A Beginners Guide to Water-Fed-Pole By Jeff Brown.
This guide is written for the soul purpose to help those individuals or company’s contemplating or seeking to invest time and money, into to the new water-fed-pole system, they are the author’s views and the author’s views only, they are based on his own experience, unto which he except’s no responsibility to which ever method you employ or accidents caused to or by you, using the water-fed-pole method or this guide.
The Water-Fed-pole system is increasingly becoming more and more popular within the trade of window cleaning; it is a method that can not only have the potential to increase your turnover, but its has also been recognized by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as one of the safest methods of cleaning windows from the safety of the ground.
Where do we begin?
The first thing I personally did was to join some of the many forums available to window cleaners on the internet. There are forums that dealt with all types of cleaning, some included window cleaning sections, weather it was using the Traditional methods or the water-fed-pole method, now increasingly the water-fed-pole method is creeping in more and more, as more individuals and companies alike realize, the way forward is by using the water-fed-pole method.
Before I changed over to the wfp method a very good friend and I, decided to create a forum dedicated solely to the water-fed-pole method and so the water-fed-pole-Training Academy was born.
After nine years of window cleaning my body decided a change was in order, So I began by asking lots of questions on the forums, the vast knowledge and experience these guys’s have is over whelming, ask a question and you will get a string of truthful answers, based on there own experience’s and findings, now you can’t take everyone’s views and advice, so you have to gather together all the information you feel is relevant to your own needs, at the end you should have enough information to help you decide the best way forward.
Each and every window cleaner or company have many different clients (customers) each of these clients have different needs and access issues, so we will have to address the issues as to which method will best suit us and to serve these clients needs.
Some of our clients won’t even like the new method, now theses are normally within the domestic market, our commercial clients aren’t always to fussy how there windows get cleaned, but some are heath and safety conches, and insist we use the safest method available, and providing the building isn’t above our reach, then the water-fed-pole method is the safest way.
Let’s take a look at our needs for the Domestic market first?
Will we need a van mount for these?, or will a simple backpack or trolley system serve our needs? Again the choice is going to have to be yours, based on your funds available, and also any access issues you may have including your client base.
Backpacks and Trolleys
The backpack is by far the cheapest means of entering into the world of water-fed-pole.
If you have a lot of clients in rows of terraced houses, where you have access issues around the back, or worse still you have to gain access to the back, by going through the client’s house, then most certainly a backpack or trolley is by far your best means, you don’t really want hose pipes trailing through your clients house, there are health and safety issues to take into account if you do, apart from the fear of a burst or leaking hose and an insurance claim being made against you.
A backpack system is also useful, as an additional item that is kept in your vehicle, for the odd and occasional awkward access problem you may encounter, if carrying the weight of a backpack on your back is not possible, you can always move your backpack around by putting it onto a small sack truck/trolley the shurflo backpack has a capacity of 4 us gallons or 15.14 Liters.
When filling your backpack the level indication marks should be taken as a guide only as the volume of the tank can vary in the molding process.
A purpose built trolley system is also the same, but has the added benefit of being able to operate as a van mount system; and can carry one or even two water containers, it can also be attached to a larger water tank in your vehicle and a longer hose attached to it, and when needed for the odd awkward property it can simply be detached and converted back to a trolley system.
The disadvantage of the backpacks and trolley mounts is the need to keep returning to your vehicle to refill with water, if you have quite a few clients in one road, you can drop water containers off at certain points along the way, to save the trouble of returning to your vehicle, again place the containers safely, so as not to cause a trip hazard to members of the public or clients.
The refilling of a backpack from a tank or containers from your vehicle can be achieved using different methods; the simplest and cheapest method is by siphoning the water from you main supply into the backpack, if you have smaller containers you can simply just pour from the container into your backpack, other methods employed are by transfer by an 12v electric pump that is connected to your auxiliary battery.