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New vacs

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GoldenEagle

New member
I have 4 old vacuums that need replacing at my self-serve, bags are almost completely clogged from 27 years of hard use. What are you guys buying and what are the best for the money and easiest to clean? My old ones are J E Adams. Just vacs, no combos. Thanks!
 
We own and operate 4 SS/IBA car washes in our local market, and we just did a revamp of one of our older sites. We were previously just giving away free Vacuum service. But we decided to pony up, buy some better equipment, and start charging. It's done a lot for improving the experience and curb appeal of our site (we also did a complete site makeover).

So far, we've been very happy with the vacs we bought. They're working like a charm and we felt the price was right:

IVS PowerVac 3-Motor Commercial Vacuum

3-Motor Vacuum with Stainless Steel Dome | IVS PowerVac | 100002-3

Reliable, easy-to-operate, and extra powerful, the IVS PowerVac 100002-3 commercial vacuum with three motors tackles the toughest cleaning jobs. Kleen-Rite brings you the most powerful vacuums available for the car wash industry, at the lowest prices around!
www.kleen-ritecorp.com www.kleen-ritecorp.com

As an additional cost saver, we use Nayax card readers, which work as timers. So we saved the cost of buying a timer and the vac that has the reader and assembly. We just picked up the vacuum and used the timer on the Nayax readers.

I hope this helps. Good luck!
 
GoldenEagle said:
I have 4 old vacuums that need replacing at my self-serve, bags are almost completely clogged from 27 years of hard use. What are you guys buying and what are the best for the money and easiest to clean? My old ones are J E Adams. Just vacs, no combos. Thanks!
Click to expand...
If the vacuum hulls aren’t all carved up from 27 years of use I’d remove the decals and acid wash the vacuums with NU-wall, they’ll come out looking almost like new. We have a spare set of vacuum bags so once a year we remove the bags wash them and make that set our spare bags.
 
My bags are so old and crudded-up I don't think they can be removed or if there are replacements available.. Never tried to do it so don't know how it's done.
If they could, it would be a great money saver.

I'm going to check with J E Adams for help, but I am not hopeful they can. Keep comments coming please, guys...
 
The bags are still available - I assume the vacs have a single door and you have to remove the motor to get the bag out? JE Adams will probably send you to Kleen-Rite, but make sure you order real Adams bags and not the crappy ones they outsource. I just ordered some lockbars that said they're genuine JE Adams parts, but they're obviously not.
 
MEP001 said:
The bags are still available - I assume the vacs have a single door and you have to remove the motor to get the bag out?
Click to expand...
The bag is only accessible from the bottom cleanout door, and it is so filthy/clogged that you can see nothing as far as how it is attached or comes out. I should have learned to remove the bag when they were installed, but no one bothered to mention it way back then.
 
They may not be Adams vacs, possibly Monorail or old D&S with Adams decals on them. Those have a spring steel retainer that holds them in. When you look up inside, do you just see a big drooping dome of cloth? You can still get those bags, but I agree with you that you're better off replacing the vacuums.
 
GoldenEagle said:
The bag is only accessible from the bottom cleanout door, and it is so filthy/clogged that you can see nothing as far as how it is attached or comes out. I should have learned to remove the bag when they were installed, but no one bothered to mention it way back then.
Click to expand...

Post a picture, I am sure someone here can help identify the model and how to replace the bags. They are probably attached on top where the motors are. You can certainly replace the bags. No need to spend thousands on new vacuums.
 
Not sure if this applies & I could be wrong ... it seems some of the older vacuums had a heavier gauge of stainless steel throughout including the dome that they used. Possibly something to consider. Also some stainless steel could be better quality even if gauge was the same.
 
Like Randy said. If the Vacs aren't physically damaged you can save a boatload by putting in new bags, perhaps Gaskets and Motors and decals. If Bags were damaged at all I suggest once you get them out, pull motors and hose out inside so any dirt that got pas the bags does not get sucked into the motors. Make sure the inside is squeaky clean an they will be as good as new.
 
Randy said:
If the vacuum hulls aren’t all carved up from 27 years of use I’d remove the decals and acid wash the vacuums with NU-wall, they’ll come out looking almost like new. We have a spare set of vacuum bags so once a year we remove the bags wash them and make that set our spare bags.
Click to expand...

