Training with the Team
One of the foundations for the formation of American Caddy Vac was the desire to build better, more reliable trucks for our own Air Duct Cleaning business, B & F Power Vac in Lewiston, Idaho. Mac and Donna Mattoon have owned and operated B & F since 1988. And their son, Justin Mattoon is now General Manager at B & F. B & F is also the ideal training ground for our customers at American Caddy Vac. Many of our customers take advantage of the free training we offer with any Caddy Vac purchase. Your crew can come and work alongside our crew, learning how to use the cleaning unit, and all the tools that make for a successful Air Duct Cleaning business. Our crews have extensive experience working residential, commercial, and industrial sites. We have the knowledge to train for every application. B & F uses all the tools we sell at American Caddy Vac. For example, your crew can learn how to use and maintain the Dyna Probe. Or they will learn how to determine whether to use a forward or reverse sweep spinner, when to use a 5-whip or if a job might require the more aggressive sweeping [...]
Tools You Can Rely On
Having the right tool to get the job done just makes all the difference in the world. Folks know that American Caddy Vac makes the most powerful and longest lasting air cleaning units on the market, but many people don't realize that we also provide all the tools you'll need to make your work productive and efficient. And at American Caddy Vac, we keep tools in stock. When you need them, call us up and we'll have them packaged and shipped, usually within 24 hours. You see, at American Caddy Vac we aren't just guessing what tools you may need. We run our own air duct cleaning business as well. Mac and Donna Mattoon have been running B & F PowerVac in Lewiston, Idaho since 1988. Now their son Justin is running B & F as General Manager. He's also in charge of research and development at American Caddy Vac. So the Mattoons don't just sell these tools, they use these tools. Every tool American Caddy Vac sells has been tested, and tested, and tested, in the field doing the same kinds of work that your crews do every day. Need the [...]
UVC: The Legitimate Way to Provide HVAC Sanitation
Over the last couple of months, the need for sanitation and the ability to control our environment has been amplified. Many of our customers are asking about ways to keep their indoor air more clean. B & F Power Vac (the sister company of American Caddy Vac) has been installing a lasting solution for several years now that actually kills germs, viruses, mold, dust mites, and bacteria that cause illness and respiratory difficulties. The BreatheCLEAN total home air purification system uses ultraviolet light to break through the cell wall of these harmful organisms, destroying their DNA. This is not a temporary ozone or spray sanitation treatment. This is a permanent addition to your air handling system which renders organisms unable to reproduce and cause illness. When someone coughs and spreads tiny droplets in the home, it doesn't take very long for those droplets to be spread throughout the home by the air handling system, potentially infecting others. But with BreatheCLEAN, when those organisms pass through the ultraviolet light, they are no longer a threat to you or your family. Ultraviolet light is not a new technology. It is the same technology [...]
Covid-19 and PPE in the Power Vac Workplace
Justin Mattoon,Research and Development Manager, American Caddy VacGeneral Manager, B & F Power Vac Most Duct Cleaners have been busy during the Coronavirus pandemic, but even those who have been shut down will be able to gradually get back to work now that economies are beginning to open up. As General Manager, of B & F Power Vac, Justin Mattoon recommends several PPE strategies for keeping your employees and customers safe as we move forward. Keep your hands clean. Clearly, this has been a public safety health directive throughout the Covid-19 crisis, but it is something we need to keep in mind as we are dealing with our customers. Keep every vehicle well stocked with hand sanitizer. Be sure to use hand sanitizer before you greet the customer, and then at least once an hour during the job, even more often when your bare skin is exposed. When you use hand sanitizer, it's important to keep in mind that it works best if you do not wipe it off. Allow it to air dry. Don't wipe it off with a towel. Use safety glasses. Our crews wear them all the time so this shouldn't be a problem. [...]
Favorite Options: Stainless Steel Side Steps
Easy access to all the places you need to reach on your American Caddy Vac is important for the safety and efficiency of your crew. That's why so many of our customers choose to include Stainless Steel Side Steps at strategic locations on their units. These simple steps are perfect because they are out of the way when you don't need them and a simple flip down when you do need them. Many of our customers include these handy side steps below their storage compartments, compressor compartments, and any other location that might require a step up. That is so much better than having to find a step stool! Or worse, having to hoist yourself up into a waist high compartment! And these side steps are sturdy, and easily able to bear the weight of a large man with a heavy tool belt. They are simple to use, heavy duty, and they fold up and out of the way when not in use. Simple, yet elegant in their efficiency, Stainless Steel Side Steps are an option that we, and our customers highly recommend.
