As a carpet cleaner of 20 some years who bought a new truckmount and slogged through the truck mount payments for the first 4 years, I can say with all honesty that this home made setup is the best way to go. Excellent job on the video!
For an electrically conducting enclosure like this steel drum, the green wire is a must for safety. It will save your life if the electricity somehow finds a way onto the drum and you happen to touch it. Put a ground screw on the cap and tie the green wire to it.
Nice! 50 years ago I cleaned with a wet-vac and connected to the customer's hot water supply! Your video brings back memories. I would recommend the lined 16 gauge barrel which I used for years, then went to a 100-lb Empty Propane Tank which holds less volume but taller and much thicker and lasts longer (my 4" pd blower sucked the 18 gauge barrels flat!!!) Also I would recommend a ~ $200ish pre-filter rather than just screen wire to keep airflow as high as possible. Eventually, I moved up to a home built, gas powered truck mount, but even that cost over $6,000; $2500 for the engine and $2500 more for the Sutorbuilt blower plus another $1,000 for a high pressure pump plus fittings. After 51 years of carpet cleaning, I found that the best tool for cleaning carpet is a grandson!!!
Your story proves that where there's a will there's a way! As for the drums, I've only found the 18 gauge locally. What type of liners did it have? I tried a lined drum once but it broke down in no time as it was some type of sprayed in coating. I've moved on from this setup but really wanted to show guys that you can start up on a shoestring if necessary. I've tossed around the idea of building a gas powered TM over the years and may even tinker with it in the future.
@@AllAmericanMack The "liner" was just sprayed on epoxy most likely. Seems like they would last a couple of years. The 100lb propane tanks seems to last over 5 years because the steel is much thicker. A good DIYer could rig a 12v automatic pump-out to keep the rinse water level lower. "Lots of ways to do lot's of things" is my motto! Best wishes!
Just sold my new portable to build this. Been following for a while. Give me a few days and I’ll try get some pics and vids to you. Pump and motor all sorted. Vac motors on their way. Little giant #3 on stand by. Looking forward to building this for this simple reason as you did. If it breaks down u can sort it really quickly and access all components fast. Only thing I’m deciding on is the steel drum or a 55gal stainless tank I can get hold of for pretty cheap. And very solid also to avoid implosion. My wife thinks I’ve lost my mind selling the new gear to build my own but she doesn’t do this every day like we do. We want ease of use and easy to fix/replace parts when needed. Cheers Mack really appreciate it
Great to hear you found the video useful! I would go with the stainless tank if it's in your budget and especially if it's a good deal. The drum will for sure get you by for a while but it's hard to compare it to a stainless tank. I can see where your wife is coming from, but I used portables in the past and never want to fool with that hassle again. Good luck with the build and I think in the end you'll be glad you went with the simple route.
Hey Aaron Pace what did you end up using for your waste tank? And how do you like the setup so far? Going to be building this hopefully by the end of the month.
I know im late to the video but i just wanted to say, if you get tired of buying new barrels every other year or so, you could use pond shield or pool paint to keep the inside from rusting out on you. Thanks for the video, its amazing what people can do with a little ingenuity!
It's good to see that someone else can see the light and took the step. My unit is a Bane-Clene. Who cares what those fools say. They believe in spending money for bragging rights. But, results are all that matter. Great video.
Thank you and I very agree with you (by my own experience). I'm sure ... this simple equipment is working better and last longer then all my Mytee equipment (in the last 15 years). Thanks one more time!
As I said in the video, I always thought I would "upgrade" at some point but as time went on, I just couldn't figure out why I needed to lol. Maybe if I was doing more volume but I rarely do more than two jobs per day and a lot of them are VLM these days. I have a love/hate thing with Mytee. I like their equipment but it always seems to fail prematurely. Thanks for watching!👍👍
Thank You Sir ! I Appreciate All the Time , Money, and Giving Your Input on Everything. Hard To Find Guys Like You Anymore. Hope people realize that, This Video is Huge !! Merry Christmas to You and Your Family , Stay Safe..
Just a recommendation . You can get 1/4 inch air hose with a 300 psi rating. It’s a lot more flexible and much smaller outer diameter. Harbor freight sells 1/4 clear , blue air hose . I’m pretty sure you can use a portable hot water heater that runs on propane .
Great idea. I think if you set the barrel up on a pallet, you would be able to use some cheap steel plumbing straight through the bottom with a 90 ran to a basic ball valve.
For the rest of the system you need to either connect the wand to a hot water faucet or get a pump and a heater. I use a Water Otter 1200 psi pump and a Little Giant propane heater.
That's badass brother I just bought a vein clean truck mount unit the other day for 300 bucks but I spent 500 bucks just on a hand tool and some fittings water line cost me about 250 bucks and then 150 ft of vacuum hose I'm in it's right now for at least 1500 bucks
That's a heck of a deal there. I've looked around locally over the years for both a Bane or just a traditional gas powered project truckmount but any of the ones I've come across have been so trashed that they weren't something I wanted to fool with. I'd love to find an older TCS machine to refurbish. Of course I've been using my current setup for so long, I may never get rid of it at this point lol.
Wow ... my first thoughts were after watching this were.. you could potentially make these and sell them yourself. and market them as budget logical TM carpet cleaning machines... but in effect if you add wheels onto the bootom they also become or could become portables ... brilliant . video... many many thanks....
Thank you for watching. Many years ago when I had used a 30 gallon drum, I strapped it onto a dolly ever so often when I needed it to be portable. As far as selling them, if things don't pick up soon from this coronavirus stuff, I might have to!
All-American Mac I will never buy another porti again after watching this video my last portable cost me 3,600.00 now I do 60 to 80 thousand square foot of carpet per month with all portable units and I do have a truck mount to
Great job in this video, FYI whenever a wholesaw or circular saw is being used on painted steel it's best to cut the whole smaller and use a pair of sheet metal right angle snips (red and green offset pair like Midwest) to snip the final whole . What this dose is transfers the galvanized layer and this won't rust . All painted metal drums are galvanized ,primered then painted
finally got my 3 stage 5.7 1200 watt vac motors in. i have the tanks mounted on their side so i have room for hose reel and loading long rugs. i only have 60 ft of hose so i need to get more. i have a autoreel extension cord and autoreel for the solution hose. im gonna mount them to the side doors. man! its gonna be way easier than hauling a 150 lb porty into places
Congrats on getting everything together, sounds like a nice setup. I hope you will make a video of it, I'd love to see it and I'm sure others will too. I totally agree about the porty. My first machine was a Mytee and my first regular account was for a property management company with four apartment complexes. I quickly started to *HATE* pulling that thing up stairs. I even took the heater out to make it lighter. I would rather give up carpet cleaning than go with a portable again.
I'm just in the process of making one of these (three motors though as UK power can handle the amps no probs) and found your video while searching for inspiration. I would have connected the ground/earth wires to the drum, but other than that nice job.
Hi James, I am planning to also make this build in the UK, any chance you can give me a little info on your progression? I am planning on using the 8.4 vacs but I am worried that it will suck the barrel flat.
Ill never have the need but I still found this interesting. For some reason I always prefer diy stuff over commercially made products. You always get exactly what you want for far less.
I've been cleaning since 1987 as a sole proprietor. My average hose runs for even some of the bigger homes is less than 100 ft. I very occasionally go up to 125 ft. My machine can go over 200 ft. but I can probably count on one hand the times I've needed to do that and I've done some of the largest homes in SE Missouri as well as numerous churches and businesses. I'd say 100 ft. of hose does well over 90% of all the jobs I've done since 1987. That is probably why even most truck-mounted machines are only sold with 100 ft. of vacuum and solution hoses to get you started and almost all of them have the AW-29 wand. I would recommend getting at least 150 ft. ASAP when starting out or you might get yourself embarrassed.
That's beautiful area. My dad is from Mountain View Ar so I've made a lot of trips to south Missouri and N Arkansas, been to Mammoth Springs a couple times also. I've always thought that those areas are at the top of my list when I retire.
Just to increase more information to your video, you also can use two 8.4 in vaccum motors, I have been using for almost 6 months without any problem, I also added a water pump out. I use a pressure washer 1.600psi with pressure regulator and gauge. I use between 300/1.200psi. Thank you again for the great idea. Dino.
@@benfox7281 You can use 2 vacuum motors 8.4in without any problem. I just installed the 2 vacuums on top of the barrel, to save space, they work perfectly good.
@@paulchacon8055 the pressure washer is 1.2 GPM but i use a pressure regulator, normally i use between 400/700psi, and yes, the 2 vacuums, they work perfect.
I haven't but it's not going to be strong enough without some type of *major* reinforcement. But even then I think fatigue would cause it to fail pretty quickly.
Woww Good video!!!! How could i use this for tile and grout as well as carpet cleaning and extraction....is there a particular pump that you can direct me to that can draw the higher psi? And what level of cord do you use for from generator to customers house?
From what I've been told, many pumpouts can be finicky and unreliable which is the reason I never really considered one and some are *very* expensive. It does seem like maybe a good bildge pump with really good filtering would work but again, I don't know if or how well it would hold up, but maybe it would. To answer your question though, I've looked before but never found any economical plans for one.
@@AllAmericanMack Thanks for the reply, yeah I've seen the prices for pump out options, been trying to convince the boss man there are better ways than to empty a wet vac 20 times at 120 feet and sump pumps aren't feasible... while I'm not in the carpet cleaning business we would have great use for a DIY ETM machine at our facilities and I do appreciate the KISS principle with the build and how easy it's to add features as needed.
This is definitely the best video I have seen for building vacuum systems. I have some ideas and questions I would like to talk to you about, if you had some time.
thank you I run a mobile auto detailing service and I need this I was never going to spent the money on a carpet extractor due to suction and bulkiness over saturation .. I need simple and clean now I need to modify It a bit , and add a filter for dry debris and take out when extracting . plus i can use it as a water reclamation vacuum which those run up words 1500-3000 plus a extractor 1800... thank you two motors one dry one wet ill figure it out
It is a simple concept and that's what I like about it. I find the electrical a bit concerning but other than that, nicely done. Have you considered coating the interior of the barrel with paint to extend the life?
I've thought about it but didn't really know what would hold up to constant water and chemicals. There's bound to be something but I just don't know what. There would also have to be a lot of prep work to the inside to get whatever it is to adhere. I just know that the coating available from the drum manufactures only makes it about a week before coming off.