Earl Weiss said:
Like Randy said. If the Vacs aren't physically damaged you can save a boatload by putting in new bags, perhaps Gaskets and Motors and decals. If Bags were damaged at all I suggest once you get them out, pull motors and hose out inside so any dirt that got pas the bags does not get sucked into the motors. Make sure the inside is squeaky clean an they will be as good as new.
Click to expand...

Getting back to the relevancy of the older vacs having more durable stainless steel (gauge thickness or other quality factor); Golden Eagle may even eventually have a better vacuum than some brand new ones if he finds a way to follow Randy & Earl's suggestion.

We have four 1987 Doyle Vacuums. As needed we swap out the 4 bags within each vacuum with freshly washed bags. Our specific laundromat's more industrial-commercial washing machines are more thorough than most so that works in our favor too! The occasional joker who assumes that our vacuums are wet duty & who does not read signs can create the crusty mess that Golden Eagle is seeing within 24 hours after the boat or whatever wet "suck up" person left. BTW we replace the vacuum gaskets & decals ... also as needed. We have customers tell us our 2 motor-four bag Doyle Vacs work better than my brand new competition's vacs!

As far as evidence gathered showing some older vacuum models having better stainless steel surfaces near the bag replacement to work with ... the jury is still out on that. An accurate caliper could help in the evidence gathering. If Mike Doyle was still available for this specific forum ... he possibly could show some old spec sheets documenting where some older vacs used a tougher & thicker stainless steel.
 
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coinless said:
We own and operate 4 SS/IBA car washes in our local market, and we just did a revamp of one of our older sites. We were previously just giving away free Vacuum service. But we decided to pony up, buy some better equipment, and start charging. It's done a lot for improving the experience and curb appeal of our site (we also did a complete site makeover).

So far, we've been very happy with the vacs we bought. They're working like a charm and we felt the price was right:

IVS PowerVac 3-Motor Commercial Vacuum

3-Motor Vacuum with Stainless Steel Dome | IVS PowerVac | 100002-3

Reliable, easy-to-operate, and extra powerful, the IVS PowerVac 100002-3 commercial vacuum with three motors tackles the toughest cleaning jobs. Kleen-Rite brings you the most powerful vacuums available for the car wash industry, at the lowest prices around!
www.kleen-ritecorp.com www.kleen-ritecorp.com

As an additional cost saver, we use Nayax card readers, which work as timers. So we saved the cost of buying a timer and the vac that has the reader and assembly. We just picked up the vacuum and used the timer on the Nayax readers.

I hope this helps. Good luck!
Click to expand...
I have the same 100002-3 vacuum with Nayax. The vacuum is pulling 22amps. What relay did you use with the Nayax? I'm using a 20amp RIB relay. But want to find a model with more than 22amps that works with Nayax.
 
Greg Pack said:
The vacuums with booms seem to be a cool option.

I'm done with combo vacs, not enough of an ROI in my area. I can literally go Months without refilling the shampoo or fragrance on my Coleman units. I'm going back to the KISS principle.
Click to expand...
Have you considered how much revenue a tank of Shampoo or Gallon of Fragrance Generates? If Shampoo is $3 per vend and uses 8 ounces That is about $240 in revenue per tank plus if people do it right they need to vacuum both before and after the shampoo. At $1.00 per vac that is another $100 or so, so while not huge, that is over $100 per month (f it needs refill after 3 months) for people using the machine for that reason.
 
Earl Weiss said:
Have you considered how much revenue a tank of Shampoo or Gallon of Fragrance Generates? If Shampoo is $3 per vend and uses 8 ounces That is about $240 in revenue per tank plus if people do it right they need to vacuum both before and after the shampoo. At $1.00 per vac that is another $100 or so, so while not huge, that is over $100 per month (f it needs refill after 3 months) for people using the machine for that reason.
Click to expand...


Yes, the margins are excellent on shampoo but at the end of the day I don't think that service adds enough (at my wash anyway) to the bottom line to get excited about. I'm all combos and will keep the units running but if they disappeared tomorrow I wouldn't pay 3x the cost of a regular vac for a new combo. I know of several washes that have converted combos back to regular vacs.
 
I have 6 of the Doyle Vacs from 1988. I replace the "Vacuum" decals, hoses etc. every other year. The canisters still look like new.
I also clean and replace the bags on a regular basis, and motors as needed, of course.
I often have customers tell me my Doyle vacs are better than any others around.
I also have some newer Adams combos. They work well, but I see people use the air freshener and shampoo on them and use the old ones to vac.
The old Doyles are are a lot easier to clean than the combos.
 
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