I kind of want to get a car wash vacuum for my collection.

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amtraksebo1997

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Feb 13, 2022
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Vacmasterthegreats basement
Alongside vacuum cleaners and trains, another one of my childhood interests has been car washes. I've always found them interesting for some reason. Of course, I'm also interested, to a lesser extent, in car wash vacuums. Now, I've never actually used them that much, just on one occasion, and that was when I vacuum/shampooed my sister's boyfriend's car. There's a car wash near me, and they had all JE Adams units, with two of them having Fraga-Matics scent sprayers/shampooers. I used the one with the Shampooer, and I was blown away with how powerful they were. It did a fantastic job! Though, I was a bit confused (and still kind of am), about shampooing. They use the dry-foaming method like a Kirby, but unlike a Kirby, you're seemingly supposed to suck up the suds after a few minutes of application. I don't think that'd necessarily damage the machine, but I wouldn't say that they're built for wet pick up in the same way that a Shop Vac is.

Anyways, I've never really put a ton of thought into getting one for my collection, as I've always thought that I'd never be able to acquire one, and even if I did, it'd take up too much room in my house. However, Blackhartvacs was able to get one for himself, and seeing his and how he was able to replace the coin-acceptor for a switch box re-motivated me to want to get one, alongside finding them for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Anyways, if I were to get one, I'd want it to be one of the combination units, like the one I used before. I'd also want it to be either a JE Adams or Fraga-Matics unit. As for practical use/storage, I'm not entirely sure. I'm a little worried that it wouldn't be able to handle standard house current, but I've heard that there are some that use standard 120 volts. I also don't know how much these things usually weigh, so moving it might be a problem. Either way, I'd mainly use it as a sort of garage vac, either to clean my room, or cars if I were to leave it out in my driveway. If I were to keep it in my room, I'm wondering if there are any adapters that would allow me to run 1 1/4 attachments with it. Also, while bags may be out of the question for the machine, I'm wondering if there's any way to upgrade its filtration, as all they have for it is cloth filter-bags, and they work in a similar vein to a Beam or other similar central vac. Filtration doesn't seem to matter that much when used outdoors, but Indoors, that could be a problem.

What do you guys think about the idea? Is it plausible, or is it too crazy?



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My local

car wash just replaced their old car wash vacuums. The old one was picked up by a local hauling service. I did wonder if I could install one as well. I decided against it for a few reasons. First they are very bulky, Next they would be extremely hard to restore. People suck up everything with these
water, mud, there was even a lady who sucked up gasoline! Finally they might be hard to find. But if you can get past all these I think its a great idea!
 
KirbyMan65

A similar fate occurred at a car wash near me. They replaced their fleet of coin-op vacs with one of those central vac systems. Those seem to be becoming very popular as of late. Obviously, I think it's a little unrealistic to want one of those.

Like I said, I'm pretty sure these things are somewhat designed to suck up liquids, especially the shampooer combo units, but not like gallons and gallons of liquids. Gasoline is also a no-go, period, even for a wet-dry. However, if I had one I'd refrain from picking up liquids period, as it'd make a big mess inside the machine at the least.

As for them being hard to find, that's not the case (at least for me). There's a few of them that've popped up on Facebook Marketplace, or if was feeling like blowing $3000+, I could buy one new from Evacuumstore. The former go for around 200-300, so while I'd have to do some saving up, I could probably do it.



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The ones I have seen usually have two or three Lamb two stage motors (like the 116336 or the 119414) in parallel, giving them similar performance to an MD B/E2 or E3 (or the Filtex equivalent like TSP700L or TM285). They have plenty of room under the dome to play with different motor and control configurations, so you're not limited to the coin-op timer mechanism or motors they come with.

I thought about acquiring one years ago. My plan was to mount it outside (as they normally are installed) next to the trash cans and pipe it through the wall into the house, connected to piping and inlets. Outside exhaust, outside noise, outside debris disposal! But...neighbors and HOAs and so on. Glad that plan never came to fruition.

However, given this opportunity to live vicariously through you, I offer my wholehearted encouragement!
 