That's a good idea and I would like for someone to try it long term and see how it holds up. I wonder if holding water and chemicals might effect the liner over time. I don't know but would love to find out.
Not that you would want to, but I added a double filter system to the drum. First, I used a drop-tube from the lid intake, to near the bottom of the tank, and a 90 there. The idea is to make the water spin. This will cut down on the amount of anti-foam you will have to use - to like a tenth. That crap was expensive in the day and didn't work well. You know the story. Then I would attach a pantyhose leg to the exit (90) and it would just stretch and keep itself out of the way. That will catch the sludge that normally won't drain - just sits on the bottom like rock. Clay or powders are the worst. You just end up with a tube of the stuff and you will know when you should check it. Finally I added a hose-hoop filter near the top of the tank. Stretch the butt-portion of a panty hose over it - should fit just get XXL! This will keep the water from splashing into the motors. Probably not a problem with those - but for a big shop vac it is.
That's some pretty good engineering there! And also some good advancements for those who want to step things up to the next level. I never had much problem with foam except when cleaning after someone who cleaned their carpet themselves with something like a Rug Doctor or home shampooer. Man, sometimes they would really over do it though. I carried Downy fabric softener for those jobs and it would knock the foam down quick! The pantyhose idea is good too and I know some guys running Mytee equipment use those.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication , i’ve been in a carpet cleaning business for 20 years I had a dyna chem 2000 truck mounted from Cobb carpet supply ,and it served me well until two months ago when I made a stupid mistake and it caught fire and my entire livelihood went up in flames. now I got me a Namco Scooter portable😢😢and now that I saw your video you gave me hope man I’m gonna build me one like the one on your video thank you man,,,,, One question😮 do you think 3 vacuum motors might work ?
I've always liked the simplicity of the Dynachem truckmounts. If I were to go out and buy a truckmount, I'd either get a Dynachem or a TCS machine, probably a Warrior because they both are no frills design and I could work on them myself. If you go back and check out many of my carpet cleaning videos, I show what my machine looks like now. Same basic concept as in that video but using one of the Mytee waste tanks. If at all possible, I would recommend getting the Mytee waste tank because it's going to last a lot longer than using a drum however the drum does work fine, it just has a shorter life. As for using 3 vacuum motors, I think that would be fine but there would be a lot more benefit in using two vacuum motors on the machine and using one vacuum motor closer to the wand. I see Steambrite has a pass through vac booster that they make in-house that seems like it would be perfect as an inline vac booster for an electric truckmount. With all that said, I've been quite satisfied with the performance of using just a two vac system and if I were to add a third vac, it would definitely be inline between the wand and the machine. I've actually been thinking of building one of those vac boosters like Steambrite has just to see how much difference it would make. One more thing, I would *highly* recommend using the vacuum motors I suggest in the video, the Ametek 116765-13 vacs. I've talked to quite a few guys who have tried to build a system like this and they chose to use other vacuum motors that claimed better performance numbers and were not happy with the vacuum. One guy even used 4 vac motors and the vacuum at 150 feet sucked.... or I should say, didn't suck lol. A lot of the other vac motors specs look good on paper but fail to perform in the real world. A lot of them also need to be plumbed in series to get the cfm and lift that they claim but an electric truckmount needs to be plumbed in parallel so those vac motors are not best suited for the job. No matter how you decide to build it, I'd appreciate if you'd make a video showing how it came out. I'm always interested to see what others have come up with.
I actually used to do that. There is a hole on a tab on the side of the motors and I would add a screw and washer to ground it there. Grounding it just seems to me like a good idea but I've been running them for several years without the ground without any issues but agree that going ahead and grounding it would certainly wouldn't hurt anything.
These vacs are tangential bypass and aren't designed to have dirty air passing through them. If you could rig up a good filter system then it might be doable though.
As a home owner that just hired a cleaner. What if we built something like this to a shop vac and hot water? How would we inject cleaner inline? Does hot water vs steam make that much difference?
Vacmaster makes something like that, a shop vac that has a wand and I think it has a water reservoir but don't think you can use very hot water with it. But to answer your question, a shop vac, a wand, and an air hose line, one end connected to to the wand and the other connected to a hot water faucet will do the trick. It would probably be kind of cumbersome, but would work. As long as the shop vac was fairly powerful, you could get the longer vacuum hose kit that would make things easier. That's essentially what I was doing in the video. Connecting to a hot water faucet does work, you get less pressure but with larger jets on the wand, you get good flow and it works. I cleaned using a system like that for the first year I cleaned carpets. I think it would be difficult to rig up a chemical injector but it's completely not needed. Just prespray the carpet with your cleaner of choice and extract it with the setup. Many carpet cleaners, me included, don't inject any cleaners into our rinse water. Just prespray and rinse with hot, fresh water. As far as steam vs hot water, everyone is using just hot water. It's called steam cleaning but it's kind of a misnomer because the cleaning is done with hot water and the steam is just a byproduct of the hot water. All the steam rising from the wand during cleaning *looks* impressive, but it's not doing anything, the hot, pressurized water is what's doing the cleaning.
Check out around 35 minutes. It's the sheet metal attached to the bottom of the lid that I formed into a U shape to seperate the incoming water from the vacuum stacks.
Great job on your video. Im going to build this for sure. I was wondering if you have any ideas to quite some of the noise coming from the motors? I work as a maintenance guy for a assisted living facility so just wondering about the noise level.
I've seen some mufflers like this one-> www.steam-brite.com/mytee-a949-carpet-cleaning-muffler-silencer-speedster-series-extractors-pair-p-11251.html but don't know much about how they are constructed. If you watch the video on that link you can see they did quiet the vac motors in that machine down but it wasn't by much and makes me wonder if it would even be worth it. Also I would be a bit concerned that they may restrict the output a bit which may effect their performance. That's really the only way I know of to potentially help minimize the noise other than leaving the machine outside although I know that may not always be practical. But also remember that you can run about 150' of hose from the machine and have good vacuum. You can go a little more than that and I have on occasion but you will notice less suction although some extra dry passes can easily make up for it.
I don't have a parts list mainly just because I didn't think about making one at the time of the video. I know the video is kind of long but I went over each part and where to get it in the video. It's been a several years since I made it so I don't remember exactly all the info like screw sizes, hole sizes and things like that.
Excellent video and I have been trying to find a such video on this type of project! Thank You 🙏 I did notice that you didn’t even have a items list or part/item numbers listed below? Please send them because I am interested in building one of them! I would like to make a suggestion for your rusting issues. You can add FLEX-SEAL to the inside of your drum to waterproof it plus for a bonus it would not leak. lol Keep up the great work 👍
I used an AW29 style wand with 3/8" air hose with a faucet adapter that connected to the kitchen or bathroom faucet for hot water so you get hot water directly from the faucet to the wand.
This is such amazing ingenuity!!! I'm keeping this as a favorite video. I will be building one instead of buying a portable extractor. This will be able to handle a rotovac 360i I'm sure correct? I actually havnt started my carpet cleaning business yet and have no experience but I know I'm going with a rotovac 360i.
The vacuum shouldn't have any problem with the Rotovac, I think the pump you choose will be the deciding factor. I've never used the Rotovac so I'm not sure of the pump gpm or psi required to run them. If you check some of my other videos, you can see the pump I'm currently using which I think would be a good option. Another option would be the Pumptec 356 pumps which is what I used previously.
I run a rotovac 360i with a porty that has 2 3 stage vacs and a 500 psi pump that i run at 200 psi. it does great with 50’ of hose. anymore and you will have to do more dry passes and run airmovers. I run airmovers regardless for quick dry times as should all tech’s.
A lot depends in which vacuum motors are used. The 116765-13's that I use very powerful, especially in a parallel setup. The Mytee LX's are probably even more powerful and both can run up to 150' of hose. I have a Mytee Air Hog with those LX motors and it has insane vacuum.
Dang should have done this. I have 2 Black Max porties side by side connected together by T’s at every port. It works ok but I want to get a generator so im not spending 30 min trying to run extention cords everywhere.
Dealing with cords in addition to a spaghetti nest of hoses sucks which is the reason I like to use the generator. I just went with a smaller pump so I can easily run everything off of two cords if need be. My generator needs replacing and now I can go with a smaller, cheaper model.
Good luck and I'll tell you why. In the last 2 months I've bought 2 brand new generators and while they ran fine, neither one would make power. One was the Harbor Freight Predetor 9000 watt and the other was a Blackmax 9300 watt. I ended up returning both so I'm still looking. Unfortunately, we've had several hurricanes lately and another is supposed to hit in 2 days so generators are in short supply here.
Excellent video brother 👍 I will build this but I will do a emerging hot water tank to go green as much as possible using a emerging converted hot water heater converted to 115 vote I have 165 degrees at the wand running 220 aquatec pump twisted up a little getting 265 psi at wand 2 cord unit
How do you like that aquatec? I considered getting one for the video but had already spent a lot and wasn't sure how they performed. I had tried a shurflo 150 psi some years back and wasn't impressed.
That 220 AquaTech performs well I turn mine up to about 250 to 265 they do about 1.4 gal per minute for carpet cleaning that good flow they use less than 2amps and they can handle 170degrees
For tile and grout l just use a cheap electric pressure washer in a 12in spinner you got 50 gallons of good hot water you can do a lot of tile before you had to refill and wait for heat 🔥 up l run 95015 jet on spinner that reduses the psi down to about 1200psi
I think an auto dump would be great. I've thought about that myself but the good ones were so expensive that I never did it. If you know of a reliable auto dump that was reasonably priced please let me know. I've even thought about tinkering with it and trying to build one myself one of these days.
Looking for something exactly like this online but didn't want a portable. Mainly cuz they have low suction. I bet this thing gets decent suction from the looks of it... You could probably add a guage to the inlet couldn't you? Anyways, big thanks for the share!
You could add a guage if you wanted to see how much vacuum it has although I never put too emphasis on the numbers as much as I do actual perfermance. Vacuum is pretty good so it will do dry times in the 4-6 hour range at 150' of hose.
