Well...Mr Butler Truckmounts...

[jcooper]

I'd love a direct drive.

Having to buy a new van with the tm seems a LITTLE stressful.

 

[Chris A]

I'd love a direct drive.

Having to buy a new van with the tm seems a LITTLE stressful.

100% financed is $50 per day, go for it!

 

[Russ T.]

100% financed is $50 per day, go for it!

Once a biz is established, $50 per working day is doable. Maybe even a no brainier for some.

It's getting there that's the hard part.

I'm so fortunate to have been able to pay cash for my slide in and van when I started in IA about 8 years ago.

I bought my Cleanco (used) almost 3 years ago and was terrified that the $550 payment would sink us. I keep paying $600 because I hate debt and want to have a cushion if we have a really bad month or two.

If we are diligent, I think we could pay it off this Summer.

At that point, we will own a nice looking, nice running, vinyl wrapped money making machine.

I will prob buy another at that point....maybe a little sooner. My brother might join us in IA this Spring!

 

[Kellie Hiler]

Ok.....so let's say y'all talk me into a DD, we have Butler, Cleanco, and Sapphire right?
White Magic is now Sapphire from what I understand.
Now I know I could research it myself and I probably will but I'd rather hear it from the actual users as to which ones are prone to which problems, which ones seem to last a lot longer, which one is at least comparable to maybe a 47 or even a 56 blower, and has a lot of horsepower.
When we used to have our Fox we would only run it at half power about 50% of the time, but the other 50 she was full bore. That beast had a 56 blower and what I thought was a 35 hp but found out the other night it was a 40 something hp engine. I miss the power of it and it's been rebuilt and is still running strong and it probably has about 10,00 hours on it lol...we actually traded it for the White Magic we have now. The Fox was not without issues. You had to constantly have your finger on the trigger or go bleed it off if you were going to be doing anything for more than a minute, it did not have a fresh or waste tank and there was no room in the van to put one. And in the summer it would get so hot in that van you just wanted to die. But...you could pull 600 ft and still get great dry times and amazing heat.
Now I will never pull 600 ft again but I'd like to pull 300 with full confidence. I really want to get back into doing the bigger commercial jobs. And I mean big, like hotels, and the like.
I know that some machines are more tried and true but how long do they typically last and can they be rebuilt or do you just end up needing to buy a whole new rig after so many years? Which equates to always making payments unless I become rich lol!

 

[hogjowl]

I'm busy, and didn't read that dissertation, by if my understanding is right, your asking which?
If you have a local dist. that you trust, buy whatever he sells. Butler, Cleanco, Hydramaster, or (hold my nose) Sapphire.

If you buy long distance, Butler.

Three hours to TCS was almost too far for me. If it had been 4, I would have gone Butler.

 

[Kellie Hiler]

Lol....sorry for the long story Smarty!
I've got everyone but Butler within an hour away from me.
But I am going to gather from your post that Butler would be the better option as long as I've got someone here who can work on them?

 

[Russ T.]

You can get a Butler or Cleanco with a 56 blower.

The Sapphire has a huge blower too, I think. Not sure what it is though.

 

[Kellie Hiler]

I think their Pro-1200 has a tri-lobe blower. Those are supposed to be really good right?

 

[Russ T.]

Yes, I'd have to let an actual owner say from experience, but I've heard and believe the 1200 has PLENTY of suck.

 

[Russ T.]

10 year warranty on the Butler

Available 5 year in Cleanco

Sapphire is less, I think 2-3 years.

I'm sure the Sapphire is every bit the machine but the warranty was less last time I looked.

 

[Cleanworks]

as well as the size of the blower, check the real world heat output of the different units. I have had good experience with cleanco and hydramaster, in fact I just sold my old hydramaster with 315,ooo k on it to a fellow just starting out. Always been reliable but not so hot. 190-195 degrees f at the truck. The new hydramasters have what they call the "salsa" option which makes them a little hotter. I think they divert the blower exhaust to a separate heat exchanger to increase the water as it comes out of the coolant heat exchanger. I'm not sure what the other manufacturers are doing for heat increases.

 

[Kellie Hiler]

Lots of suck is good!

 

[Chris A]

I saw someone post that the pro1200se has more cfm on low than the cds 4.8 on high. I can't speak specifically to that but owning both I can say the pro1200 has way more vac on high than the cds, plus 20 degrees more sustained heat

 

[Kellie Hiler]

I always wondered what that Salsa was....I thought maybe Rico was sharing recipes.

