Review: Metro Sidekick (MS)

[swanicyouth]

I was lucky enough to to win cleanmycorrolla's give away of the MS. He apparently won it in a give away from AG, and they had used it there in the garage. The unit arrived in nice shape from Chris:



The specs on this thing are:

Model: Blaster® SideKick™

Construction: Sturdy All Steel

Motor: 1.3 Peak HP

Air Flow: 18,000 ft./min.

Fan: Single Stage Fan

Amps: 8 Amps / 950 Watts

Cord: 14 in. Heavy Duty 3 Conductor

Weight: 3 lbs

The other machine I own and will be comparing the Sidekick to is the Metro Airforce Blaster:



That Airforce Blaster looked pretty impressive to me when I got it. It came with a long heavy duty hose and steel construction.

Here are the specs on it:

Model: Blaster B-3

Construction: Sturdy All Steel

Motor: 4.0 Peak HP

Air Flow: 29,250 ft./min.

Fan: 2 Stage Dual Fan

Amps: 9.5 Amps

Hose: 10 ft. 1.5" diameter heavy duty commercial strength flexible hose

Nozzle: Heavy Duty Neoprene Blower Nozzle

Cord: 12 ft. Heavy Duty 3 Conductor

Weight: 8 lbs.

I learned early on that to detail successfully you need some type of blower. Besides using these things to dry your car and blow water out of all the cracks, they also have other uses. I use mine to dry anything that is wet quickly. They are also great for blowing bugs or dust/pollen off your car when your waxing or polishing, as dust and bugs quickly settle on a clean car. They are also good for drying and blowing dust off pads. They also help blow dust out of cracks on interiors as well. Rarely do I do anything to one of my cars without using the Airforce Blaster, or now the Sidekick.

So, back to the review. I'll give you the bad first. People always comment how well Metro stuff is built. It's built out of steel and heavy. But, I have one major issue with the "build design". That's air leaks. This thing leaked air out of almost every seam there is. Same thing with my AirForce Blaster.

As soon as I turned on the Sidekick, there was a TON of air blowing on my hand and the ground. My Airforce Blaster leaked out of the main seam as well. The issue is, the metal is perfectly round at the seem, one little bump or dent there and you have an air leak. I took apart my AirForce Blaster. There is a little rubber strip there, but it's far from a gasket or seal. Some type of plastic collar or substantial rubber seal/O-ring at the main seam would be great, and would only add a few dollars to the manufacturing cost.

But on both units, the air leaks don't stop at the major seam. Air also leaks out of the old school metal on/off switch and the handle. Pretty much anywhere there could be an air leak there is. The basic construction is similar on both units, although the design is different. It just seems the manufacturer (Metro) has done nothing to seal against air leaks.

This may seem like a minor annoyance, but it's not. When I used the Sidekick for the first time the air leaked so bad out of the seam it knocking empty bottles over in my garage and kicked dust up off the floor. Why do these things leak air? Besides being annoying, you are loosing power/flow from the blower from the air leaks.

I think you could make this thing air tight out of hard plastic, similar to the plastic that is used in a leaf blower. While the all metal construction seems sturdy, in reality its heavy, leaks air, and will dent easily if it knocks into something. Both of my units have dents now.

I had dropped my AirForce Blaster and the switch broke. The switch is a basic on/off toggle switch. So, I bought one and went to replace it. I figured while I had it open, I would try to seal it up. I could find no way to seal it up internally successfully, so I ended up with this:



Yes it looks horrible I know, but its sealed up tight as a drum.

The Sidekick leaked especially bad here:



So, I sealed it up the same way:



Also at the plug:



I decided not to take apart the Sidekick to fix the air leaks, but to just cover them externally. The reason is it has metal self tapping machine screws holding it together, like the AirForce Blaster. I found the self tapped threads in the metal to strip pretty easily, and I had to replace a few of the screws with larger ones. Again, if the machine was made out of plastic, there could be nuts anchored in the plastic to avoid this issue. Needles to say, I'm not a huge fan of the old style metal construction. Maybe the motor gets too hot for plastic, I don't know. But, the body of the machine doesn't seem to get hot.