What kind of suction do you get with 2 vacuums? Is 2 enough? Would 3 vacuums be overkill?? Also, what do you do for the water supply? You have the vacuum, but no water supply for the water lines... 🤔
Towards the end of the video I cleaned a rug to show one option of water supply and how I cleaned for about a year but I also discussed other options. Check out my other electric truckmount videos and you can see a couple different pumps I've used over the years. 2 vacs has been enough for almost 14 years. More vacuum motors won't hurt but just aren't necessary. I have enough cfm and lift to run 150 feet of hose on a regular basis and occasionally 200 feet. Dry times are in the 4-6 hour range. You would be better off adding an inline vacuum booster rather than a third vacuum at the machine if you want more suction but after using this equipment for so many years I can tell you it does fine with two vacs I use.
@@AllAmericanMack Also, how much electrical wire do you need to be able to plug in? It seems like you would need some long electrical wires to reach the nearest outlet. Do you have like 100' to 150' of wire??
The problem with doing that is the motors I used are not designed to have dirt and dust run through them so you would need to figure out a very efficient filter system.
Thanks for this I have a van that is to small for the truck mount that I bought so I had to put it in a trailer. My van is wrapped with my advertisement and also my trailer . I always wanted to build a back up for my van because like you said I my warrior truck mount pilot keeps going out on every other job . I tested the thermocouple being that I know maintenance and a little bit about gas . The thermocouple gives of a signal but the flame still goes out. I changed it with one from supply house company but it doesn't look the same and the original one is on back order so I'm losing money daily. On the system I see where to buy the pumps and I can do plumbing and cut out holes but where can I buy the drum ?
If I remember correctly, they said it didn't matter which wire went where. I think the old motors had a black wire and a white wire and the newer ones have both black so I had to check on it myself on the last batch or two. I'd google it to be sure but from what I remember, it doesn't matter which wire is hot.
I didn't have any shutoff on it but after approximately 3 or 4 rooms, depending on size, knew it needed to be emptied. You could get some of the ball shutoff cages like portable extractors have and put those on if you wanted. There were a few times I sucked water through the vac motors but I just sprayed a little WD-40 into them and kept them running, never seemed to shorten their life or anything.
What are your thoughts on just using this as a shop vac and occasional extractor for car detailing? It will def suck the chrome off a trailer hitch....
The only issue with that is you would need to incorporate some type of dry soil filter onto it. I don't think it would be too hard to adapt some type of paper pleated and/or foam filter into the system and you're right, it would make one heck of a shop vac!
I just ordered these motors, picking up a 55 gal drum tomorrow. Can I ask what a good filter would be to keep dust down? (I'm going to use this for residential HVAC & coil cleaning)
If I were to use it as a dry vac, I would try using a shop vac foam filters secured over the vacuum stacks on the underside of the lid and also use one of the prefilter bags over that. I'm sure you could rig it up to use one of the pleated paper shop vac filters if you can figure out which fittings are needed but it may be a hassle trying to do that.
@@AllAmericanMack Thanks for the response. I'm off into uncharted territory here. I am usually a pressure washer guy, but winter hits and I don't have work for months on end. I'll make a video of my build and link you.
Yes, please share it so it helps each other as well as others. I love seeing home built ETM's and how well they work. Been watching your videos also, good job!👍👍👍
its a great job thanks man , i want to ask you if you can make it work with steam can you ? because you know how overprice those machines steam cleaning machines thanks .
Hey partner, I'm curious if it was 4 vac motors instead of 2, would the lid be strong enough for 4 vac motors? I'm planning on building mine with 4 vac motors.
I've seen some people build them with 4 vac motors so I guess it would be since no one has said that it wasn't strong enough but you don't need 4 vacs *if* you use the vacs I use though. You would be better off putting a vac booster somewhere between the machine and the wand because that would give you more vacuum at the wand than putting 2 more vacs on the machine.
Question....thinking about starting a portal potty business and using this vac set up to transfer to an rv transfer tank from there to take it to the dump station....any thoughts on using this set up to empty portal pottys..it is for a side hustle only..extra money
I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work as long as the vacs are baffled properly. I've not only used mine for minor flood work (including in my own house when my washing machine tub fell off and dumped water across my laundry, kitchen and living room) but also to help clear my sewage line a few times. I've got an extremely long run between my house and the septic tank, so long that I have to have 3 cleanouts. It also means there's not much of a grade so it tends to clog easily. I've jetted it before but have found that if I stick the vacuum hose in whatever cleanout is *before* the clog, I don't run the risk of the clog being an issue further down the line. It's handled poop and toilet paper easily.
@AllAmericanMack thank you for the video and for taking the time for the responded....like I say thinking about renting a portal potty here and there for backyard parties...I got 3 kiddos and one of them is going to college...but you never know my brother maybe it starts as a side hustle and it grows
No problem. It seems like it could be a viable business. Have you considered starting a carpet cleaning business? Heck, if you're going to have the vacuum system, you could add a pump and heater and have all the main components. Just something to think about.
i have a question... so im building this this thing and ive watched all your videos but i cant find this answer..what type of hose do you use for the vaccumm part is it just a simple "vaccumm" hose or some kind of special crush proof lined hose? i like this because of its simplicity and im only building this for me to clean my own home just tired of not good enough carpet "sweeper" cleaners thanks so much
Hey, sorry it took me a while to respond, sometimes the comments get buried. If you're talking about the hose from the machine to the wand, it's just regular carpet cleaning vacuum hose. I use 2" but you can also use 1 1/2". It's available from any carpet cleaning supply company, online, ebay, etc. You could also use some 1 1/2" pool hose from Lowes but would need to get the hose cuffs for each end.
thanks so much for responding i greatly appreciate you taking your time to help out i just need solution hose which ive decided to use simple air hose hooked to the sink and some kind of contraption to get solution in the water line any cheap simple ideas on that?
For the first couple years I used air hose from Harbor Freight and it worked fine with hot tap water and I still use it for my supply line to my pump. I'm not sure how to inject chemicals inline with a tap pressure setup though. I'll tell you though, even now I still just use a fresh water rinse and get great results. Contrary to what a lot of people claim, especially the chemical manufacturers, using a rinse is really not necessary imo and there's a lot of cleaners who would agree with that. People are always concerned with the carpet being crunchy from reaidue but in all my years I've never experienced that or any rapid resoiling and I always test new chemicals out on my carpet before using them. So just something to think about.
Mount just one of the vacuum motors on the lid like in the video and mount the second vac on its side (with L brackets or a large hose clamp) then connect the vacuum of the second vac motor to the exhaust of the first vac motor. I would only do this for short hose runs like 50' or less though because parallel is much better for 100-150' runs.
So I built this it works beautifully, however the motor keeps tripping the electricity. The are plugged into different plugs but it doesn't matter after it runs a while it shuts down. Have you delt with this before? I'm planning on getting a generator later but for now I'm working off plug outlets.
I haven't had any problems with that as long as they are plugged into seperate plugs *and seperate breakers* also. So if you were to plug them into different outlets in maybe a living, they could still be on the same breaker so it would be better to plug one into the living room and one into the kitchen or maybe one in the living room and one into an outside receptical. Which vacuum motors are you using? If it's the 116765-13's like I have, they can pull a maximum of just over 13 amps each but every time I've measured them it's usually about 9-10 amps running and 11 or so at startup. It does sound like maybe they are on the same breaker though because usually the machine will run for a while until the breaker gets too hot then it will trip. Try being 100% sure they are on different breakers and see if that's the issue. The only other things I can think of is if it's a really old house with old wiring and outlets where not enough electricity is available or there are other things running on both the circuits you are plugging into.
It's literally a *huge* difference. Even though these vac motors are very powerful, it really does take two of them to be able to use any real length of hose unless maybe you are only using something like 25 feet. At 125 feet, just one vac motor feels like there's almost no vacuum but with both on, there's a lot of suction.
Cool and thanks for your help I have a 55 gallon drum with one on so far and it works but I wouldn't say it's any stronger than a shop vac . I will eventually be getting a second but boy are these little motors expensive at $100 a pop
And you say not to get hung up on numbers BUT these motors you use here are litteraly the cream of the crop when it comes to 5.7 motors and have the highest numbers for that size I've seen lol
When I said that about the numbers I was referring to the 6.6 Mytee vac motors and there's another one, maybe the 8.4? that show impressive lift and cfm, more than the 116765-13's and have been all the rage for a few years but I don't think they are as good or last as long. I have a Mytee Air Hog that has the 6.6's setup in series and it has great vac at the machine but when I put on 125 feet of hose I didn't think it had the vacuum of my system. You can run both vac motors and a pump *if* you get a pump with lower amp draw. I used a Pumptec 500 psi pump for a while and ran it on the same cord as one of the vacs, I think it only drew about 1.4 amps max. An electric heater is going to draw a *lot* of juice so it would need to be on a seperate cord and circuit.
@All American Mack sweet. That's what I figured I'll have to do. Put one vac on a cord with a pump, and one on with a 1000 or 1500 watt heater for our new modified cobra extractor we're putting together
This is great. Just wondering if I could source the same parts in the UK. Hmm. Not for commercial use, be great little project to replace my portable machine I use to do my own carpets. Although may be a bit overkill!
If the parts are available, you could make something like this but on a slightly smaller scale like using a smaller drum (30 gallon maybe) and just one vacuum motor if you don't need real long hose runs.
It's hard to say since I've never used more than two but if I had to guess, I "think" it would probably handle three. But what I've been thinking is adding an inline booster vac closer to the wand would be more beneficial. I'm toying with the idea of trying to build one. Honestly, I rarely need one, but it would be nice for rare, super long hose runs of 200+ feet.
You could but I don't know if it would hold up long term with the water and chemicals sitting in it. It may, I just don't know. Might be worth trying though.
I've seen some people use them and even had some say in the comments that they are using one. As long as it has decent pressure and flow, I think it should work just fine.
I ripped apart and modified many portables, about too do same again to make a hybrid truck mount,but stubble across your video, you got me thinking, what do you think of using PVC Drums, I have few 50 gallon and a 60 gallon Food Grade Drums sitting out back.
I have a Mobile Car Detail Cleaning business in Calgary, Canada. I just finished my version 5 vacuum vessel out of plywood and coated with 2 part epoxy/polyurethane rubber. But the main problem is our earlier versions collapsed due to flexing. I like your idea of using Oil Drums. I think they won't collapse or fall apart like plywood coated in rubber. I see that your vacuum motors are in Parallel, Which do you think is better: in parallel or in series?
