What Performance Should You Expect From Your Vacuum Surface Cleaner?

It seems that most contractors who make the investment in a waste water capture system expect perfection from their equipment. One area they often complain about is their vacuuming surface cleaner.

Contractors would like nothing less than a completely dry surface after they are done passing over it and cleaning. While a 100% pickup rate is the expectation (and a miserable 95% rate might be acceptable) no one ever actually achieves that kind of performance. Real-world results are often a lot closer to the 80% range.

Could these tools be better? I don't think that is possible with today's technology - with one exception I will tell you about in a minute. In order to achieve 100% capture of the water used, a surface cleaner would have to achieve a perfect seal between the brush skirt and the pavement being cleaned. In that event, you would not be able to move the surface cleaner without incredible force. Considering that every paved surface is by nature uneven, this perfect seal is simply not physically possible.

In fact, in order to move the surface cleaner easily without dragging the brush skirt we adjust the height of the surface cleaner upwards (leaving a small gap). That gap and the uneven pavement is why we must accept performance around 80% efficiency in capturing wash water. This means we will capture about 4 out of 5 gallons used with most surface cleaners.

Most of that last gallon will likely flow to our low point where we have set up a second capture point with oil socks & berms and a second vacuum hose. The rest will evaporate.

The one important exception I promised to tell you about is the Lubova we carry. That particular piece of equipment includes a plastic "wiper" on the inside of the brush skirt. That wiper forms a better seal even if the brush skirt is slightly raised. We have found that we can move the cleaner around with little friction and still achieve much better vacuuming. I am reluctant to over-promise, but I think we pick up as much as 90% of the water used with this tool.