I own and use often a commercial vacuum cleaner. It is a simplicity 7 series commercial...monster machine. Often, clients will say how well the carpets look right after vacuum. So, it does make a difference.

But how do these vacuums compare to "pile lifters".

I guess what I am asking is what is a pile lifter and when/why would we/I use one?

Most all vacuum cleaners are "pile lifters" But when the pile lifter came on the scene (bigger and more powerful) they just couldn't call it another vacuum cleaner, so someone in the Marketing Dept. coined the words "Pile Lifter"

Rambo hit it on the head

I have just as good results using a cylindrical brush machine on the carpet then vac after

Pilelifters are better at removing hair and fine grit than any vacuum out there. That being said, they are a beast of a machine to haul around and operate. They certainly aren't required in many situations, so I like the idea posted above of using the CRB followed by a thorough vacuuming, you'd get pretty close to the same results and the CRB is versatile for other uses.

I have heard that many people who purchase a pilelifter just have them sitting around most of the time.

Pile lifters are monsters! They are designed with one objective in mind - lift the pile/fiber and brush the crud to the surface. Pile Lifters have a huge brush motor (about the size of a bench grinder). With all that brush roller power, they are able to dig DEEP into the carpet pile. The results of a Pile Lifter are carpet tufts that are loosened and freed of debris. This is a great front-end approach to cleaning.

Now here's where Pile Lifter's have their limitations. They are not as good at vacuuming. Because of the large orifice that houses the humongous brush roller on a Pile Lifter, the opening is too wide to allow optimal suction. In other words, they leak air at the carpet surface. So up until the X-Vac the Pile Lifter type vacs have not been very good at vacuuming. Great for pulling up the nap of the carpet, great for pulling crud to the surface, but not so hot at vacuuming.

The X-Vac attempts to address the mediocre vacuum performance of typical Pile Lifters by increasing the CFM. They also designed the vacuum air path to do the best possible job of recovering dry soil in the vacuum process. Is it perfect? Nope. But it does a much better job at dry soil recovery than the Pile Lifters that came before it.

For the absolute ultimate in dry soil recovery, you would need to run a Pile Lifter to open up the fiber and then follow behind with a good commercial vacuum cleaner. Good commercial vacuum cleaners still have the upper hand when it comes to recovering dry soil, because they are not going to lose air velocity with their narrower brush roller opening. Long story short, both are good at what they're designed for!










Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com

I don't get what the big deal is about running a pile lifter.
There not that hard to run. I have heard a lot of people say how difficult they are. I run one every time I do CGD. No big deal.
I don't think anything will open up the carpet fiber like a pile lifter. And yes I do vacuum after. So what. Charge a little more for your time. Weather HWE, CIMEX, CRB OR ROTARY. The more crud you can remove before you introduce moisture the better.