AQUA AIR cleans up

I had the privilege to visit AQUA-AIR Wet/Dry, headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, and see what they had to offer; I was very impressed. I have to admit that I was going in with a skeptical viewpoint. I just had trouble believing that you can suck water and then dirt and not clog your system. I had other dealers tell me how great these wet/dry systems work, but after this many years and all the stuff I have seen, I had to see it to believe it. Believing it -- now I Do!

The AQUA AIR Wet/Dry System is very well designed and well laid out in their installation. As you all know installation is my heartbeat and their installation director is great! Ken Harlow has done a great job of upgrading the engineering of vac systems for water. He has been doing this for eight years and through hard knocks I believe has worked out the kinks and pitfalls. He has designed the systems so the water does not build up and moves with the airflow. The big objection that I had to overcome was the build up of dirt in the pipe. Rule No.1 of any sale is you have to overcome the objection before anyone will buy!

They demonstrated to me with clear pipe how the air swirls through the pipe with the water and literally cleans the pipe of the dirt and leaves it virtually (not completely) dry. When I questioned them about how the little moisture left behind would then collect dirt, they showed how you can then suck a bucket of water through and clean the pipes. My objection was overcome, and I was SOLD!

They took a group of perspective dealers (me included) to several sites to see current working systems and how they were installed. Their presentation and instruction is very thorough and easy to follow even for those with little knowledge of CVS. On one day we went to a Subway sandwich restaurant and saw how easy it was to retrofit. One of the tricks on an existing building is to tap into plumbing cleanout in a service area, hang the AQUA-AIR unit above a service sink so it drains directly into it, or connect to existing plumbing in a garage or basement. As you can see in Picture 1 (see below) this was in the Subway restaurant. In Picture 2 (on next page) it is in a house garage.

One of the sites we visited was an executive auto detail shop that does 100 cars on the weekend; approximately half (45 to 50) usually have the carpet and upholstery steam cleaned.

The owner said, “Before we bought the AQUA-AIR we used portable extractors that were always breaking down. We now generate over $xxx every weekend cleaning carpet and upholstery with our AQUA-AIR Wet/Dry, with great reliability.”

The showstopper was when we went to the city’s light-rail trolley station to see how they maintained the trolley cars. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City the city had to borrow an additional 35 trolleys from Texas, Nevada, and Oklahoma to meet the demand. They had a total of four minutes to clean and service the interior of each car. The brush and squeegee tool was used to clean the aluminum track floor; it was imperative not to get them too wet since all the electronics of the trolley cars are beneath the floors.

The seating is fabric so an extra set was always cleaned by the AQUA-AIR and ready to replace the dirty seats being removed, it was an efficient and fast process.

The trolley director said, “We could have never kept up during the Olympics without the AQUA-AIR being able to simultaneously clean wet and dry; even now after the Olympics we find it the fastest and best way to clean the light-rail cars.”

Once I overcame my objections to running the water lines and problems with water in the pipes I can see the full benefits of using a wet/dry system. I saw the AQUA-AIR Wet/Dry in both commercial and residential applications. Commercial applications seem easier and has bigger ticket sales (the light-rail station in Salt Lake has now installed eight commercial units with accessories, totaling $xxx), but does require follow-up service. And residential also has a lot of benefits for steam cleaning carpet, tile, spills and even those nasty pet accidents. Remember that everything goes directly down the drain, and pipes can be flushed/cleaned by sucking up hot water; add a little disinfectant if you choose. I believe the AQUA-AIR would be a nice addition to any CVS business.

Reprinted from Central Vac Professional, January 2007