Favorite Options: Suction Security Doors
American Caddy Vac cleaning units come standard with a rear suction inlet in the hose storage compartment. But many of our customers prefer the option of side suction doors. One popular configuration is to go with two suction security doors with two elbows, giving you three options for suction inlets: the right side, the left side, or the rear. The side inlets are protected by secure doors. This makes life so much simpler for your operators in several ways: First, when they arrive at the job, parking is simpler! No need to figure out how to minimize the hose run through parking the unit in just the right spot. Second, if you can run your hose from either side of the truck, it can significantly shorten how much hose you need to run. This can potentially extend the life of your hoses as well. Third, if you can run your hose from the side of the truck, you don't have to unload all the hose from the hose compartment like you do if you are running from a rear suction inlet. You only need to remove the number of sections of hose that you [...]
Favorite Options: LED Lighting Benefits
Most American Caddy Vac customers have times when their crews are working at nighttime, with all the challenges that implies. Lighting around your cleaning unit as a base of operations is critical to keep the job efficient and safe. American Caddy Vac offers an LED lighting upgrade that can make a big difference to your crew. Each Caddy Vac comes with 5 interior dome lights (2 in the front storage compartment, 2 in the compressor compartment, and 1 in the hose storage compartment), as well as three exterior spotlights (driver side front of the unit, passenger side front of the unit, and one on the back of the unit). LED lighting offers a lot of advantages over conventional lighting, whether in a home, business, or mobile environment. With regard to lighting on your American Caddy Vac, these are some of the main benefits of LED lighting: 1. Longer Lifespan: Easily the most significant advantage of LEDs when compared to traditional lighting solutions is the long lifespan. The average LED lasts 50,000 operating hours to 100,000 operating hours or more. It is more than 40 times as long as the average incandescent bulb. Less frequent replacement means lower maintenance [...]
Favorite Options: Upgrade from Chain Stops to Door Springs
The work day can be challenging enough without battling a door that won't stay open because your cleaning unit is on an uneven surface, or because the wind is blowing! For many situations, the standard chain stops on the American Caddy Vac do the job admirably. They keep the doors from swinging open too far. But of course, they don't hold the doors open. That's why many American Caddy Vac customers upgrade from chain stops to our heavy duty door springs. Door springs protect your doors, your equipment, and your employees! They keep your doors from slamming closed and damaging the finish on the door and on your truck. They keep your doors from blowing closed on any equipment that happens to be in the way. And they keep your doors from blowing closed on the backs and fingers of your employees! With high quality door springs from American Caddy Vac, your doors will stay open until you decide to close them. It doesn't matter if the unit is on uneven ground, or even if you're dealing with wind. Our heavy duty door springs hold the doors open so you can access your tools, [...]
Favorite Options: Deluxe Shelving Kits
For most of our customers, staying organized on the job means significant time savings. Any time a crew has to make a trip back to the shop to get a tool or supplies, that's like money flying out the window. So it makes sense to carry all the tools and supplies you need with you in your rig. But if all of that equipment is just sitting in a pile in an open space, or worse yet, scattered here and there throughout the cleaning unit, that can also be a huge waste of time! The solution is the age old one: A place for everything and everything in it's place! That is the purpose of the deluxe shelving kits available as an upgrade on the American Caddy Vac. No matter what size your unit is, there is a deluxe shelving kit designed to make the most use of your front storage compartment. Some shelves are designed for rods, blower wands, and other items with long, narrow profiles... others are designed to hold several small items like spare parts, nozzles, spinners, and tools. You'll have a place for your standard tool box, for chemicals... everything you [...]