Can I just go with one bigger motor vs 2 of them ? I’ll be using to recover pressure washing run off do you think these motors will withstand the elements
I think the motors should be fine as long as they're covered and and not exposed to the elements. Some portable carpet extractors only use one motor but they are extremely limited in the amount of hose they can use, usually 25' or less. The motors I use are powerful but if I only run one of them at a time, suction is very weak. I guess it depend in how you would set it up but I would think two motors would be *much* more efficient. You could also go with smaller motors like the 116565-13's if amp draw is an issue.
Nice product but every time I run both pumps at the same time I keep tripping the breaker any thoughts. The difference is you wired each into its own cord. I wired each with its own plug and plugged both into same heavy duty cord. Even if I used separate cords for both and plugged both into the garage all those outlets on the same breaker so it should not make a difference.
Sorry it took a while to get back to you, I get a lot of comments and sometimes they get buried. So it sounds like you are plugging both vac motors into outlets on the same breaker right? If so, it's pulling too much juice. Typically I've found if both vac motors are plugged into a 20 amp outlet they will run for a short time and then the breaker gets hot and will trip and if it's a 15 amp outlet they may trip the breaker right away. Each vac motor needs to be plugged into seperate outlets on seperate breakers and thats why I used seperate cords for each one. Try plugging one into the garage and the other into the living room or kitchen and see if that works for you.
Hey Mack. I appreciate this video. I copied your home made design and been running for a few months now. Now I just purchased a total of 4 dual stage Ametek 8.4 motors. I am thinking about running all four motors in series parallel. Each motor pulls 143.5 cfm. So in theory all four would pull 566 cfm. I’m still figuring out lift. Thoughts?
I've always thought that 4 vacs in series parallel would probably be an ideal setup for an electric truckmount. I can't remember for sure but I think there's a formula for figuring cfm and lift with multiple vac motors but I can't remember what it is. But really with that configuration, the machine should have a ton of vac. As long as you have the power for it, I think it would be great.
@@AllAmericanMack You are are correct. I stand corrected when I mentioned 143.5 cfm. Each motor is 141.5 according to Ametek. So yes 566 cfm at the machine and I average 390cfm at 150 Feet with 2 inch hose. I've learned my dry times really kick butt with a rotovac hand wand running a few dry passes. The weight of the rotovac defiantly helps squeezes out water from each carpet strand. I too run a wand and depending how I feel or the condition of each home is, is where I decide how to clean.
That sounds like a great setup with plenty of power and very impressive numbers! I bet it will hang with the best of gas powered truckmount, except maybe an Aerotech!! Seriously though, great job putting something like it together. I's love to see a video of it!
Hey I am back again Mack. Today I visited a friendly local carpet cleaner and he fired up his old school gas powered panther. That suction on his machine was incredible. Made my 4 dual stage 8.4 Ametek motors feel like I am working with a portable. Thoughts? I know you’re not looking at my build but I am curious why four motors now doesn’t seem so attractive. I’ve tried setting the motors in series but I was never pleased. Parallel is definitely the way to go. I still feel like such a newbie.
When I first started cleaning, I worked for a company that used regular truckmounts with large 56 blowers if I remember correctly so they were pretty powerful. When I went on my own, I bought and used several portables which, of course, were less powerful. Proportionately with less hose on the portables, I didn't find significant differences in dry times. I copied the vacuum system of my ETM from the old Stockwell ETM's made long before ETM's were popular. The Nordic and Savage ETM's also used just two vac motors. The thing is, it's hard to compare a positive displacement blower to tangential bypass vacuum motors because the positive displacement blower will always be more powerful by design so it's an apples to oranges type of deal. What really matters is, does your system do a good job of extracting the water and does it get good dry times? People often get hung up on the cfm and lift numbers and while they do matter, what matters most is if the system works for you. The maker of the Nordic ETM's used to say it doesn't take a huge system to effectively move a gallon if water per minute through your hoses and into the waste tank. When I built my first system I was concerned about it's efficiency compared to the traditional truckmount I had been using while working for someone else but I soon found that it simply wasn't an issue. Look at it like this, if you were deer hunting with a 30.06, but your friend was using a .50 cal., his gun would be a lot more powerful but is it really needed to do the job? My dry times are around 4 hours for most jobs running 600 psi at just under a gallon per minute so I know it's extracting enough water to get the carpets reasonably dry and do a good job so I don't give any thought to my main competitor who runs a new Butler..... except that he has one heck of a payment to make on his van and machine before he starts making any profit and I can do the same exact thing he does! I thought that I would evently upgrade to a traditional truckmount after a few years but found that the reliability, efficiency, and extremely low cost of my system gave me everything I wanted.
I am going to try the same idea with some changes: (1) Having only 1, 116765 Lamb Motor. (2) Having a 5-Gallon Steel Drum. (3) Using a Circle Water Filter (from my shop vac that fits perfectly on a steel 5-gallon bucket lid). How do you think my design will do? I will be using it to detail cars, so I do not need as much water as a 30/50-gallon drum.
@@AllAmericanMackCool! I got the idea from your video, since I didn't want to pay $2000 for a good extractor. I will be using it for a dry and wet vac. The filter I put on from my old shop vac has a wet and a dry filter that you change out. So it can be used for extraction and dry based on the filter and what nozzel tool I put on it.
Ok, the only potential issue I see when using it for wet extraction is to make sure that there is enough room for the extracted water so it's not sucked into the vacuum motor. I don't know how big the filter is but you just have to remember even though the drum is five gallons, you won't be able to recover a full five gallons since there needs to be a buffer zone between the vac motor and the water so it doesn't get pulled into the vac motor. The filter may be able to act as a baffle also which would be great. For example, on the 55 gallon drum, the usable area is somewhere around 40-45 gallons before the water starts getting pulled into the vacs.
Would this be overkill as a water extractor for detailing? If I put a filter on the vacuum motors I could have probably 2 vacuum hoses running off of this I bet.
I think it would work great for detailing and give great dry times with the short hose runs even if you run two hoses. You could even strap it to a dolly if you need to move it around much.
The most I have used is 175' which is all the hose I carry, anything further is going to be cleaned with VLM. For most residential jobs I use 125' or less so it has plenty of vacuum for that.
I think it would work great for detailing and some others have commented that they wanted to build a setup like this for the same thing. You may only need to use one vac motor if you will only have short hose runs.
Little Giant. I've owned two of them and with very minimal maintenance they are reliable and almost trouble-free. The one I have now I've been using since 2012 and the only things I have done is clean the jets on the burner ring every couple years and replaced the thermocouple once. They now offer the higher pressure models also for things like tile cleaning. They are expensive *but* they last a long time and need very little maintenance.
I always used regular 55 gallon steel drums that I bought locally for about $65. I think a stainless drum would be great but on top of being very expensive, you would need to be extra careful not to make any mistakes when cutting it.
@@AllAmericanMack I found some brand new ones for $25 each locally. I am going to pick up 3 of them. One is going to be for a vac, one for a sand trap, and the other will be a backup
@@AllAmericanMack did an even better. Got them for $8 each. The vac motors were $113 each. I bet when it's all said and done I'll have less than $300 all in.
As a carpet cleaner of 20 some years who bought a new truckmount and slogged through the truck mount payments for the first 4 years, I can say with all honesty that this home made setup is the best way to go. Excellent job on the video!
Does anyone have a parts list and parts numbers ware to get them ?? If so please list them thanks
This is the kind of information the internet is best for. Thank you very much for taking the time to teach and share.
For an electrically conducting enclosure like this steel drum, the green wire is a must for safety. It will save your life if the electricity somehow finds a way onto the drum and you happen to touch it. Put a ground screw on the cap and tie the green wire to it.
Nice! 50 years ago I cleaned with a wet-vac and connected to the customer's hot water supply! Your video brings back memories. I would recommend the lined 16 gauge barrel which I used for years, then went to a 100-lb Empty Propane Tank which holds less volume but taller and much thicker and lasts longer (my 4" pd blower sucked the 18 gauge barrels flat!!!) Also I would recommend a ~ $200ish pre-filter rather than just screen wire to keep airflow as high as possible. Eventually, I moved up to a home built, gas powered truck mount, but even that cost over $6,000; $2500 for the engine and $2500 more for the Sutorbuilt blower plus another $1,000 for a high pressure pump plus fittings. After 51 years of carpet cleaning, I found that the best tool for cleaning carpet is a grandson!!!
Your story proves that where there's a will there's a way! As for the drums, I've only found the 18 gauge locally. What type of liners did it have? I tried a lined drum once but it broke down in no time as it was some type of sprayed in coating. I've moved on from this setup but really wanted to show guys that you can start up on a shoestring if necessary. I've tossed around the idea of building a gas powered TM over the years and may even tinker with it in the future.
@@AllAmericanMack The "liner" was just sprayed on epoxy most likely. Seems like they would last a couple of years. The 100lb propane tanks seems to last over 5 years because the steel is much thicker. A good DIYer could rig a 12v automatic pump-out to keep the rinse water level lower. "Lots of ways to do lot's of things" is my motto! Best wishes!
This has to be one of the best videos I’ve seen on TH-cam
Thank you. 👍
Just sold my new portable to build this. Been following for a while. Give me a few days and I’ll try get some pics and vids to you. Pump and motor all sorted. Vac motors on their way. Little giant #3 on stand by. Looking forward to building this for this simple reason as you did. If it breaks down u can sort it really quickly and access all components fast. Only thing I’m deciding on is the steel drum or a 55gal stainless tank I can get hold of for pretty cheap. And very solid also to avoid implosion. My wife thinks I’ve lost my mind selling the new gear to build my own but she doesn’t do this every day like we do. We want ease of use and easy to fix/replace parts when needed. Cheers Mack really appreciate it
Great to hear you found the video useful! I would go with the stainless tank if it's in your budget and especially if it's a good deal. The drum will for sure get you by for a while but it's hard to compare it to a stainless tank. I can see where your wife is coming from, but I used portables in the past and never want to fool with that hassle again. Good luck with the build and I think in the end you'll be glad you went with the simple route.
Hey Aaron Pace what did you end up using for your waste tank? And how do you like the setup so far? Going to be building this hopefully by the end of the month.
I know im late to the video but i just wanted to say, if you get tired of buying new barrels every other year or so, you could use pond shield or pool paint to keep the inside from rusting out on you. Thanks for the video, its amazing what people can do with a little ingenuity!
