Thermax vacuum what the heck is this thing

[kirbyboy1]

OK the story starts about 3 weeks ago. I went in to our local junk shop. Except it not junk its more of random $hit. It looks like the man goes to yard sales at the end of the day and just buy random stuff that doesnt sell.

THen he asked me why I was looking for old vacuums I told him that I collect vacuums and just looking to see if he has any. He said" The guy that owns this store has a big barn full of old sweepers. I will give you his number if you wana call him." I called him that night and he informed me that he bought all of these vacuums off of a kirby dealer when she got a trade in he bought it. Well of course I asked if there were any filter queens he said he would check. SO yesterday I got a call from the mans wife saying that he took about 20 vacuums down to the store and wanted to see if I wanted to look at em. I got down there seeing 2 filter queens my heart skipped a beat. I went over and then my heart sank to my toes. Everythingw as rusted out completly. Then in the corner on top of a file cabinet. I see something. I reach for it. It was a thermax. I could bearly get it down. I looked at it then behind it were the wands pn and hose. I grabbed it and asked how much for it. He said you can have all the vacs in teh basemetn for 50 bucks but 3 bucks each. I gave him 3 bucks and I was out the door. I grabbed a nice fq hose and stuff. But as me and my nieghbor were walking into the groccery store. Me of course lookinng at the for sale board see a big yard sale sign underneath it says sweeper. So we head there next a beautiful hoover elite 350. Its in great shape except the idiots put 10 bucsk on the bag with a sharpie. I have a idea of geting it out though. btw I got it for 5 bucks instead of ten. LOl. Well i will post some pix tongiht. But how do you operate a thermax. Does anybody have any tools? Was there a rug shampooer. Well TTYL

 

[em-tor64]

At a quick glance....it seems very similar to a Rainbow.....

http://www.thermaxaf.com/

 

[vacuumfreeeke]

It is a water vac... a competitor to Rainbow, though I don't think they are very popular. I've never used one, but my aunt had as sales demo done when I was growing up.

About the marker on plastic... I bought a nice ergonomic keyboard from a thrift shop for 3 dollars a couple months ago (the same model sells for 60 bucks online) and they had written the price right on the keyboard... right over the white word Microsoft above the number keypad. Some alcohol on a cotton swab took it right off, but left everything else intact.

 

[xraytech]

I have never seen a Thermax Vacuum but my grandmother used to rent carpet shampooers and she had Rinse N Vac and then went to Thermax which was built exactly like a Rinse n Vac shampooer except was a little smaller and easier to handle, they do a great job shampooing.

 

[hoover_elite_20]

lets see the pix of the elite. i can't get enough of looking at them.

 

[kirbyvertibles]

I have alway wanted a thermax thought have never used one. Did it have more suction than the Rainbow or Hyla? It seems to me that all the water vacs had less suction that oth canisters.

 

[tolivac]

I used to have two Thermaxes but horsetraded them to one of the vac shops out here-he needed the parts from them.I got mine from the Kirby dealer.The power nozzles on both machines were in really sad shape.And not all of the tools came with the machines.In trying them-the suction on both was REALLY weak-honestly I could generate more suction by inhaling-maybe a gasket or some thing was missing.also the body of the machine had a tank in it you filled with cleaning solution.You used the floor shampooer or cleaner to work the cleaner into the carpet-then you sucked it up into the recovery container-which you could fill with water to its fill line for regular vacuuming.Also the machine had a pump in it to pump the solutiuon from the body tank to the floor or ulpostery you were cleaning.Also a hand ulposltery tool was supposed to come with the machine.I think the Thermax is really more for carpet spot cleaning and ulpolstery cleaning then as a vacuum cleaner.

 

[kirbyboy1]

I looked on thermax.com here mine is not very old. Its only about 3 or 5 years old. Its in great shape except the pn needs another wheel. i made some make shift attachments. They work for now. My friend who collects vacuums he lives about 5 minutes away he has a manual so Im going to photo copy it. TTYL. Thanks for all your help. ITs not a bad machine nothing like a filter queen though.

 

[cleaner1955]

how not to clean carpets

I know this is a very old posting but it deserves a response.
It's obvious you did not pre-treat the carpet, then expected the carpet cleaner to do all the work. Even a professional truck mounted unit would have pre-treated that huge spot in the middle of the room. Not knowing what cleaning chemicals you used is another matter.
That Thermax unit you rented has a 60psi pump and the vacuum motor generates 110 feet of lift it also has a heating element in the tank that keeps the water at 150 degrees HOT water cleans better than warm or cold water. There is a motorized Power Head which you obviously needed looking at the before picture. Actually the after photo looks pretty good considering what the before photo looks like.
In closing bad mouthing the equipment without giving details like pre-treating and chemicals used is not helpfull.