Favorite Options: Complete Stainless Steel Protection Package
Your new Caddy Vac is a powerful air duct cleaning tool, but it is also a powerful marketing tool. It's like a large billboard driving down the road with your business name and logo, and contact information. You want to keep it looking good. A clean, mar-free truck says something about your business. But rock chips, scratches from equipment contact, and just the general wear and tear generated by the work we do can make an impact, especially on the trim areas, where there are just a lot of points of contact. No matter how careful your crew may be, the trim area around the doors are going to take a lot of punishment as equipment is retrieved and replaced. And the top of the back end of the unit gets used for sliding ladders up and down from the racks. These areas take a beating so American Caddy Vac offers a Complete Stainless Steel Protection Package, trimming those areas out with stainless steel so they can take a beating and still look clean and nice. That means your unit will continue to look sharp for [...]
Favorite Options: Electric Hose Reel
Same Rowe with his American Caddy Vac "My latest truck I purchased I did something that I should have done from the beginning... I got the electric hose reel and boy is that nice to work with!" Sam Rowe, with HVAC Power Vac Duct Cleaning in Kalispel, Montana loves this upgrade! This option is becoming a must-have for air duct cleaners for three reasons: 1. Efficiency. The electric hose reel saves time and manpower. It's so easy to use! Just turn it on and it automatically and quickly winds in your hose. Kurt Presley ready for the next job 2. It makes it so simple to keep your hose clean. This is really important in wet, muddy, cold, or icy conditions. Kurt Presley, President of Dalton Environmental Cleaning in Whitmore Lake, Michigan loves the convenience of the automatic hose reels because his crew can just put a wet towell on the air hose and it's cleaned as it is reeled in. "No more wiping down back at the shop! You can do it right there at the job, so you're starting every job with clean air hose." 3. Finally, [...]
Favorite Options: Automatic Bag Door
Many of our customers express great excitement for one or more of the optional features we offer on the American Caddy Vac. For many, it's the Quincy 370 air compressor, for others it may be shelving configurations or the electric hose reel. For Dave and Colleen Weltz of Dick's Vacuum service in Bismarck, North Dakota, it's the Automatic Bag Door. Dave and Colleen purchased their first American Caddy Vac in 2012 and decided to try the automatic bag door. When it was time to purchase a new Caddy Vac in 2019, they did not hesitate to include this feature on their new rig. 2012 American Caddy Vac with Automatic Bag Door Dave loves having so many choices and options that make every American Caddy Vac a custom built tool for his business. He says, “We really like the fact that American Caddy Vac offers so many options and we try to load up on them. I had a rep from another company come by to try to sell me a rig, but it wasn’t customizable so I showed him the door. We need to be able to get the features that work for our business [...]
Favorite Options:
The Quincy 370 Compressor
American Caddy Vac offers a variety of options to meet the needs of our customers. One option that has been very popular is the upgrade from the standard Quincy 325 Compressor to a Quincy 340 or 370 compressor. The 370 offers enough extra air to keep your crews working all day! Eric Farrell, Operations Manager at Stanley Steemer in Delmar, Delaware, loves his Quincy 370 because it allows him to run two different crews at the same time. Eric says, "That extra power really makes a difference on big commercial jobs". Matt Steenbeke, president of VacMan Air Duct Cleaning in Granger, Indiana agrees, "My first Caddy Vac had the Quincy 340, but this time I went with the 370 and at certain times it really helps me. I can have three guys working at the same time instead of just two and at times that can make a huge difference in efficiency and productivity. You never want to sacrifice quality for speed, so it's great to have that extra capacity so you can give the customer speed and quality. It's always great to have more power." There are just [...]
Easy to Maintain American Caddy Vacs Built with Maintenance in Mind
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. [...]
Staying Power…
The Longevity of American Caddy Vac Truck Mounted Cleaners
We all want the things we purchase to last. Nothing is more frustrating than having a product break or fall apart after only a short time of service. When Mac and Donna Mattoon began making American Caddy Vac in 1998, they knew there was a market for a truck mounted cleaning unit that would outlast the truck and chassis it was mounted on. American Caddy Vacs are made of 12- and 16-guage galvanized steel (and now also come in stainless steel models). And every component of the Caddy Vac is built with longevity and ease of maintenance in mind. With proper care and maintenance, the American Caddy Vac cleaner can last the lifetime of several cabs and chassis. Engineered with longevity in mind, they are put to the test every day by B & F Power Vac, the local air duct cleaning company owned and operated by the Mattoons. This proving ground gives American Caddy Vac the "on the ground" information and input needed to constantly improve the quality and user friendliness of their cleaners. Paul Welhouse and crew with their fleet of American Caddy Vacs Durability is critical to our customers and it's a [...]
