Equipment Maintenance Manual for Mobile Cleaning Business Outline
By: Lance Winslow

Service Cleaning Businesses must maintain their equipment in order to insure it is ready to go when the company vehicles reach their customer. It does not matter how many service vehicles or employees you have, a manual can save you both time and money. If your equipment is not running correctly you will find yourself in a position of having to make an excuse to a customer. Although if this happens only once you probably will not jeopardize the account, but if it becomes a common occurrence you will be sure that you will lose some accounts and be thought of as inefficient and unreliable. If this happens you can bet that if your competition shows up with a lower price and a few extra promises you will receive your walking papers and become a political casualty of the world of the cleaning business.

Like most cleaning businesses my cleaning business was built from incredibly humbling beginnings. One thing you learn early on is to maintain your equipment and it pays to have a manual in place to insure this happens at the proper intervals and when Murphy strikes on the job you know exactly what to do and how to do it. If you do not have a Maintenance Manual for your cleaning business, please use this one below to help you create your own. You will of course be using slightly different cleaning equipment and therefore need to modify the outline somewhat. Tell you what you should do now. Print this article and gather up all your equipment manuals around the shop and stuck away in files. Then modify this outline and then write two or three paragraphs for every item number. Then use that to make a routine maintenance schedule and a quick set of cheat sheets, which you can laminate at Kinko?s to put in the work trucks. You will be glad you took care of this issue before a problem came along and took care of you.

MAINTENANCE OF EQUIPMENT

I. VACUUM

A. Description

1. Model Types

2. Materials

3. Parts List

4. Hot Line

B. Motors

1. Worn Out Carbon Brushes

2. Cleaning

3. Smell

C. Vacuum Bags

1. Once A Week Clean Outs

2. Re-Order

D. Anchors

E. Suction Tests

1. Motor Goes Out

2. Loss Of Suction

3. Back Flow

F. Trouble Shooting

II. CARPET EXTRACTOR

A. Description/Chemicals

B. Heating Units

1. Loss Of Heat

2. Testing

3. Amperage

C. Water Lift Rating

D. PSI Down

E. Replacement

F. Trouble Shooting

III. HOSE REELS

A. Description

B. Fittings/Swivel

C. Greasing

D. Touch Up

E. Fit-It Kits

IV. STEAM CLEANER (PRESSURE WASHER)

A. Description

B. Parts List

C. Major Components

1. Burner

2. Coils

3. Generator

4. Outlets

5. Power Plant

6. Unloader

7. Vacuum Switch

8. Temperature Gauge

D. Guns And Nozzles

1. Description

2. Parts

3. Teflon Tape

4. Quick Disconnects

5. Swivel Hoses

6. Tips

7. Hoses

8. Triggers

9. PSI

10. Valve Seat

11. Valve Ball And Spring

12. Safety Lock

E. Oil Leaks

F. Listening

G. Scaling Of Coils

H. Starvation

I. Filters

J. Pumps, Oil And Packing

K. Worn Seals

L. Leaky Hoses

M. Air Leaks

N. Relief Valves

O. Water Pressure Leaks

P. Generators

1. Mounts

2. Belts

3. RPM?s

4. Battery Charging

Q. Battery Maintenance

R. Burners

1. Tips

2. No Heat

3. Heat Shut Off

4. Fires

5. Fuels

S. Power Plants

1. Overheating

2. Knocking

3. Humming

4. Oil changes

5. Starting

6. Air Filters

7. Spark Plugs

8. Motor Mounts

T. Coils

1. De-Scaling

2. Costs

U. Tank

1. Filters

2. Discharging

3. Cleaning Exterior

4. Signage

5. Flushing

a. Chlorine

b. Clorox

c. Algae/Sunlight

d. Back Flushing

e. Market Clean Water

f. Etc.

V. TROUBLE SHOOTING

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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