I engineered something pretty damn cool.

Anyway, I am new to the carpet business, and have learned alot from this site, to help get me somewhat posted on what I need to start learning.  Thanks everyone!

Quick backround on me,  17 yrs with Acura and currantly employed as a Corporate Sales Manager.  Automotive fabricator on the side as a hobby, (check out my Web Site 88hybrid.com if you like Turbocharged sports cars) and sort of stumbled upon a man who fell on some hard times, and needed to sell his carpet cleaning van.  It was filled with tons of equipment, a nice Mytee 1003 Extractor, hose reels, tons of sol. hose, and vac hose, Chemicals, Invoice designs, 50 different letters, dilution charts, floor machines, vacuumns, ect..ect.., and a very low mileage 3500 1997 Chevy van, in fantastic condition.  My wife and I have been talking of have a "little business" on the side, and figuerd, for such a low investment, I could'nt lose.. I could always sell the van, for what I paid for the whole package if things went bust! I have owned the van for about 2 months, and am slowly getting the business set up, logo, and web presence established, and just getting the hang of the whole mess! 

I learned a lot from a few local carpet/ restoration guys, and this site, so I decided to start working with the equipment on a friends and my own house.  Been practicing techniques with different stains I create on a large peice of old carpet, and have had a lot of good results.  I am learning that technique is key to being good at the trade part of this business and have a lot of respect for you guys..Its pretty hard work, yet fun and rewarding in a sense.  I found myself getting vey interested in the different equipment and looking ahead for goals, and what direction I would like to go as in who I want to service, Commercial, and less residential, or the opposite.  I still have a lot to learn to continue this craft....Which brings me to my point I wanted to share with you.

Right now, I use the machine I list above.  I is a very powerful machine, and has managed the jobs ive done so far great.  I have also leaned how sh*tty a portable can be at the same time.  I mean the "bucket brigade" you all talk is quite true.  It sucks, and it is bulky, and you stumble around the house tring not to spill and filling in the bathtub is well not too professional looking IMO.  The ideas of running the portable in the van seemed great.  So I tried it a few times on a few more of my friends. ( I still charged them BTW...nothings free lol..)  Keeping it in the van has been much easier.  I have not had to use more that 2 hoses yet, and have had great suction from the Mytee 2/3 stage vaccs.  I also created the dump in the van out of a 55 gallon drum on it side, with a drainout, and run all this with the 7500 Watt generator like a few of you guys.  I had to buy the generator though...I found one on Craigslist, for cheap, and it works great!! 

The only issue was fresh hot water.  I think lugging the 12 gallons of water all over the place for the refill is is the WORST part, and needed a solution.  The Mytee inline heaters are fairly expensive, as are other brands, and require even more electric/cords/power from generator, to be fully mobile.  So I created this...

The System uses the Coolant of the van for the heat, alot like a PTO Truckmount.  The valve inside the cab shuts the coolant supply to the heat exchanger assembily on or off when not needed. The heatpump assembily is the part of the system that creates the heat, and the pumps fresh water. It is handbuilt by me. Water flow through the heat exchanger/pump assembily, and is controlled by lowering voltage to pump, which is essential to the water temp getting very hot. The result is 55 gallons of fresh water, that is heated instantly as it passes through the heatpump, and enters the top of the extractor.  I installed a Float switch inside the fresh water tank to turn the pump on and off as the water level decreases.  it stays full while I work. This has solved my hot water delema!  The whole sytem cost about $240 to create, and works like a charm.  There are downsides to it, but it isnt a real big deal.  What'cha think?

I have driven the van around and made sure the coolant part of the system is leak free, check.  The bad is when you need HOT water the van must run, but its not a huge deal to me as this save a TON of work, and increase the produtivity of my time.  The good thing is, while the van runs, and I drive to and fro the jobs, the coolant circulates through the core and stay very frickin hot..and heats the water around it.  The sloshing about of the drive help mix the water around resulting in warm strage water.  This also increases the overall temp the water can achive while being "superheated" while being pumped.  In addition,  when I fill it with hot water, im even better, as the system, once I wrap the barrel with an insulation blanket, will be efficantly keeping the water hot all day, and my system just gives the hot water a "Turboboost" of heat.  I cant wait to test the overall temp once i fill the barrel with hot water.