Couch

[Mike M]

Just had a thought reading this post. .............

Isn't the big difference here the vacuum from the VS? Both use low moisture and agitation.

Why couldn't you use OP or drill brush then vacuum with a wet vac?

Never tried it, just thinking out loud here.

I always thought the VS upholstery machine had merit. Was thinking about it once for some theater seating. Seems you can clean a lot without having to use a lot of water?

[micky navarro]

andy,

when ya OP'd the couch, did ya give good dwell time? maybe thats why it didnt clean?
just guessing here.

the VS1 method for upholstery IS low moisture, and if done properly, can clean just about anything. i just dont particularly care for the shampoo brush/vac head combo. tends to be cumbersome, and after a while, feels like a ton    

[Mike M]

Micky - That's a health benefit to using the machine. That's what I always told my employees when they complainted about fatigue.  

[Andy]

Mike, I think the big difference might be the counter rotating brush. When I used my stair tool I scrubed the heck out of the arm rest, when I got the VS I wanted to test it, so I went somewhat fast over the arm rest (the worst area) and it left a streak of white.
 I think your right, one should be able to get the same results with a brush and a wet vac, as it is basicaly the same thing.  It may also be important to note that I don't have a powerfull stair tool like the stepson.

Micky, I allowed 15 min dwell when I cleaned with the stair tool using orbit natural as the pre spray, after that failed I tried releaseit ds, still not much improvement. So when I used the VS I wasn't expecting it to do much, I was just curious how it would compare.

"i just dont particularly care for the shampoo brush/vac head combo. tends to be cumbersome, and after a while, feels like a ton"

Your not kidding Micky, my forearm is still sore     running this is going to be a two handed operation for me.

[Phil R]

What is a VS2?

[dgardner]

Andy,

Did I read correctly? The armrest you did with the VS, had you already encapped it? Did hitting it with two different processes make the difference? Just thinking out loud.

Dan

[Andy]

I encaped it but that was 2 weeks before I used the VS on it.  The foam used in the VS machine is also an encap.

Phil, VS2 is the name of the Von Shrader upholstery machine, The newer one they have is called esprit

[noweare]

John,
Going off topic here. You stated that you never OP residential carpets.
What are your reasons. Just curious thanks

BTW - I had (have) some guy calling me every two weeks from Aztec products, trying to sell
me some machines his name is John Bolton also and I thought it was you.

Joe

[Mike M]

John calls me regularly as well.

Persistent isn't he? By the way John, If you are reading this the answer is still NO!

[kingjoelking]

I was just reading this post again and I noticed the part where mister Bolton is telling us that when we encap the process is incomplete when we finish with a wet post VAC.
Technically he is correct that it is an incomplete job if there is not a post vacuum when it has cured. For most of us that final vacuum is done by the customer as opposed to us coming back the next day. But i think the one point that was overlooked is that this thread is talking about upholstery.  Where we can pretty much garuntee that a customer is going to vacuum the carpet. The same can't be said of upholstery. I can tell you that before i got into this business, that the only time i vacuumed a couch in my house was when kids spilled there cereal on it and crushed it. and then it was more of a cleaning the dust off vacuuming then a thorough vacuum like i do before or after a carpet job.

[clearlypro]

Bump.

Awesome thread.

[clearlypro]

Just had a thought reading this post. .............

Isn't the big difference here the vacuum from the VS? Both use low moisture and agitation.

Why couldn't you use OP or drill brush then vacuum with a wet vac?

Never tried it, just thinking out loud here.

I always thought the VS upholstery machine had merit. Was thinking about it once for some theater seating. Seems you can clean a lot without having to use a lot of water?

It was this particular post that caught my eye.

[micky navarro]

the VS method of cleaning yes, is low moisture, but is more closely related to traditional shampooing, rather then encapping, capish?

now with that said, an encap cleaner can be used with the VS and if i recall, mike c has done this?
chime in mike if ya read this   

von schrader has been around since water was invented, and are thriving very well so they are doing something right.
a carpet cleaning competitor of mine swears by the VS method, and has been using it since i was a good lookin fellow!  <--------that was many moons ago   

[Mike M]

Many people use encap products with their VS. VS also makes encap products themselves now.

[micky navarro]

ya see, even an old fogie like me still learns something daily. seems everyone is encap nuts now