The Sidekick did seal up perfectly air tight as well with electrical tape and Krazy Glue. Only thing I couldn't seal up was the switch. That actually leaks at the toggle where it moves back and forth. Nothing I could do there.

Anyway, that's the bad for the Sidekick. The problem I always had with the AirForce Blaster was I found the hose extremely stiff, and excessively long. It was pretty hard to use it on the roof of a SUV or anywhere in my narrow garage without banging the hose on the vehicle. If I had a huge garage or used it outside it wasn't much of an issue, but the AirForce is just unwieldy. Its also impossible to use that machine without it rolling over. Even with the dolly (which is an extra $22), it still wants to tip and roll over.

I improved the AirForce Blaster by replacing the long and stiff hose with a Metro Vac N Blo hose. That's a short hose, much thinner and more flexible. It basically turned my AirForce Blaster into a hand held unit. The way to use it with the shorter hose was to hold the machine in one hand, and the hose in the other. While this solved the other two problems, your arm gets pretty tired holding the machine up all the time. Nonetheless, it worked much better for me this way. You can see my hose in the image above.

Anyway, after sealing up the Sidekick it took care of all my issues, even though it now looks terrible.This machine has many good points though. First off, its very powerful for its size. I think Metro rates the Sidekick at 1.3 HP / 8 amps and the AirForce Blaster at 4 HP / 9.5 amps. By the HP rating one would think there would be a night and day difference between the machines, then if you look at the amps drawn - not so much.

While the AirForce Blaster is more powerful, the Sidekick doesn't seem too much less powerful in actuality. However, the usability, ergonomics, and weight of the Sidekick are so much better I always reach for that now. The machine is much more powerful than you would expect it to be and lighter than you would expect it to be for how powerful it is.

I was actually able to dry a whole SUV with the Sidekick. It took maybe 15 mins. While that's too long normally, the car was rinsed with DI water - so water spots weren't a concern.

The machine is more than powerful enough to use as an accessory to dry wheels and blow water out of crevices. The beauty of it over the Master/AirForce Blasters is that its a self contained unit. There are no hoses to deal with or machine to drag around. It size and shape are very functional.

While Metro claims theses machines blow warmed air, in actuality its only a little warmer than ambient temperature, maybe 25 degrees, as its just the heat generated by the motor. Before I tried this machine I figured it would be a "waste" because it wouldn't be powerful enough. In practice though its quite powerful, and capable of drying a car touch-less as long as your: not in a hurry AND did a final rinse with DI water or are working indoors.

I think everyone needs at least one of these machines. I couldn't imagine drying wheels, wiper cowls, lenses, etc.. without it. Since I'm in no hurry, and have been using a CR Spotless, I have been using the Sidekick to dry most of the car without a towel. While I'm sure a Master Blaster is much quicker, this is perfect for someone that wants an air blower and doesn't want to spend a ton of money or who doesn't have a ton of room to deal with 12' of hose.

The air leak issue is a major one for me. I don't know if all these machines have air leaks, just that the two that I have do. While I like the power of both machines, I hate the metal construction and the air leaks. Sealing up the air leaks means all the air the machine produces is directed out the hose. As it is, it seems Metro is the only game in town for a tool like this, unless you go with a leaf blower which is likely going to be clumsy and less powerful.

Even with the issues, for a hundred bucks I'd still recommend the Sidekick as its just so handy and powerful.

[cleanmycorolla]

Excellent review, way better than I could have done. My initial thoughts I couldn't believe how powerful it was for being so tiny!

[jgg85234]

I'm stumped by the reviews I read about Metropolitan Vacuum's products. They seem to be mostly good, but my experiences with their products have been universally bad.

When I had the computer service business, I bought DataVacs as part of the equipment for each car. The only ones that worked were the most powerful version ($300+ per unit), and they were so heavy that the guys didn't even want to take them out of the car to use them. They all leaked, and dented quite easily. They were designed to be both vacuum and blower. The little desktop units were less powerful than just blowing on the keyboards.

