Should I consider replacing my NorthStar with Little Giant?

[Cleanworks]

The steamway omega that I am rebuilding has a 42 amp belt driven alternator to provide enough juice to keep things going. Right now it has a lawn tractor battery, I am going to upgrade to a full size. Very important to keep your engine speed up. Guys will run it at half speed when they are cleaning upholstery and it doesn't recharge the battery

 

[ronbeatty]

If he is running a slide in most of the motors on them do not put out enough juice to recharge the battery and run the inverter....

I have the inverter running off the Isuzu diesel running the Aerotech.

 

[rick imby]

I have the inverter running off the Isuzu diesel running the Aerotech.

Yes Ron, that was what I was saying. I think most vehicle alternators have significantly more available electrical power than most slide in motors. Your setup I am sure is smokin hot when you turn up the heat....

 

[Cleanworks]

I hope it will be once I get it running. Just rebuilding the heater now, replacing the flow sensor and thermostat. I have a similar unit without the kero heater and I am really impressed with the vacuum. I think this one with the original heater (if it works) will really knock it out of the park. Nice thing is the thermostat is adjustable so if it is too hot, I can turn it down. Can you imagine a carpet cleaner that says it's too hot? That's like a Mexican saying "hold the chillies"

 

[Goomer]

A fuel burning beast like the NorthStar offers huge benefits over a LG if you do any commercial pressure washing, which anyone with such a unit should consider offering because it makes available certain PW jobs that would be foolish to tackle without serious heat, which can command higher than average rates, and separate you from all the Home Depot Chavez's who only have cold water units.

 

[Nomad74]

A fuel burning beast like the NorthStar offers huge benefits over a LG if you do any commercial pressure washing, which anyone with such a unit should consider offering because it makes available certain PW jobs that would be foolish to tackle without serious heat, which can command higher than average rates, and separate you from all the Home Depot Chavez's who only have cold water units.

After going though my experiences with a Northstar, I would never let an employee run it alone. They put out the crazy heat, but you pay dearly for it in the long run.

 

[dgardner]

Yikes.....

 

[Goomer]

After going though my experiences with a Northstar, I would never let an employee run it alone. They put out the crazy heat, but you pay dearly for it in the long run.

View attachment 13726

Looks like that square exhaust did a very poor job of efficiently venting the hot exhaust away from the unit.

Knowing all too well myself the ridiculous amount of exhaust heat/force those things put out, I'm not surprised by the looks of it.

Surprised it did not melt a hole right through the top of it.

Very poor exhaust design for 350,00 fuel fired BTU's.

Sometimes I think Ben is huffing too many custom color paint fumes.

 

[bmxin]

I have the inverter running off the Isuzu diesel running the Aerotech.

I have a hydrotek inline diesel heat. I actually wanted to use this with my Prochem legend for bigger areas and larger tools 12+flow.

Would you know if I can simply hook up to water from Prochem? Or would I have to dial down thermostat to prevent incoming overheat? I believe the guy at Nilfisk said inlet water temp should not exceed 180F

 

[scotty747]

I have a hydrotek inline diesel heat. I actually wanted to use this with my Prochem legend for bigger areas and larger tools 12+flow.

Would you know if I can simply hook up to water from Prochem? Or would I have to dial down thermostat to prevent incoming overheat? I believe the guy at Nilfisk said inlet water temp should not exceed 180F

The 180f is for the flow switch. You can mount that before the pump and run longer wires to the burner. If you dump into a fresh water tank dont worry about it and keep the prochem around 150f. If you dump into the waste tank I would move the flow switch, it will last longer too with cold water.

 

[bmxin]

The 180f is for the flow switch. You can mount that before the pump and run longer wires to the burner. If you dump into a fresh water tank dont worry about it and keep the prochem around 150f. If you dump into the waste tank I would move the flow switch, it will last longer too with cold water.

So I'll turn off heat completely to Prochem and inlet temp to Hydro Tek will probably be 140 (that's what it measured with heat turned off)

To offset the water dump into waste tank(no freshwater tank) I guess I could hookup inline@ 50' Mytee AirHog with 3.5gpm pumpout on.

I do have the lowflow switch on hydrotek can get steam @4flow with porty 1.5gpm pump. But when I run 12+ flow hydrotek really works and I believe it would be a definite upgrade with Prochem on larger tile/neglected carpets.

The issue with incoming 140f water to hydrotek is that I'll blow the relief valve?

 

[scotty747]

The relief valve is downstream. No problem running up to 170 or so into the fire breather. The hotter it is going in the less the prochem will dump. With high flow tools it may not dump at all or very little. I bypassed the heat exchangers on both my trucks, cds and slide in, and just run from the pump to the burner.