For the last 20 years, Facility Masters Pros have depended on ProTeam® corded backpack vacuums. When they acquired a new contract for four highly secured facilities—where cleaning staff would need to perform Day Cleaning around building occupants and be escorted at all times—COO Osvaldo “Ozzie” Almeida invested in ProTeam GoFree® Flex Pro cordless backpack vacuums to make the job faster, safer, and easier for his staff.
“In my opinion, the cordless backpacks allow us to clean around employees without the risk of someone tripping on the cord,” said Almeida. “They are also slightly quieter than the corded backpacks. Even though the CFM is less, they clean at the same level we expect from our standard backpacks.”
Once they had the cordless backpacks, Almeida immediately found more uses for them. One high-end law office mentioned that their previous vendor left cord burns in the hallway. The black marks were cord burns from dragging a 50-foot extension cord behind a vacuum. Almeida put the cordless backpack vacuum in the building to eliminate the risk of cord burns and help maintain a pristine facility.
“Everywhere we put the cordless backpack vacuums, they solve a problem,” said Almeida. “For example, it’s more convenient to vacuum air vents and duct work. We can do dusting tasks without having to stop and get a different tool.”
Facility Masters, Inc. is one of California’s premiere building maintenance service companies with offices in Northern and Southern California. They are responsible for maintaining 290 facilities, covering 10.5 million square feet per day. To handle the workload, Facility Masters employs about 350 staff members that clean during the day and night.
Facility Masters maintains facilities with a fleet of about 350 ProTeam vacuums that span a breadth of models. Ten of the fleet are GoFree Flex Pro cordless backpack vacuums that are mostly used for daytime cleaning. Another 30 are the newer triangular Super Coach Pro® backpack vacuums, and the majority of the rest of their vacuums are the older cylindrical Super CoachVac® backpacks. They also refinish floors with 11 vans for floor stripping and a ProGuard 15 Wet/Dry vacuum in each for floor stripper recovery. Lastly, Almeida also keeps a handful of upright vacuums on hand for high-pile carpet. Upright vacuums are not his preferred method of cleaning, so Almeida deploys them only when necessary.
“We switched to backpack vacuums for convenience, ergonomics, and productivity,” said Almeida. “You can do a lot more square footage per hour with a backpack vacuum. In my opinion, backpacks require less maintenance than upright vacuums. The most important thing is the dust. Backpack vacuums do a better job capturing dust.”