It's good to see that someone else can see the light and took the step. My unit is a Bane-Clene. Who cares what those fools say. They believe in spending money for bragging rights. But, results are all that matter. Great video.
Exactly. One main advantage we both have is reliability.
That is probably the best performing exhaust system I have seen on any machine.
Thank you and I very agree with you (by my own experience). I'm sure ... this simple equipment is working better and last longer then all my Mytee equipment (in the last 15 years). Thanks one more time!
As I said in the video, I always thought I would "upgrade" at some point but as time went on, I just couldn't figure out why I needed to lol. Maybe if I was doing more volume but I rarely do more than two jobs per day and a lot of them are VLM these days. I have a love/hate thing with Mytee. I like their equipment but it always seems to fail prematurely. Thanks for watching!👍👍
Brother keep the good work and Thank you for share this , the prices on portables are ridiculous. Thanks again !!
No problem, thanks for watching!
Thank You Sir !
I Appreciate All the Time , Money, and Giving Your Input on Everything. Hard To Find Guys Like You Anymore. Hope people realize that, This Video is Huge !! Merry Christmas to You and Your Family , Stay Safe..
Hey, thank you for the kind words! Merry Christmas to you and your family also!
Just a recommendation . You can get 1/4 inch air hose with a 300 psi rating. It’s a lot more flexible and much smaller outer diameter. Harbor freight sells 1/4 clear , blue air hose . I’m pretty sure you can use a portable hot water heater that runs on propane .
Great idea. I think if you set the barrel up on a pallet, you would be able to use some cheap steel plumbing straight through the bottom with a 90 ran to a basic ball valve.
Amazing!
I'm making this for sure.
Now that's a business made from the ground up. Great job man!
Thanks! 👍👍
@@AllAmericanMack how would I install a hot water extraction the vac
@@AllAmericanMack or a steam system
For the rest of the system you need to either connect the wand to a hot water faucet or get a pump and a heater. I use a Water Otter 1200 psi pump and a Little Giant propane heater.
That's badass brother I just bought a vein clean truck mount unit the other day for 300 bucks but I spent 500 bucks just on a hand tool and some fittings water line cost me about 250 bucks and then 150 ft of vacuum hose I'm in it's right now for at least 1500 bucks
That's a heck of a deal there. I've looked around locally over the years for both a Bane or just a traditional gas powered project truckmount but any of the ones I've come across have been so trashed that they weren't something I wanted to fool with. I'd love to find an older TCS machine to refurbish. Of course I've been using my current setup for so long, I may never get rid of it at this point lol.
Wow ... my first thoughts were after watching this were.. you could potentially make these and sell them yourself. and market them as budget logical TM carpet cleaning machines... but in effect if you add wheels onto the bootom they also become or could become portables ... brilliant . video... many many thanks....
Thank you for watching. Many years ago when I had used a 30 gallon drum, I strapped it onto a dolly ever so often when I needed it to be portable. As far as selling them, if things don't pick up soon from this coronavirus stuff, I might have to!
Uline sells the 55 Gallon steel drum line with epoxy/phenolic coating resists corrosion for $175 just FWI to anyone worried about rust issues.
All-American Mac I will never buy another porti again after watching this video my last portable cost me 3,600.00 now I do 60 to 80 thousand square foot of carpet per month with all portable units and I do have a truck mount to
Great job in this video, FYI whenever a wholesaw or circular saw is being used on painted steel it's best to cut the whole smaller and use a pair of sheet metal right angle snips (red and green offset pair like Midwest) to snip the final whole . What this dose is transfers the galvanized layer and this won't rust . All painted metal drums are galvanized ,primered then painted
finally got my 3 stage 5.7 1200 watt vac motors in. i have the tanks mounted on their side so i have room for hose reel and loading long rugs. i only have 60 ft of hose so i need to get more. i have a autoreel extension cord and autoreel for the solution hose. im gonna mount them to the side doors. man! its gonna be way easier than hauling a 150 lb porty into places
Congrats on getting everything together, sounds like a nice setup. I hope you will make a video of it, I'd love to see it and I'm sure others will too. I totally agree about the porty. My first machine was a Mytee and my first regular account was for a property management company with four apartment complexes. I quickly started to *HATE* pulling that thing up stairs. I even took the heater out to make it lighter. I would rather give up carpet cleaning than go with a portable again.
I'm just in the process of making one of these (three motors though as UK power can handle the amps no probs) and found your video while searching for inspiration.
I would have connected the ground/earth wires to the drum, but other than that nice job.
Hi James, I am planning to also make this build in the UK, any chance you can give me a little info on your progression? I am planning on using the 8.4 vacs but I am worried that it will suck the barrel flat.
Ill never have the need but I still found this interesting. For some reason I always prefer diy stuff over commercially made products. You always get exactly what you want for far less.
I've been cleaning since 1987 as a sole proprietor. My average hose runs for even some of the bigger homes is less than 100 ft. I very occasionally go up to 125 ft. My machine can go over 200 ft. but I can probably count on one hand the times I've needed to do that and I've done some of the largest homes in SE Missouri as well as numerous churches and businesses. I'd say 100 ft. of hose does well over 90% of all the jobs I've done since 1987. That is probably why even most truck-mounted machines are only sold with 100 ft. of vacuum and solution hoses to get you started and almost all of them have the AW-29 wand. I would recommend getting at least 150 ft. ASAP when starting out or you might get yourself embarrassed.
This is the same.for me and I live in NW Arkansas.
I'm in south east Missouri here, about 25 miles from Mammoth Springs Arkansas. Nice build, and hello fellow locals
That's beautiful area. My dad is from Mountain View Ar so I've made a lot of trips to south Missouri and N Arkansas, been to Mammoth Springs a couple times also. I've always thought that those areas are at the top of my list when I retire.
This is helping me out. I might try to do this. Thank you so much.
Awesome!
This is great for a garage rug wash pit. Thanks for the share man.
Just to increase more information to your video, you also can use two 8.4 in vaccum motors, I have been using for almost 6 months without any problem, I also added a water pump out.
I use a pressure washer 1.600psi with pressure regulator and gauge. I use between 300/1.200psi. Thank you again for the great idea.
Dino.
Dino mate - ben here from Oz i am looking at making one myself with the 8.4 in vaccum motors - i see u have do it . no problems using the barrel ?
@@benfox7281 You can use 2 vacuum motors 8.4in without any problem. I just installed the 2 vacuums on top of the barrel, to save space, they work perfectly good.
How many gpm does your pressure washer put out? Does the vacuum keep up with the volume?
@@paulchacon8055 the pressure washer is 1.2 GPM but i use a pressure regulator, normally i use between 400/700psi, and yes, the 2 vacuums, they work perfect.
@@Dinosdallas what pressure washer are you using...and do you have it plumbed to heat
it works great. i only run this system if im parked by the front door. i run a dual 3 stage portable with a 210f heater with 25ft of hose otherwise.
What do you use to pump the water, or do you just use whatever well pump/city pressure from a spigot??
@@MrEyesof9 120psi on demand water pump
Great video, you have a new fan.5 stars
Thanks for watching!👍👍
Have you ever tried using a plastic drum? Btw thanks for your time and thorough explanation on how to do this thanks!
I haven't but it's not going to be strong enough without some type of *major* reinforcement. But even then I think fatigue would cause it to fail pretty quickly.
Hell yeah I like this bc I looking into getting in the business! I will be in touch! This is awesome!
Thank you, hope it helps!
This is a outstanding set up! Awesome work" I just purchase 2 3stage motor. Thanks!
Are you going to build something like this?
Woww Good video!!!! How could i use this for tile and grout as well as carpet cleaning and extraction....is there a particular pump that you can direct me to that can draw the higher psi? And what level of cord do you use for from generator to customers house?
Have you ever considered putting and pump out pump on it ?
Or know of any resources detailing building a pump out system at a reasonable price?
From what I've been told, many pumpouts can be finicky and unreliable which is the reason I never really considered one and some are *very* expensive. It does seem like maybe a good bildge pump with really good filtering would work but again, I don't know if or how well it would hold up, but maybe it would. To answer your question though, I've looked before but never found any economical plans for one.
@@AllAmericanMack Thanks for the reply, yeah I've seen the prices for pump out options, been trying to convince the boss man there are better ways than to empty a wet vac 20 times at 120 feet and sump pumps aren't feasible... while I'm not in the carpet cleaning business we would have great use for a DIY ETM machine at our facilities and I do appreciate the KISS principle with the build and how easy it's to add features as needed.
It works, i have a pump out inside a 30 gallon drum. I bought it at harbor freight.
Going do this for water recovery for my pressure washing company with a sump pump
This is definitely the best video I have seen for building vacuum systems. I have some ideas and questions I would like to talk to you about, if you had some time.
thank you I run a mobile auto detailing service and I need this I was never going to spent the money on a carpet extractor due to suction and bulkiness over saturation .. I need simple and clean now I need to modify It a bit , and add a filter for dry debris and take out when extracting . plus i can use it as a water reclamation vacuum which those run up words 1500-3000 plus a extractor 1800... thank you two motors one dry one wet ill figure it out
Awesome👍👍.
It is a simple concept and that's what I like about it. I find the electrical a bit concerning but other than that, nicely done. Have you considered coating the interior of the barrel with paint to extend the life?
I've thought about it but didn't really know what would hold up to constant water and chemicals. There's bound to be something but I just don't know what. There would also have to be a lot of prep work to the inside to get whatever it is to adhere. I just know that the coating available from the drum manufactures only makes it about a week before coming off.
Bed liner or rubberized undercoating
May I recommend perhaps adding a spray on liner that would help with corrosion and cleaning
That's a good idea and I would like for someone to try it long term and see how it holds up. I wonder if holding water and chemicals might effect the liner over time. I don't know but would love to find out.
I was thinking like Teflon? Fun stuff
Not that you would want to, but I added a double filter system to the drum. First, I used a drop-tube from the lid intake, to near the bottom of the tank, and a 90 there. The idea is to make the water spin. This will cut down on the amount of anti-foam you will have to use - to like a tenth. That crap was expensive in the day and didn't work well. You know the story. Then I would attach a pantyhose leg to the exit (90) and it would just stretch and keep itself out of the way. That will catch the sludge that normally won't drain - just sits on the bottom like rock. Clay or powders are the worst. You just end up with a tube of the stuff and you will know when you should check it. Finally I added a hose-hoop filter near the top of the tank. Stretch the butt-portion of a panty hose over it - should fit just get XXL! This will keep the water from splashing into the motors. Probably not a problem with those - but for a big shop vac it is.
