filled completely because no one there cared to clean it (she was a decent human being and cleaned it out). I think that some business owners expect the machines to be neglected, so they just buy the cheapest machines they find at Walmart, Target, ETC. Or maybe business owners discover that many commercial machines are simply remakes of domestic machines, so they don't think there's a difference.
 
I think it has more to do with expense. The cost of commercial uprights are astronomical in the UK with some other private dealers charging a lot for canister vacs like Numatic's Henry without the smiley face.

Case in point, (see the link if you wish) the SEBO X1 Automatic upright under the commercial branding is £334-96 before Value Added Tax is added (VAT.) compared to the more modern Sebo X1.1 at £234 with VAT added. Even cheaper cost prices for the SEBO X uprights are available - but having to shell out the amount for the commercial version is taking the pi**! The commercial warranty is also shorter (usually 2 or 3 years) compared to what SEBO UK offer for domestic.

Effectively you're getting an upgraded, newer model that can use the mini turbo brush compared to the Ensign Stealth 1 or 2 that can't due to the older design. Yet buyers aren't aware of it and if they are, they'll take the domestic version.

Other shop owners I've spoken to depending on the service they supply just use whatever they've brought from home, especially small local business owners - and you are quite correct Myles, most owners just buy the cheapest appliance they can find in the hope that it will clean up to their standards.

For larger businesses, a few are now beginning to recognise that Numatic are the cheapest way of getting a vacuum cleaner on the shop floor. The domestic cost prices are far cheaper and some are also investing in Sebo uprights for carpet areas. I recently sold my X4 to a business owner who runs a large company. I couldn't believe it when he said he had gone through many vacuums as they just didn't last and though they had a Henry which they still have, they had gone through 3 of the air driven turbo brushes to get the carpet clean. So far he's had the X4 for about five months now and its plain sailing!




http://www.delivernet.co.uk/vacuums--vacuum-bags/1068-ensign-stealth-1-6076801.html
 
My Dad's place

At my Dad's business they use a powerforce that I got and refurbished. They only have a small area to clean so it's not that big an issue. It is emptied normally and gets maintained often.
 
When I used to clean businesses/offices, I once used a Dirt Devil Vision & a Eureka WhirlWind (1st generation) (both belong to those offices) but then I brought my TriStar CXL & the TriStar kept pulling out more dirt as if there was no tomorrow. However, I ended up going thru SEVERAL bags after vacing just part of one room because the bags got 100% full; it outcleaned the cheap bagless vacs.

I used the TriStar CXL (on HI speed) with PN 2-1000 equipped with a brush/beater bar roller (non Vibra Groomer, but it was a 2-brush & 2-plastic beater bar wooden roller) And I had to blow out the dusty cloth bag & HEPA motor filter after each paper bag change because the dirt seeped thru the single-ply paper bag. Yet the CXL TriStar still had 100% suction even with a full bag, despite the majority was fine dust.

What a difference a brush roller with beater bars makes! Things would've been better had I used micro-lined bags; I'd spend LESS time blowing out the cloth bag & HEPA motor filter (with the TriStar's exhaust) & get the vacing done in 1/2 the time.

Now that I have two EXL TriStars with "supercharged" high-performance Ametek motors (#115923) & TriStar A101 PNs equipped with double-helix or "pile-lifter" brush rollers, I'll bet the EXL will outclean the CXL.[this post was last edited: 3/16/2013-01:31]

floor-a-matic++3-16-2013-01-29-35.jpg
 
When I used the TriStar CXL, I used a turbo brush for vacing upholstery & the turbine jammed numerous times. Later I bought a Kenmore Power Mate Jr (cogged belt) & extension cord & the TriStar with mini Power Brush kept picking up more dirt than the turbo brush ever could.

If I was to clean houses & offices again, I'd use the TriStar EXL & MiniStar or TriStar CXL & Wessel Werk HEB160; & use micro-lined bags instead of single-ply bags.
 

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