Carpet Cleaning Truck Mount vs. Portable Unit

Truck Mounted Units

When it comes to carpet cleaning the most important element in the equasion is the Technician doing the job and what kind of a job he intends to do for the customer.

Coupon cleaners are taught to get in and get out, probably not going to be the best job.

The same thing holds true for the truck mounted unit. He paid a great deal of money for the unit, the van or box truck he uses, and his gas mileage is, let's say not economical. This type of situation carries both the clean solutions that will be used for cleaning and the waste water he collects from the extraction process and carries it with him all day or until he stops somewhere to dump the tank

This sets the table for the carpet cleaner to do the job in less time because he does not need to mix his cleaning solutions, those are mixed in bulk. He needs to do a pretreatment on the traffic lanes and where the carpet may have been stained or dirty from spills or pets.

Almost all of the treatments are topical because like I said his solutions are premixed and that is what he is going to use as a soap solution on everything he needs to clean that day. He does have heat and he does not need to empty the dump tank because he carries the waste water away.

Truck mounts also require a two man crew to operate safely. one man is needed to surervise the hoses that run back to the truck, otherwise there is danger of things being broken from the hose that runs through your home reaching the basement and the furthest bedroom closet upstairs.

Portable Steam Cleaners

Portable units are generally carried in a van or suv. The crew can park in a lot and go into a multi story apartment building and do a carpet or upholstery job.

The portable unit is flexible in the types of cleaning mixes they use for each job because they mix the cleaning solutinns at each job after they know what the cleaning problems are and what they need to get them clean.

The cleaning machines vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but in general they have the same core capacities for water, extraction, heat, and weight.

The technician with a portable unit is no different than the technician with the truck mount unit, they have the biggest influence on the quality of the finished job.

Truck mounts will clean faster and generally will have more heat, They will have a two man crew, they use their own water, and yes they have a big unit.

Portable units have an advantage of flexibility both in job locations and in customizing the cleaning solutions; they can use organic cleaners at one stop and conventional solutions at the next. They clean the same as a truck mount, and they require less fuel to slep around the unit, the price point for portable units is less and the job is the same.

Truck mount or portable the decision is yours, the cleaning results are the same.

The variable is the technician.