That's some pretty good engineering there! And also some good advancements for those who want to step things up to the next level. I never had much problem with foam except when cleaning after someone who cleaned their carpet themselves with something like a Rug Doctor or home shampooer. Man, sometimes they would really over do it though. I carried Downy fabric softener for those jobs and it would knock the foam down quick! The pantyhose idea is good too and I know some guys running Mytee equipment use those.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication , i’ve been in a carpet cleaning business for 20 years I had a dyna chem 2000 truck mounted from Cobb carpet supply ,and it served me well until two months ago when I made a stupid mistake and it caught fire and my entire livelihood went up in flames. now I got me a Namco Scooter portable😢😢and now that I saw your video you gave me hope man I’m gonna build me one like the one on your video thank you man,,,,, One question😮 do you think 3 vacuum motors might work ?
I've always liked the simplicity of the Dynachem truckmounts. If I were to go out and buy a truckmount, I'd either get a Dynachem or a TCS machine, probably a Warrior because they both are no frills design and I could work on them myself.
If you go back and check out many of my carpet cleaning videos, I show what my machine looks like now. Same basic concept as in that video but using one of the Mytee waste tanks. If at all possible, I would recommend getting the Mytee waste tank because it's going to last a lot longer than using a drum however the drum does work fine, it just has a shorter life.
As for using 3 vacuum motors, I think that would be fine but there would be a lot more benefit in using two vacuum motors on the machine and using one vacuum motor closer to the wand. I see Steambrite has a pass through vac booster that they make in-house that seems like it would be perfect as an inline vac booster for an electric truckmount. With all that said, I've been quite satisfied with the performance of using just a two vac system and if I were to add a third vac, it would definitely be inline between the wand and the machine. I've actually been thinking of building one of those vac boosters like Steambrite has just to see how much difference it would make.
One more thing, I would *highly* recommend using the vacuum motors I suggest in the video, the Ametek 116765-13 vacs. I've talked to quite a few guys who have tried to build a system like this and they chose to use other vacuum motors that claimed better performance numbers and were not happy with the vacuum. One guy even used 4 vac motors and the vacuum at 150 feet sucked.... or I should say, didn't suck lol. A lot of the other vac motors specs look good on paper but fail to perform in the real world. A lot of them also need to be plumbed in series to get the cfm and lift that they claim but an electric truckmount needs to be plumbed in parallel so those vac motors are not best suited for the job.
No matter how you decide to build it, I'd appreciate if you'd make a video showing how it came out. I'm always interested to see what others have come up with.
Awesome thanks for sharing your knowledge
I would ground it by bonding the grounds to motor mounts which is the green wire.
I actually used to do that. There is a hole on a tab on the side of the motors and I would add a screw and washer to ground it there. Grounding it just seems to me like a good idea but I've been running them for several years without the ground without any issues but agree that going ahead and grounding it would certainly wouldn't hurt anything.
@@AllAmericanMack Can this be use for a dry vacuum.
These vacs are tangential bypass and aren't designed to have dirty air passing through them. If you could rig up a good filter system then it might be doable though.
what a cool invention
Thank you!👍👍
As a home owner that just hired a cleaner. What if we built something like this to a shop vac and hot water? How would we inject cleaner inline? Does hot water vs steam make that much difference?
Vacmaster makes something like that, a shop vac that has a wand and I think it has a water reservoir but don't think you can use very hot water with it. But to answer your question, a shop vac, a wand, and an air hose line, one end connected to to the wand and the other connected to a hot water faucet will do the trick. It would probably be kind of cumbersome, but would work. As long as the shop vac was fairly powerful, you could get the longer vacuum hose kit that would make things easier. That's essentially what I was doing in the video. Connecting to a hot water faucet does work, you get less pressure but with larger jets on the wand, you get good flow and it works. I cleaned using a system like that for the first year I cleaned carpets. I think it would be difficult to rig up a chemical injector but it's completely not needed. Just prespray the carpet with your cleaner of choice and extract it with the setup. Many carpet cleaners, me included, don't inject any cleaners into our rinse water. Just prespray and rinse with hot, fresh water. As far as steam vs hot water, everyone is using just hot water. It's called steam cleaning but it's kind of a misnomer because the cleaning is done with hot water and the steam is just a byproduct of the hot water. All the steam rising from the wand during cleaning *looks* impressive, but it's not doing anything, the hot, pressurized water is what's doing the cleaning.
You mentioned you put a baffle in the drum. Can you give a photo, drawing or explanation of that baffle and where you put it?
Check out around 35 minutes. It's the sheet metal attached to the bottom of the lid that I formed into a U shape to seperate the incoming water from the vacuum stacks.
Thank you
Great job on your video. Im going to build this for sure. I was wondering if you have any ideas to quite some of the noise coming from the motors? I work as a maintenance guy for a assisted living facility so just wondering about the noise level.
I've seen some mufflers like this one-> www.steam-brite.com/mytee-a949-carpet-cleaning-muffler-silencer-speedster-series-extractors-pair-p-11251.html but don't know much about how they are constructed. If you watch the video on that link you can see they did quiet the vac motors in that machine down but it wasn't by much and makes me wonder if it would even be worth it. Also I would be a bit concerned that they may restrict the output a bit which may effect their performance. That's really the only way I know of to potentially help minimize the noise other than leaving the machine outside although I know that may not always be practical. But also remember that you can run about 150' of hose from the machine and have good vacuum. You can go a little more than that and I have on occasion but you will notice less suction although some extra dry passes can easily make up for it.
Hey bud, searched your comments but couldn't find anything on a parts list. Would you happen to have a list you can copy and paste. Thanks.
I don't have a parts list mainly just because I didn't think about making one at the time of the video. I know the video is kind of long but I went over each part and where to get it in the video. It's been a several years since I made it so I don't remember exactly all the info like screw sizes, hole sizes and things like that.
Excellent video and I have been trying to find a such video on this type of project! Thank You 🙏 I did notice that you didn’t even have a items list or part/item numbers listed below? Please send them because I am interested in building one of them! I would like to make a suggestion for your rusting issues. You can add FLEX-SEAL to the inside of your drum to waterproof it plus for a bonus it would not leak. lol Keep up the great work 👍
What hose wand, and pick do you use? What do you use for your steam source? How do you plumb from the boiler to the pick up?
I used an AW29 style wand with 3/8" air hose with a faucet adapter that connected to the kitchen or bathroom faucet for hot water so you get hot water directly from the faucet to the wand.
Thank you very much for your rapid response. I wish you the best.
This is such amazing ingenuity!!! I'm keeping this as a favorite video. I will be building one instead of buying a portable extractor. This will be able to handle a rotovac 360i I'm sure correct? I actually havnt started my carpet cleaning business yet and have no experience but I know I'm going with a rotovac 360i.
The vacuum shouldn't have any problem with the Rotovac, I think the pump you choose will be the deciding factor. I've never used the Rotovac so I'm not sure of the pump gpm or psi required to run them. If you check some of my other videos, you can see the pump I'm currently using which I think would be a good option. Another option would be the Pumptec 356 pumps which is what I used previously.
I run a rotovac 360i with a porty that has 2 3 stage vacs and a 500 psi pump that i run at 200 psi. it does great with 50’ of hose. anymore and you will have to do more dry passes and run airmovers. I run airmovers regardless for quick dry times as should all tech’s.
A lot depends in which vacuum motors are used. The 116765-13's that I use very powerful, especially in a parallel setup. The Mytee LX's are probably even more powerful and both can run up to 150' of hose. I have a Mytee Air Hog with those LX motors and it has insane vacuum.
Dang should have done this. I have 2 Black Max porties side by side connected together by T’s at every port. It works ok but I want to get a generator so im not spending 30 min trying to run extention cords everywhere.
Dealing with cords in addition to a spaghetti nest of hoses sucks which is the reason I like to use the generator. I just went with a smaller pump so I can easily run everything off of two cords if need be. My generator needs replacing and now I can go with a smaller, cheaper model.
@@AllAmericanMackI almost ordered a van mount. Trying to stay out of specialized mechanic zone so I will def get a good generator.
Good luck and I'll tell you why. In the last 2 months I've bought 2 brand new generators and while they ran fine, neither one would make power. One was the Harbor Freight Predetor 9000 watt and the other was a Blackmax 9300 watt. I ended up returning both so I'm still looking. Unfortunately, we've had several hurricanes lately and another is supposed to hit in 2 days so generators are in short supply here.
Excellent video brother 👍 I will build this but I will do a emerging hot water tank to go green as much as possible using a emerging converted hot water heater converted to 115 vote I have 165 degrees at the wand running 220 aquatec pump twisted up a little getting 265 psi at wand 2 cord unit
How do you like that aquatec? I considered getting one for the video but had already spent a lot and wasn't sure how they performed. I had tried a shurflo 150 psi some years back and wasn't impressed.
We need you to do a video tour too!
That 220 AquaTech performs well I turn mine up to about 250 to 265 they do about 1.4 gal per minute for carpet cleaning that good flow they use less than 2amps and they can handle 170degrees
For tile and grout l just use a cheap electric pressure washer in a 12in spinner you got 50 gallons of good hot water you can do a lot of tile before you had to refill and wait for heat 🔥 up l run 95015 jet on spinner that reduses the psi down to about 1200psi
@@dewaynemarcionette6112 It's good to know that they have good pressure AND flow, that's what I don't like about the shurflo's.
I apppreciate this video greatly
Excellent work. I will build one soon similar. Do u know if putting in an auto dump system be worth wihile
I think an auto dump would be great. I've thought about that myself but the good ones were so expensive that I never did it. If you know of a reliable auto dump that was reasonably priced please let me know. I've even thought about tinkering with it and trying to build one myself one of these days.
Beautiful man
Thanks. You looking to build one?
Could this be dumbed down to be used as just a vacuum not for extracting water?
It could be as long as you incorporate a good filter into the system. Something could probably be made pretty easily with maybe a Shopvac type filter.
Looking for something exactly like this online but didn't want a portable. Mainly cuz they have low suction. I bet this thing gets decent suction from the looks of it... You could probably add a guage to the inlet couldn't you? Anyways, big thanks for the share!
