Paul Welhouse started his own Air Duct Cleaning Company 30 years ago with a Pringle Power Vac. It was small and hard to maintain, but it was a good start for Well-House Air Duct Cleaning in Oneida, Wisconsin, near Green Bay.
As the years went by, Paul went to a couple of NADCA shows and ran into Mac Mattoon and his American Caddy Vac equipment. Paul and his brother from Denver, (in the same business) both really liked the equipment and Paul ended up buying his first American Caddy Vac. Since then he’s purchased five more and he loves them because they work! Paul says, “They are a virtually maintenance-free truck in my opinion. They run and run and run and run. With age, of course, anything wears out, but the Caddy Vac that Mac builds, it doesn’t seem to wear out. You may get a little rust, (and now they’re making them out of stainless steel!) but it’s the chassis that wear out, or the engine on the truck may wear out or the breaks… but the Caddy Vacs that he builds are really sound, durable pieces of equipment and I love them.”
Paul just purc
hased a new stainless steel American Caddy Vac and expects it to hold up for years and years. “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.”
Paul has 7 employees and a fleet of 3 American Caddy Vacs in his business right now and they clean in just about any residential, commercial or industrial application. “We get into a lot of dirty, dirty, situations that need a lot of dry vacuuming. And these trucks just keep on working.”
When asked about competition in the area, Paul says that he doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about them. “We have lots of competitors in our market. I’ve always said from day one, I just figure out what it costs to run my company, figure a fair price from that, and keep my nose to the grind-stone. I don’t put any time into figuring out what my competitor is doing. Over the years I’ve built my business on doing the best job we can do for our customers, not by paying attention to what the competition is doing. Because of that, we are the biggest air duct cleaning company in the area and we do the most air duct cleaning in our area of Northeastern Wisconsin… everyone else has one truck, we have three trucks and have a hard time keeping up with the business. Two of my competitors use American Caddy Vacs, probably because they saw my trucks. Some of the other companies have trucks built by other manufacturers… you see them limping down the highway…”
Paul is all business and doesn’t have a lot of time to waste on the phone, so he has high praise for the crew at American Caddy Vac because when he does call, they are organized and everyone knows the business. And Mac is never hard to reach. “I call American Caddy Vac all the time with questions. Sometimes I get the shop foreman or one of the other guys, but most of the time I get Mac on the phone. I bought a truck last year and I dealt with Mac. And early on, once or twice when I bought trucks he was here when they were delivered and helped to set them up. I always thought that was pretty stand up for a guy who owns the company to have that kind of interest in taking care of his customers. Mac is my go-to guy, but when I call out there I may get Steve or one of the other guys and they are always able and ready to help me with any problem I have.”
Paul is also a big fan of the tools that American Caddy Vac builds. “There are specialty tools in our industry and everyone needs them, but I regularly buy tools from American Caddy Vac. I buy my work material from American Caddy Vac because I can easily make replacements because they make tools that can be repaired! They hold up well, but these tools get used heavily every day and its nice to be able to just replace what wears out. Calling with any need, it’s always a good experience. They’re always very organized, they always get back to you when they say they will, whether it’s ordering a new truck or ordering tools. I don’t waste a bunch of time on the phone… it’s a great experience.”
“‘I recommend them all the time. I’ve never had a bad experience with them. They build the truck that you and I would like to have built. It’s a great product and keeps on working and doesn’t break down.