A Place for Everything…
The Critical Importance of Adequate Storage
Time makes the difference between a profitable Air Duct Cleaning business and one that is not profitable. Man hours determine how much a job will cost. That is why storage is so critical in your duct cleaning truck. Trips back to the shop for tools you forgot (or didn't know you would need) drive up your costs. Time spent trying to find or detangle a tool from a disorganized pile will drive up your costs. American Caddy Vac truck mounted cleaners are made with an abundance of storage room to carry all the equipment you will need. A well-organized truck with room to carry all the equipment to clean a variety of homes and businesses just makes good business sense. Our customers recognize the importance of abundant, clean, well-organized storage space. Daniel Busby, Operations Manager at Willard Power Vac in Portland, Oregon has used other brands of cleaners in the past, but one of the reasons he prefers American Caddy Vac is storage: "It has more storage capacity, more compartments to keep stuff in. It's just better." Eric Ferrell agrees. Eric is the [...]
ON THE JOB!
American Caddy Vac Training with B&F Power Vac
One of the benefits of purchasing an American Caddy Vac is unlimited training with our very own duct cleaning company, B&F Power Vac. Mac and Donna Mattoon purchased B&F in 1988 and have grown the company significantly over the decades. So when they developed American Caddy Vac in 1993, it made perfect sense to offer "on the job training" with B&F to anyone who purchased a new Caddy Vac. B&F staff are NADCA (National Air Duct Cleaners Association) certified ASCS (Air System Cleaning Specialists) cleaning technicians with a wealth of experience in cleaning residential, commercial, and industrial jobs. Mac and Donna Mattoon, Owners, American Caddy Vac and B&F Power Vac And that's huge! The training is customized for the customer! At any given time, B&F can offer this on the job training for residential, commercial, and industrial jobs. Our crews cover a wide range of facilities and can offer training at any of them. Your crew will learn how to use air duct cleaning tools and equipment and benefit from the experience of B&F crew members, and get tools for success from owners, Mac and Donna Mattoon, and General Manager Justin Mattoon. [...]
What’s Your Favorite Feature?
Customers talk about their favorite American Caddy Vac Features
Every American Caddy Vac is a custom build because every customer has specific needs in their business. While every customer loves the durability and reliability of American Caddy Vac, they also have specific features that are important to them in their day by day work. Here's a few comments from people who use American Caddy Vac every day. MJ Palazzolo with one of his 10 active American Caddy Vacs Mike "MJ" Palazzolo, President and CEO Safety King Air Ducts Cleaning Utica, Michigan "Much of what makes Caddy Vac so great isn't just new or novel concepts... a lot of the features on their trucks aren't new ideas... American Caddy Vac has just perfected the execution. So for example, the concept of a PTO driven vacuum, that's been around for a long time... but the gearing was too small and the bodies weren't put together the right way so they broke frequently and they rusted out after just a couple of years... What American Caddy Vac is doing is the same ideas, they have just perfected the execution. So the truck is a lot more durable, it's a self-contained unit, it has everything we need on [...]
American Caddy Vac and B & F Power-Vac: The unique benefit of trusting a manufacturer with their own Air Duct Cleaning business
American Caddy Vac was born of the need to develop a Power Vac truck that could meet the rigorous needs of an industry that required power, mobility, and longevity. Mac and Donna Mattoon, Owners, American Caddy Vac and B & F Power-Vac Mac and Donna Mattoon had been operating B & F Power-Vac in Lewiston Idaho for years, using trucks that required constant maintenance. In fact, they kept three trucks in their fleet so they could be operating two of them while repairing and maintaining the third. That meant lots of hours out of every day and every weekend maintaining trucks that simply couldn't handle the strain. On top of that, their existing trucks often couldn't provide the suction necessary for larger commercial jobs. In the early 90's Mac and Donna got aquainted with some cleaners in Canada who were experimenting and designing new Power Vac trucks with innovation in mind. The Mattoons saved their money, and in 1996 purchased their first Caddy Vac for B & F Power-Vac. Over time, the two families became friends and partners, and that led to the formation of American Caddy Vac in 1998. The two companies worked together [...]