You could add a guage if you wanted to see how much vacuum it has although I never put too emphasis on the numbers as much as I do actual perfermance. Vacuum is pretty good so it will do dry times in the 4-6 hour range at 150' of hose.
What kind of suction do you get with 2 vacuums? Is 2 enough? Would 3 vacuums be overkill?? Also, what do you do for the water supply? You have the vacuum, but no water supply for the water lines... 🤔
Towards the end of the video I cleaned a rug to show one option of water supply and how I cleaned for about a year but I also discussed other options. Check out my other electric truckmount videos and you can see a couple different pumps I've used over the years. 2 vacs has been enough for almost 14 years. More vacuum motors won't hurt but just aren't necessary. I have enough cfm and lift to run 150 feet of hose on a regular basis and occasionally 200 feet. Dry times are in the 4-6 hour range. You would be better off adding an inline vacuum booster rather than a third vacuum at the machine if you want more suction but after using this equipment for so many years I can tell you it does fine with two vacs I use.
@@AllAmericanMack Great video Dude! I might try making one myself... 🤔
@@AllAmericanMack Also, how much electrical wire do you need to be able to plug in? It seems like you would need some long electrical wires to reach the nearest outlet. Do you have like 100' to 150' of wire??
Nice job 👍
Thank you!
can i build this with dual motor to be my strong vac for my house and specially vac all after some construction dust - will it last?
The problem with doing that is the motors I used are not designed to have dirt and dust run through them so you would need to figure out a very efficient filter system.
Thanks for this I have a van that is to small for the truck mount that I bought so I had to put it in a trailer. My van is wrapped with my advertisement and also my trailer . I always wanted to build a back up for my van because like you said I my warrior truck mount pilot keeps going out on every other job . I tested the thermocouple being that I know maintenance and a little bit about gas . The thermocouple gives of a signal but the flame still goes out. I changed it with one from supply house company but it doesn't look the same and the original one is on back order so I'm losing money daily. On the system I see where to buy the pumps and I can do plumbing and cut out holes but where can I buy the drum ?
My motor has 2 black wires sticking out ?
Just connect my cord to that?
If I remember correctly, they said it didn't matter which wire went where. I think the old motors had a black wire and a white wire and the newer ones have both black so I had to check on it myself on the last batch or two. I'd google it to be sure but from what I remember, it doesn't matter which wire is hot.
Thank you for a great video!
great idea. how do u dump the dirty water?
As I show in the video starting at 9:40 there is a dump valve installed.
So how do you connect to pump and water line or pressure hose
This is the vacuum for the system so for pressure you would need either a pump or run tap pressure like I did in the video.
You don't need a generator. Just use a power inverter and leave the truck/van running so you don't kill the batteries.
That might be a great option.👍👍
Would you use 1 1/2 inch hose with that hose barb??
No, it's a 2" barb. I use all 2" except for my whip hose.
Outstanding work! I already have a portable, but I want to add more vacuum booster to it with out paying a arm & leg. Great video!!
Thank you! 👍👍
So how you make sure the water not going inside the motor when its full
I didn't have any shutoff on it but after approximately 3 or 4 rooms, depending on size, knew it needed to be emptied. You could get some of the ball shutoff cages like portable extractors have and put those on if you wanted. There were a few times I sucked water through the vac motors but I just sprayed a little WD-40 into them and kept them running, never seemed to shorten their life or anything.
What are your thoughts on just using this as a shop vac and occasional extractor for car detailing? It will def suck the chrome off a trailer hitch....
The only issue with that is you would need to incorporate some type of dry soil filter onto it. I don't think it would be too hard to adapt some type of paper pleated and/or foam filter into the system and you're right, it would make one heck of a shop vac!
I just ordered these motors, picking up a 55 gal drum tomorrow. Can I ask what a good filter would be to keep dust down? (I'm going to use this for residential HVAC & coil cleaning)
If I were to use it as a dry vac, I would try using a shop vac foam filters secured over the vacuum stacks on the underside of the lid and also use one of the prefilter bags over that. I'm sure you could rig it up to use one of the pleated paper shop vac filters if you can figure out which fittings are needed but it may be a hassle trying to do that.
@@AllAmericanMack Thanks for the response. I'm off into uncharted territory here. I am usually a pressure washer guy, but winter hits and I don't have work for months on end. I'll make a video of my build and link you.
Way to go I was thinking to show my setup but I going to build another one for next truck and a etm is going in that one as well then I’ll show it
Yes, please share it so it helps each other as well as others. I love seeing home built ETM's and how well they work. Been watching your videos also, good job!👍👍👍
I am I improved some things and thanks you
its a great job thanks man , i want to ask you if you can make it work with steam can you ? because you know how overprice those machines steam cleaning machines thanks .
Hey partner, I'm curious if it was 4 vac motors instead of 2, would the lid be strong enough for 4 vac motors? I'm planning on building mine with 4 vac motors.
I've seen some people build them with 4 vac motors so I guess it would be since no one has said that it wasn't strong enough but you don't need 4 vacs *if* you use the vacs I use though. You would be better off putting a vac booster somewhere between the machine and the wand because that would give you more vacuum at the wand than putting 2 more vacs on the machine.
Question....thinking about starting a portal potty business and using this vac set up to transfer to an rv transfer tank from there to take it to the dump station....any thoughts on using this set up to empty portal pottys..it is for a side hustle only..extra money
I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work as long as the vacs are baffled properly. I've not only used mine for minor flood work (including in my own house when my washing machine tub fell off and dumped water across my laundry, kitchen and living room) but also to help clear my sewage line a few times. I've got an extremely long run between my house and the septic tank, so long that I have to have 3 cleanouts. It also means there's not much of a grade so it tends to clog easily. I've jetted it before but have found that if I stick the vacuum hose in whatever cleanout is *before* the clog, I don't run the risk of the clog being an issue further down the line. It's handled poop and toilet paper easily.
@AllAmericanMack thank you for the video and for taking the time for the responded....like I say thinking about renting a portal potty here and there for backyard parties...I got 3 kiddos and one of them is going to college...but you never know my brother maybe it starts as a side hustle and it grows
No problem. It seems like it could be a viable business. Have you considered starting a carpet cleaning business? Heck, if you're going to have the vacuum system, you could add a pump and heater and have all the main components. Just something to think about.
i have a question... so im building this this thing and ive watched all your videos but i cant find this answer..what type of hose do you use for the vaccumm part is it just a simple "vaccumm" hose or some kind of special crush proof lined hose? i like this because of its simplicity and im only building this for me to clean my own home just tired of not good enough carpet "sweeper" cleaners thanks so much
Hey, sorry it took me a while to respond, sometimes the comments get buried. If you're talking about the hose from the machine to the wand, it's just regular carpet cleaning vacuum hose. I use 2" but you can also use 1 1/2". It's available from any carpet cleaning supply company, online, ebay, etc. You could also use some 1 1/2" pool hose from Lowes but would need to get the hose cuffs for each end.
thanks so much for responding i greatly appreciate you taking your time to help out i just need solution hose which ive decided to use simple air hose hooked to the sink and some kind of contraption to get solution in the water line any cheap simple ideas on that?
For the first couple years I used air hose from Harbor Freight and it worked fine with hot tap water and I still use it for my supply line to my pump. I'm not sure how to inject chemicals inline with a tap pressure setup though. I'll tell you though, even now I still just use a fresh water rinse and get great results. Contrary to what a lot of people claim, especially the chemical manufacturers, using a rinse is really not necessary imo and there's a lot of cleaners who would agree with that. People are always concerned with the carpet being crunchy from reaidue but in all my years I've never experienced that or any rapid resoiling and I always test new chemicals out on my carpet before using them. So just something to think about.
if you where going to switch it to a series what would you think is best way to do that?
Mount just one of the vacuum motors on the lid like in the video and mount the second vac on its side (with L brackets or a large hose clamp) then connect the vacuum of the second vac motor to the exhaust of the first vac motor. I would only do this for short hose runs like 50' or less though because parallel is much better for 100-150' runs.
So I built this it works beautifully, however the motor keeps tripping the electricity. The are plugged into different plugs but it doesn't matter after it runs a while it shuts down. Have you delt with this before? I'm planning on getting a generator later but for now I'm working off plug outlets.
I haven't had any problems with that as long as they are plugged into seperate plugs *and seperate breakers* also. So if you were to plug them into different outlets in maybe a living, they could still be on the same breaker so it would be better to plug one into the living room and one into the kitchen or maybe one in the living room and one into an outside receptical. Which vacuum motors are you using? If it's the 116765-13's like I have, they can pull a maximum of just over 13 amps each but every time I've measured them it's usually about 9-10 amps running and 11 or so at startup. It does sound like maybe they are on the same breaker though because usually the machine will run for a while until the breaker gets too hot then it will trip. Try being 100% sure they are on different breakers and see if that's the issue. The only other things I can think of is if it's a really old house with old wiring and outlets where not enough electricity is available or there are other things running on both the circuits you are plugging into.
How significant is the difference with one motor compared to 2 is it noticable can I get by with onw
It's literally a *huge* difference. Even though these vac motors are very powerful, it really does take two of them to be able to use any real length of hose unless maybe you are only using something like 25 feet. At 125 feet, just one vac motor feels like there's almost no vacuum but with both on, there's a lot of suction.
Cool and thanks for your help I have a 55 gallon drum with one on so far and it works but I wouldn't say it's any stronger than a shop vac . I will eventually be getting a second but boy are these little motors expensive at $100 a pop
So with these motors I won't be able to run both of them, plus heat and pump on 2 cords?
And you say not to get hung up on numbers BUT these motors you use here are litteraly the cream of the crop when it comes to 5.7 motors and have the highest numbers for that size I've seen lol
When I said that about the numbers I was referring to the 6.6 Mytee vac motors and there's another one, maybe the 8.4? that show impressive lift and cfm, more than the 116765-13's and have been all the rage for a few years but I don't think they are as good or last as long. I have a Mytee Air Hog that has the 6.6's setup in series and it has great vac at the machine but when I put on 125 feet of hose I didn't think it had the vacuum of my system.
You can run both vac motors and a pump *if* you get a pump with lower amp draw. I used a Pumptec 500 psi pump for a while and ran it on the same cord as one of the vacs, I think it only drew about 1.4 amps max. An electric heater is going to draw a *lot* of juice so it would need to be on a seperate cord and circuit.