Centralvacs1928

That's certainly an... interesting concept you had going there., though if you had a garage, why not just put it in there, or that warehouse of a basement you have, since you already have a lengthy collection of central vacs down there. It'd wouldn't be too different.

Also, would the 2-3 motor units work on household current (as in the power from a standard electrical outlet)? The last thing I want is to blow a fuse in my house!
 
Do it!

I found mine on marketplace for 100, it was about a 3 hour trip away and I met up with some fellow collectors, or ex-collectors in that area. The coin box had been vandalized so gutting that part and bypassing it was the cheapest option to get it up and running.
It's really more bulky than heavy I managed to carry that thing by myself putting it up on my shoulder. It also fit, tightly, into the back of my Camry.
I see them every now and then for sale on marketplace or craigslist so keep your eyes on those and any other local classifieds.

As for the voltage/wattage. That will vary, mine is a dual motor machine runs off 120v and I think has a max amperage rating of 15
 
Blackheart

yeah, if I did get one with a good coin box, I'd still want to replicate your rig so that I wouldn't have to keep feeding it quarters every time I wanted to use it.

How heavy exactly is yours? They certainly look heavy, but after hearing your description of it, I'm guessing they're typically made of aluminum, which is a pretty light metal from what I've heard.

So does it running off of 120 volts mean that you're able to run it off of house current?

Also, what are its dimensions?
 
Typical "house current" is 240 volt single phase 200 amps.

You can run a lot of vac with that :D

Even if you acquired a three phase turbine type car wash vacuum, that could be operated off of a phase converter or a VFD.

But if you are talking about regular electrical outlets, that means you are pretty much limited to 120 volts, 15 or maybe 20 amps.
 
Centralvacs1928

I see, so I hopefully shouldn't have an issue plugging in one to an outlet in my room, or my dad's workshop, right?

And you're also saying I COULD get one of those car wash CVs, and NOT blow up my house trying to run it?!?!?! You know what, I just might go rob my local car wash of theirs :D















Just kidding :]
 
Got earplugs?

As far as using one of these machines indoors, aren't they kind of loud? Just curious because I recently used a new Kenmore shop vac after steam cleaning my carpet to speed up the drying time, and it was pretty loud. Are these machines about as loud as a shop vac? I'm sure it depends on brand and design but in general...
 
See if the dual motor car wash vacuum scratches your itch. Sound deadening foam inside the dome will help quite a bit. 


 


If you're left unfulfilled, then yes, in theory, a 25HP car wash vacuum could be run off a big enough VFD from your home's 200 amp electrical panel. You'd need some big wire to do the hookup, and you couldn't have much of anything else in the house running at the same time.


 


Such a system would provide a steady ~80" vacuum for up to 10 operators, and the CFM it handled (100 to 1000 approx) would vary with the number of hoses plugged in.


 


Get your wallet out!
 
Since that type of system is continuous duty, you wouldn't really have to ever turn it off. Why bother when you're just going to use it again tomorrow?


 


At $0.12/kWh, it would only cost you $3,600 per month in electricity. And in the winter, the turbine doubles as a cozy bedside heater and "white noise machine" for blissful slumber.
 
A household wiring system WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RUN A 25hp car wash vacuum. Plus the motor compressor unit is VERY large and mounted outside. A car wash out here had one. At best a home 120/240 v system may run single phase motors to 5hp. You will need the 60A range outlet to run the motor. Some wood workers home shops can have 5hp radial arm saws or 5hp table saws. And yes you can use a static solid state converter or a rotary one. My brother has both in his shop. He has extra buildings-his shop and garage that are fed from their own pole pig supplies-120/240V.
 
Centralvacs1928

I was joking about wanting to get one of those. Even if I did somehow have the money, space, lack of neighbors to complain about noise, and circuitry for such a system, I've never been as big into them as the coin-op versions. That said, they're kinda cool, but not my cup of tea. I think I'll stick to drooling over household central vacs for the time being :p
 
Tolivac

Sure it can. A VFD can take a single phase input (if you de-rate, for example my 10hp VFD can only run a 7.5hp 3phase motor off of a single phase input).

A 25hp motor draws about 175 amps at single phase 240 volts.

And the turbine is only about 2ft wide x 5ft long.
 

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