I asked one of my techs what he thought of them and he said
"well, they don't suck - don't blow worth a damn either"

We kept a couple of the big units just to clean up toner spills, as they came with all of the filters to keep the toner out of the motors.

Cans of compressed air to blow out computers was an expensive proposition, as each tech would use about 2-3 cans per day.

That's when I found the Makita battery powered blowers, which moved a lot more air.

I suppose I'm being unfair, as the Master Blaster units appear to be designed just to blow, and have 4.0 horsepower motors. The biggest DataVac had a 1.7 HP motor.

But, I learned my lesson, and won't ever purchase another product from MetroVac. I've had a 5.0 HP 12 gallon ShopVac in the garage for years, and that's never let me down.

Even a Hoover PortaPower seemed to do a better job.

Maybe if they had the Master Blasters when I purchased all the DataVacs (2005), I would have had a better experience.

Jim

[Gen9Rolla]

Great review and I love my Sidekick. Haven't gotten and dents or leaks yet, but I'll be on the lookout for them now

[swanicyouth]

I'm stumped by the reviews I read about Metropolitan Vacuum's products. They seem to be mostly good, but my experiences with their products have been universally bad.

When I had the computer service business, I bought DataVacs as part of the equipment for each car. The only ones that worked were the most powerful version ($300+ per unit), and they were so heavy that the guys didn't even want to take them out of the car to use them. They all leaked, and dented quite easily. They were designed to be both vacuum and blower. The little desktop units were less powerful than just blowing on the keyboards.

I asked one of my techs what he thought of them and he said
"well, they don't suck - don't blow worth a damn either"

We kept a couple of the big units just to clean up toner spills, as they came with all of the filters to keep the toner out of the motors.

Cans of compressed air to blow out computers was an expensive proposition, as each tech would use about 2-3 cans per day.

That's when I found the Makita battery powered blowers, which moved a lot more air.

I suppose I'm being unfair, as the Master Blaster units appear to be designed just to blow, and have 4.0 horsepower motors. The biggest DataVac had a 1.7 HP motor.

But, I learned my lesson, and won't ever purchase another product from MetroVac. I've had a 5.0 HP 12 gallon ShopVac in the garage for years, and that's never let me down.

Even a Hoover PortaPower seemed to do a better job.

Maybe if they had the Master Blasters when I purchased all the DataVacs (2005), I would have had a better experience.

Jim

Funny you say that, I kinda feel the same way. But, they're kind of the only game in town. They do seem to have powerful motors, the downside seems to be the crude 1930s engineering.

What do I mean by "1930s engineering", well I would expect I plug like this to be on it:

[Zelfiris]

Thank you for the review swanicyouth. I recently found out my water is hard enough to etch into my doors (where the side mirrors are) and I want to prevent that from happening after a good polish.

I was looking for an 'economical' option to blow off air where my towels can't reach and your review definitely gave a lot of feedback

[SoonerGM]

Thank you for the review swanicyouth. I recently found out my water is hard enough to etch into my doors (where the side mirrors are) and I want to prevent that from happening after a good polish.

I was looking for an 'economical' option to blow off air where my towels can't reach and your review definitely gave a lot of feedback

If your water is that hard you may want to look in to getting a water filter for your hose.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

[Zelfiris]

If your water is that hard you may want to look in to getting a water filter for your hose.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

Hey SoonerGM,

I thought about doing that too. Although it may help with water spotting, it won't eliminate water hiding in crevices where my drying towels can't reach.

[swanicyouth]

The Sidekick rocks. I use it every wash - same one in picture. I hardly ever use the Master Blaster. Rinse with de-ionized water and use the Sidekick - that's the way to go most of the time.

[SoonerGM]

The Sidekick rocks. I use it every wash - same one in picture. I hardly ever use the Master Blaster. Rinse with de-ionized water and use the Sidekick - that's the way to go most of the time.

How do you rinse with De - ionized water?

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