@All American Mack sweet. That's what I figured I'll have to do. Put one vac on a cord with a pump, and one on with a 1000 or 1500 watt heater for our new modified cobra extractor we're putting together
Are those both 2 stage vacs brother? Looking to possibly building one. THanks!
These are 3 stage Ametek Lamb vacs. The part number is 116765-13. 👍
Super idea
This is great. Just wondering if I could source the same parts in the UK. Hmm. Not for commercial use, be great little project to replace my portable machine I use to do my own carpets. Although may be a bit overkill!
If the parts are available, you could make something like this but on a slightly smaller scale like using a smaller drum (30 gallon maybe) and just one vacuum motor if you don't need real long hose runs.
my question is how does the baffle keep the water out of the motors, how do you know when to shut off and dump vs, over filling
Hey Mac quick question do you think that 3 electric vaccum pumps are to much for a 55 gallon drum?
It's hard to say since I've never used more than two but if I had to guess, I "think" it would probably handle three. But what I've been thinking is adding an inline booster vac closer to the wand would be more beneficial. I'm toying with the idea of trying to build one. Honestly, I rarely need one, but it would be nice for rare, super long hose runs of 200+ feet.
Thanks for the advice/insight
Could you coat the interior of the drum with spray in bed liner?
You could but I don't know if it would hold up long term with the water and chemicals sitting in it. It may, I just don't know. Might be worth trying though.
What do you think about a pressure washer for the water source type
I've seen some people use them and even had some say in the comments that they are using one. As long as it has decent pressure and flow, I think it should work just fine.
I ripped apart and modified many portables, about too do same again to make a hybrid truck mount,but stubble across your video, you got me thinking, what do you think of using PVC Drums, I have few 50 gallon and a 60 gallon Food Grade Drums sitting out back.
Please teach me!
I have a Mobile Car Detail Cleaning business in Calgary, Canada. I just finished my version 5 vacuum vessel out of plywood and coated with 2 part epoxy/polyurethane rubber. But the main problem is our earlier versions collapsed due to flexing. I like your idea of using Oil Drums. I think they won't collapse or fall apart like plywood coated in rubber.
I see that your vacuum motors are in Parallel, Which do you think is better: in parallel or in series?
This is amazing!!! Where did you buy the vacum motor and what size?🙏
I buy all my vac motors from MD Central Vacuum. Their website is builtinvacuum.com The model is 116765-13. Don't forget to get the gaskets also.
Can I just go with one bigger motor vs 2 of them ? I’ll be using to recover pressure washing run off do you think these motors will withstand the elements
I think the motors should be fine as long as they're covered and and not exposed to the elements. Some portable carpet extractors only use one motor but they are extremely limited in the amount of hose they can use, usually 25' or less. The motors I use are powerful but if I only run one of them at a time, suction is very weak. I guess it depend in how you would set it up but I would think two motors would be *much* more efficient. You could also go with smaller motors like the 116565-13's if amp draw is an issue.
Nice product but every time I run both pumps at the same time I keep tripping the breaker any thoughts. The difference is you wired each into its own cord. I wired each with its own plug and plugged both into same heavy duty cord. Even if I used separate cords for both and plugged both into the garage all those outlets on the same breaker so it should not make a difference.
Sorry it took a while to get back to you, I get a lot of comments and sometimes they get buried. So it sounds like you are plugging both vac motors into outlets on the same breaker right? If so, it's pulling too much juice. Typically I've found if both vac motors are plugged into a 20 amp outlet they will run for a short time and then the breaker gets hot and will trip and if it's a 15 amp outlet they may trip the breaker right away. Each vac motor needs to be plugged into seperate outlets on seperate breakers and thats why I used seperate cords for each one. Try plugging one into the garage and the other into the living room or kitchen and see if that works for you.
Hey Mack. I appreciate this video. I copied your home made design and been running for a few months now. Now I just purchased a total of 4 dual stage Ametek 8.4 motors. I am thinking about running all four motors in series parallel. Each motor pulls 143.5 cfm. So in theory all four would pull 566 cfm. I’m still figuring out lift. Thoughts?
I've always thought that 4 vacs in series parallel would probably be an ideal setup for an electric truckmount. I can't remember for sure but I think there's a formula for figuring cfm and lift with multiple vac motors but I can't remember what it is. But really with that configuration, the machine should have a ton of vac. As long as you have the power for it, I think it would be great.
@@AllAmericanMack You are are correct. I stand corrected when I mentioned 143.5 cfm. Each motor is 141.5 according to Ametek. So yes 566 cfm at the machine and I average 390cfm at 150 Feet with 2 inch hose. I've learned my dry times really kick butt with a rotovac hand wand running a few dry passes. The weight of the rotovac defiantly helps squeezes out water from each carpet strand. I too run a wand and depending how I feel or the condition of each home is, is where I decide how to clean.
That sounds like a great setup with plenty of power and very impressive numbers! I bet it will hang with the best of gas powered truckmount, except maybe an Aerotech!! Seriously though, great job putting something like it together. I's love to see a video of it!
Hey I am back again Mack. Today I visited a friendly local carpet cleaner and he fired up his old school gas powered panther. That suction on his machine was incredible. Made my 4 dual stage 8.4 Ametek motors feel like I am working with a portable. Thoughts? I know you’re not looking at my build but I am curious why four motors now doesn’t seem so attractive. I’ve tried setting the motors in series but I was never pleased. Parallel is definitely the way to go. I still feel like such a newbie.
When I first started cleaning, I worked for a company that used regular truckmounts with large 56 blowers if I remember correctly so they were pretty powerful. When I went on my own, I bought and used several portables which, of course, were less powerful. Proportionately with less hose on the portables, I didn't find significant differences in dry times. I copied the vacuum system of my ETM from the old Stockwell ETM's made long before ETM's were popular. The Nordic and Savage ETM's also used just two vac motors. The thing is, it's hard to compare a positive displacement blower to tangential bypass vacuum motors because the positive displacement blower will always be more powerful by design so it's an apples to oranges type of deal. What really matters is, does your system do a good job of extracting the water and does it get good dry times? People often get hung up on the cfm and lift numbers and while they do matter, what matters most is if the system works for you. The maker of the Nordic ETM's used to say it doesn't take a huge system to effectively move a gallon if water per minute through your hoses and into the waste tank. When I built my first system I was concerned about it's efficiency compared to the traditional truckmount I had been using while working for someone else but I soon found that it simply wasn't an issue. Look at it like this, if you were deer hunting with a 30.06, but your friend was using a .50 cal., his gun would be a lot more powerful but is it really needed to do the job? My dry times are around 4 hours for most jobs running 600 psi at just under a gallon per minute so I know it's extracting enough water to get the carpets reasonably dry and do a good job so I don't give any thought to my main competitor who runs a new Butler..... except that he has one heck of a payment to make on his van and machine before he starts making any profit and I can do the same exact thing he does! I thought that I would evently upgrade to a traditional truckmount after a few years but found that the reliability, efficiency, and extremely low cost of my system gave me everything I wanted.
I am going to try the same idea with some changes:
(1) Having only 1, 116765 Lamb Motor.
(2) Having a 5-Gallon Steel Drum.
(3) Using a Circle Water Filter (from my shop vac that fits perfectly on a steel 5-gallon bucket lid).
How do you think my design will do? I will be using it to detail cars, so I do not need as much water as a 30/50-gallon drum.
Sounds pretty good but are you going to be using it only as a shop vac or for water extraction also?
@@AllAmericanMackCool! I got the idea from your video, since I didn't want to pay $2000 for a good extractor.
I will be using it for a dry and wet vac. The filter I put on from my old shop vac has a wet and a dry filter that you change out. So it can be used for extraction and dry based on the filter and what nozzel tool I put on it.
Ok, the only potential issue I see when using it for wet extraction is to make sure that there is enough room for the extracted water so it's not sucked into the vacuum motor. I don't know how big the filter is but you just have to remember even though the drum is five gallons, you won't be able to recover a full five gallons since there needs to be a buffer zone between the vac motor and the water so it doesn't get pulled into the vac motor. The filter may be able to act as a baffle also which would be great. For example, on the 55 gallon drum, the usable area is somewhere around 40-45 gallons before the water starts getting pulled into the vacs.
@@AllAmericanMack Ok very good to know. I’ll start at 3 gallonsish with my solution bucket/pump and start from there👍🏻
What kind of system do you use to heat up your water
I use a Little Giant propane heater.
Would this be overkill as a water extractor for detailing? If I put a filter on the vacuum motors I could have probably 2 vacuum hoses running off of this I bet.
I think it would work great for detailing and give great dry times with the short hose runs even if you run two hoses. You could even strap it to a dolly if you need to move it around much.
Would there be any way to put an automatic pump out on it? I hate stopping to dump all the time.
Hi...How many feet can you use at most?
The most I have used is 175' which is all the hose I carry, anything further is going to be cleaned with VLM. For most residential jobs I use 125' or less so it has plenty of vacuum for that.
Thanks for the video, I was planning on using this for my detailing business, do you think that it would work for that?
I think it would work great for detailing and some others have commented that they wanted to build a setup like this for the same thing. You may only need to use one vac motor if you will only have short hose runs.
@@AllAmericanMack appreciate the reply
Hey this is a great video. Thank you! In your opinion is a good propane heater that I should buy?
Little Giant. I've owned two of them and with very minimal maintenance they are reliable and almost trouble-free. The one I have now I've been using since 2012 and the only things I have done is clean the jets on the burner ring every couple years and replaced the thermocouple once. They now offer the higher pressure models also for things like tile cleaning. They are expensive *but* they last a long time and need very little maintenance.
can you suggest a good drum for this? There are so many choices
I always used regular 55 gallon steel drums that I bought locally for about $65. I think a stainless drum would be great but on top of being very expensive, you would need to be extra careful not to make any mistakes when cutting it.
@@AllAmericanMack I found some brand new ones for $25 each locally. I am going to pick up 3 of them. One is going to be for a vac, one for a sand trap, and the other will be a backup
Man, that's cheap! Sounds like a good plan.👍
@@AllAmericanMack did an even better. Got them for $8 each. The vac motors were $113 each. I bet when it's all said and done I'll have less than $300 all in.