for those that have these, did it speed up your interior work? I just did a full interior on a neglected corolla using hot water heated in a kettle and sprayed with a hand sprayer, scrubbed with brushes and MF and extracted with my wet/dry vac. My wet/dry vac sure did a great job extracting the water but I found myself not using as much water as I should have. the interior took me 6 hours, and I wasn't happy with the results. At least the customer was happy, but it wasn't up to the standards I would have liked. I think 30% of my time was spent on waiting for water to heat up, and spraying it (I wasn't extracting or scrubbing while I was spraying with that bottle.) it's just a horrible way to apply water to the fabrics. I don't want something like the hot rod, mytee lite II or duramaid...I simply won't see a return on that investment over my working summer. but the LGM and LGM auto are in my price range. I'm looking for advice on this situation, will such a machine help me out?
It's my understanding that the LGM doesn't heat water very well. I could be wrong, but I thought I read that on another board.
I know Karl (Krschultz) uses very hot water in a spray bottle with good results and uses his wet/dry vac to extract. It probably comes down to what you can afford/justify.
I have the Bissell Pro Heat and it only heats up the cleaner to about 80 or 90 degrees, I'd say? I don't even use the heat feature as it screws up the nozzle sprayer on the machine. I just like how the Bissell sucks up the cleaner and the dirt so well. It's not as good as a real hot water extractor but definitely well worth the price. The Bissell also sucks up a lot of dirt and mud that you normally wouldn't see in the carpet. I definitely recommend this product, minimal investment, easy to use, and delivers some pretty good results.
I've only owned it a few weeks, but here are my thoughts on the LGM - It sped up my work for sure. I was using 303 Cleaner, brushes, and a shop vac which worked well, but the heated water is clutch -The Bissel detergent worked better than I anticipated, but 303 or your goto cleaner is still needed for spot treatment - The only downfall is a tiny reservoir that your going to be refilling every 10 mins, dependent on spraying habits (potential slowdown here) When I use a shopvac, I always take a few extra passes just to be sure all the shampoo is removed and only the remaining clean water is coming out. THe bissel head allows you to watch the dirt be removed, so I'm not wasting time cleaning something which is already clean. I love it, and for $89, its a steal, even if you end up using it around home.
i get my tap water as hot as possible before filling the tank of the LGM. I got mine refurb'd off ebay for $65 shipped. Well worth the money.
I have one myself and like it a lot. It's been very useful with my needs when cleaning the carpets in the interior.
My LGM with heat is still plugging away after 3 years of use. It heats water up to a point where steam rises from the carpets after spraying but it ruined the spray nozzles in the attachments pretty quickly. It does the job and greatly sped up my interior cleaning whilst allowing a higher quality finished product which is what you would expect a decent carpet extractor to do. It is not particularly well suited for mass detailing but if you do a couple a week, it is awesome.
i tried to post earlier while traveling between jobs but it never showed up. The pro heat version does little to nothing for water. It is not anything like a professional extractor. It really only warms the water to approx 15 degrees over the current water temperature. Your best bet would be to grab the regular LGM and just add your own hot tap water. As for the automobile version, the only difference is the color and the fact that it comes with a crevice tool that you can also buy separately. So all and all just stick with the reg non head LGM would be my suggestion.
lovely suggestion. I have a kettle to take care of the hot water (I am mobile) and I have a decent wet vac to take care of the final extraction. the water pump is what I'm really after...getting water where I need it. I'm sure I'll drain the tank before the water has cooled down anyways. I can always give a final pass with my steamer and then the shop vac to dry the carpets out.
