American Caddy Vacs are known for their power and longevity. But another characteristic that is very well-known and popular with Caddy Vac owners is how easy these units are to maintain.
American Caddy Vacs are designed and built by the Mattoon family. This family also owns and operates B & F Power Vac in Lewiston, Idaho. They use a fleet of Caddy Vacs every day. When they first started in the duct cleaning business, they were using another cleaner brand. Donna Mattoon says, “When we first started, we ran the truck all day and then did maintenance on it all night! We didn’t have any life outside of work.” Eventually they figured out the way to keep two crews working was to have three trucks… one truck could be in maintenance while the other two were working. That just didn’t seem right!
So, when they had the opportunity to go into business making American Caddy Vacs, they knew they had to make a unit that would require less maintenance, and that would be easy to maintain. That’s why every American Caddy Vac is designed with easy access to all the critical components that need regular maintenance.
Sam Rowe, owner and manager of HVAC Power Vac Duct Cleaning in Kalispel, Montana loves the ease of mainteance in his American Caddy Vac. He says, “Everything’s just so easy to get to! Especially the compressor. I just changed to my winter oil on my compressor and it took me 15 minutes! It was so easy and quick. Back at the beginning I had an old Pringle and it was so tough to do anything! You had to take the hoses out. You couldn’t even see the compressor! It was buried down behind your suction hoses and it was almost impossible to get to. But the American Caddy Vac is just so easy to maintain. For instance, it’s really easy to access and grease the drive lines, things like that. It’s designed to be easy to operate and easy to maintain.”
Paul Welhouse, President and owner of Well-House Air Duct Cleaning in Oneida, Wisconsin feels the same way: “You know, bearings and parts like that, they build them with such heavy duty bearings and other parts that, just with regular maintenance, nothing wears out. In the last 22 plus years, I’ve only had one bearing go out with my American Caddy Vac trucks. In 5 years, my first truck (that was not an American Caddy Vac) had probably 10 bearings go out and it took a whole day to fix the bearing. And if you know what you’re doing you could probably change a bearing in an hour or two on the American Caddy Vac. They’re just built so well, they’re overbuilt.”
Working in very cold conditions can create it’s own set of challenges. But the American Caddy Vac performs well up in Edmonton, Alberta, where James Clark runs a fleet of three American Caddy Vacs. He says, “At Above All Duct Cleaning Services, all of our cleaners are kept inside in a heated bay at night, so we start each day warm. Of course, the main issue for us, like anyone who works in the cold, is freezing of the air. We drain our tanks after each job and then we also add an additive like methyl hydrate, which Caddy Vac has provided. Again, everything is easily accessible which makes this process pretty simple. Honestly, to me, it just comes down to quality. The maintenance work, the easy access to maintain all the metal parts of the cleaner, the ability to reach all the equipment without difficulty, these are the things that really set the Caddy Vac apart from the rest.”
Clearly, American Caddy Vac hit the a mark with their design of well built, easy to access, easy to maintain units. In the long run, the Caddy Vac doesn’t just save headaches, it saves time. And that means it is not just the most powerful unit on the market, but it is also the most cost-effective to run. Let’s face it! If a unit is down for maintenance, it isn’t producing revenue. Our customers like American Caddy Vacs because they are not only reliable, but they are designed to stay on the job.