I like the fact that Butler has a 10 year warranty, that alone is a big statement.

 

[Kellie Hiler]

I saw someone post that the pro1200se has more cfm on low than the cds 4.8 on high. I can't speak specifically to that but owning both I can say the pro1200 has way more vac on high than the cds, plus 20 degrees more sustained heat

Ok...really stupid question alert..........what is the cds?!

 

[Chris A]

Once a biz is established, $50 per working day is doable. Maybe even a no brainier for some.

It's getting there that's the hard part.

I'm so fortunate to have been able to pay cash for my slide in and van when I started in IA about 8 years ago.

I bought my Cleanco (used) almost 3 years ago and was terrified that the $550 payment would sink us. I keep paying $600 because I hate debt and want to have a cushion if we have a really bad month or two.

If we are diligent, I think we could pay it off this Summer.

At that point, we will own a nice looking, nice running, vinyl wrapped money making machine.

I will prob buy another at that point....maybe a little sooner. My brother might join us in IA this Spring!

I would never tell someone to get in debt just because, however we've I was around 100k in annual gross sales I bought my brand new chevy/cds. It was a great decision for me bc I could focus on the business and know my truck was ready to rock at any time. Believe me it was tough making that 1200 dollar payment in the winter early on

 

[Chris A]

Ok...really stupid question alert..........what is the cds?!

Hydramaster CDS 4.8 with salsa package

 

[Russ T.]

I saw someone post that the pro1200se has more cfm on low than the cds 4.8 on high. I can't speak specifically to that but owning both I can say the pro1200 has way more vac on high than the cds, plus 20 degrees more sustained heat

It's info like this that will force me to take a hard look at the 1200.

The ONLY thing I don't like about the Butler is how spread out the components are. It takes up space.

I also LOVE how the components are spread out...so easy to work on.

 

[Chris A]

I looked hard at a butler, compared to my pro 1200 the price difference was 8k, the layout and no local service was what sealed the deal for me, I do think butler had the best fit and finish in the business

 

[Russ T.]

I would never tell someone to get in debt just because, however we've I was around 100k in annual gross sales I bought my brand new chevy/cds. It was a great decision for me bc I could focus on the business and know my truck was ready to rock at any time. Believe me it was tough making that 1200 dollar payment in the winter early on

I bought the Cleanco the first year we saw 6 figures too. I'm glad we didn't force it until then

 

[Spurlington]

Lots of suck is good!

 

[Kellie Hiler]

Lol...get yer mind outta the gutter!

 

[Cleanworks]

Ok...really stupid question alert..........what is the cds?!

Clutch Drive System

 

[Cleanworks]

I was just looking at Cleanco's website and they offer optional heat as well, claiming 240 degrees f. I'm sure most other makes have something similar

 

[Kellie Hiler]

Ah....clutch drive, ok! Thank you!

 

[Russ T.]

I was just looking at Cleanco's website and they offer optional heat as well, claiming 240 degrees f. I'm sure most other makes have something similar

I have the Max Heat on my Cleanco 47. The water only gets that hot after cleaning stairs (4 flow stair tool) in the Summer. It's around 200 at the machine while running the RotoVac with the head on the floor.

 

[Cleanworks]

That's probably the same with the other makes as well. Although the blower heat exchanger helps, it can only supply so much before cooling off. 200 with a rotovac is pretty good. It was my experience with my hydramaster that although the maximum heat wasn't as high as my slide ins, the heat was more consistant. It didn't really matter what flow I was using, I never ran out of heat. I'd be curious to see the performance with a Zipper running something like a 12 flow.

 

[Chris A]

6 flow Ti wand has been holding 220+ with the pro 1200 this winter, my hydramaster is around 200, 220 in the summer

 

[hogjowl]

Lol....sorry for the long story Smarty!
I've got everyone but Butler within an hour away from me.
But I am going to gather from your post that Butler would be the better option as long as I've got someone here who can work on them?

Not necessarily so. Butler offer advantages and so does Cleanco. Butler gets higher heat, if Sauger isn't exaggerating it, but Cleanco offers greater room. Before I bought a Butler and took it to someone who couldn't sell it for service, I'd buy what that distributor sold instead.

 

[Russ T.]

IMO if you use rotary extraction, you can easily deal with a little less heat.

I can't wait to try the new RotoVac XL!