hot water extractors

[wsmithmo]

i've been doing some research on hot water extractors and trying to figure out which one would be the best for my shop. while reading some posts on this website i have seen that you are not suppose to add any type of chemical into the solution tank on the machine. i thought the reason some companies make "low foam" cleaners is for the purpose of putting them into the machine and being able to heat up the water/cleaner solution. essentially what my question is..........do you only put water in the extractor and simply spray your choice cleaner onto the surface your cleaning with a spray bottle??? or do you any of you guys use a water/cleaner mixture such as water and APC+ and put that solution into the tank on the extractor?

[the other pc]

Not surprisingly, when the extractor suctions out the water/cleaner solution from the carpet it mixes in an awful lot of air. A high sudsing cleaner would make a very big mess very quickly, overflowing the waste tank with foam.

While cleaners can be added to the source reservoir, I prefer to use only clean water in the machine and use a sprayer for cleaning solution (keeps the machine cleaner). If I had a high volume shop, using the extractor heavily, and could guarantee that the machine would be thoroughly cleaned every day, I might try cleaning solution in the machine.


pc.

[StadiumDetail]

I use a Mytee HP60 in my shop.

Yes you can use the extractor soap in the tank, that is why they call it the "Solution Tank." :) However i never add the soap to the tank for many reasons:
-the tank can never run out, otherwise the pump draws in air bubbles, so at the end of the day i dump out clean water rather than product that costs me money.
-I pre-spray out of a $20 chemical/pesticide sprayer bought at Home Depot. I can make the concentration at strong or weak as needed for the vehicle and also spray a little heavy on bad stains and lightly over clean carpet.
-I don't like to leave chemicals in the carpet. I know it is dedicated carpet soap and perfectly safe, but it just a personal preference. If I have clean water only in my solution tank and pre-spray the carpets then i can rinse the carpets rather than clean with cleaner.
-there have been times i need to modify techniques as needed like adding an enzyme cleaner into the solution tank, on top of the pre-spray.

As for the unit, the mytee is great. only issues I had was a weakening water pump, which is still running fine now but *could* go out in 1-2,000 days, who knows. And the handle on it weakened after 1 year, just bought a new one for $80 and they have revised the design and it is much sturdier than before.

[wsmithmo]

thankyou for the reply Stadium Detail....i appreciate it