One thing I love when I go to carpet cleaning road shows is looking in other carpet cleaners Vans,
so heres a list of items I Carry in my van whilst out on the roads of Barnsley and Wakefield,wombwell and rotherham
- Hot Water extraction Machine . Its a Alltec 40, the 40 means it holds 40 litres of water.
- Taski ranger low speed rotary plus scrub brush, shampoo
brush,various different pads for Lm cleaning.
- Twin jet wand
- 2 x 75 foot lengths of vacuum hose this will be enough to run the machine from out side and still reach all the rooms in a std 3 bed semi.
- 2 x 75 foot of high pressure solution hoses
- A sebo 36 vacuum cleaner
- Towels about 5 of various sizes
- Carpet brush
- Upholstery hand tool
- 2 x buckets one for dirty water one for clean
- 25 litre container ,I use this to carry hot water ,saves time and somtimes there is no water or heating at some homes
- Solutions I carry a basic amount due to space. shockwave a high ph powder used for very dirty and greasy carpets ,Dynamall a dry clean solution, and spm for most general cleans
- spotters, acetone, surgical spirits,rust remover, white spirits,peroxide 9%,a ph neutral detergent , a enzyme detergent
- receipt book,cards pens
- Iphone 4s great for taking pics, built in sat nav links to google
- First aid kit
- jump leads
- 15 metres extension cable
- small electric tyre pump
- then odds and sods like knife , spanner screwdriver , bottled water
- Pump up sprayer
- Magma instant water heater , turns cold water into 110 degrees of heat in two mins.
- Prochem Pro 35 crb dry and wet cleaner for agitation and encapsulation cleaning.
Debris and hairs removed by pro 35 from a rug after vacuuming

Vac and solution hose 3 lengths will allow you to complete most 3 bed house with the machine left outside
Hi Neil love the site, Great tips on starting up. Just away to leave the army and go back into the carpet fitting business, and am very interested in the carpet cleaning side of things as well. As you can imagine its is very daunting and there is so many carpet cleaning machines to chose from. But I would love to get it right from the very start. Have you got any advice on what machine to buy and how and what to do so I can get a better insight of what am getting my self into. I have had a look at this carpet cleaning machine but as have said, I have no idea hahaha http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prochem-Fivestar-Carpet-Cleaning-Machine/dp/B005LUPKC2
Cheers Neil
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Hi william
really the machines contain 2 vacs and a pump these are generally the items that fail over time , a good secondhand machine shouldn’t cost a lot and if a pump or vac goes its about £150 to £200 to buy a new one . My first machine was a alltec 40 and it lasteded me 10 years without any motors or pumps failing , and the guys at alltec are really helpful they are based in royston Hertfordshire
It depends which market you are aiming at for domestic I would want a more flexible machine than could also do upholstery ,
If its for commercial then it would be adequate for a good maintenance programme .
A good set up would be a slow speed rotary for commercial and a portable twinn vac 135 psi min that has a hand tool for upholstery . this is what kit i use and fit i can do most jobs with it.
all can be purchased second hand for between £1000 to £2000
https://barnsleycarpetanduphosterycleaners.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/whats-in-my-van/
If it is all you can use at the moment then it would do until you could purchase other items , we all have to start somewhere good luck
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This text is priceless. Where can I find out more?
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Its all under the Blog on my home page
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This is really good information! I will pass this on to my team when they next go out to buy new equipment, you seem to really know what your talking about, which is great. Thanks a lot for your post.
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Cleaning has now become very important hygiene factor for businesses and thus it is always a great idea to go fully equipped while on a cleaning mission.
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