The question on fishing pole cost does make a good case.
1+
Years back a few of us got involved with fishing pole conversions started by our Tosh. They were light, about 18' long and reasonably rigid. They were a vast improvement over our Unger Teleplus poles. With a Ron Thomson pole at £13.99, a brush at £2.99, you could make a pole for under £25.00.
We needed a light brush and the only decent one around was the Bentley brush which we converted. Some brushes worked well, others didn't.
The downside with the fishing poles was that they were modular. The ones we converted had 6 sections. My van was long enough to store them in sections of 2. For an average house we needed all 6 sections which meant the first walk from the van was to carry the poles to the furthest window. Then we went back to the van to pull the hose out.
Once we had done the tops, we needed to discard sections to do the lower windows, throwing them far enough out of the way so nobody stood on them. When completed, the first trip back to the van was with the remaining sections and the hose and the second was to retrieve the discarded sections. If you got interrupted and forgot them behind, then that meant a wasted trip back to the last house to find them.
In comparison to an old fiber glass telescopic pole they were no match for speed. I worked with a fellow window cleaner off my van for a few days when his van was broken, and the speed setup difference between him and me was embarrassing. I wasted so much time I calculated that would easily pay for SLX's with the increased productivity.
The price of carbon fiber poles has come down over the years despite the costs of raw materials going up. My wife was very upset when I purchased an SLX40. It was a similar cost to a return ticket to Australia plus a bit of spending money. 4 years on, make the same comparison.
In the early days, Facelift were the best poles, but price wise, they were out of reach for us. It was Gardiners that bought carbon fiber technology to the proverbial masses at an affordable price.
Spot on Spruce - I did exactly the same.
However, you forgot to mention driving to the next job, opening the back door and realising you'd left some sections stuffed in the hedge at the last job, or paying £600 for a Maver Superlight then treading on a section or two .. happy days.
.........they did seem to crush exceptionally easily didn't they? I stood on a section of the first pole on the first day. Good thing we had a couple of spare sections. I also fiber glassed a few as well with a fiberglass wrap. They lasted well TBH.
When they stopped making the Senoflex I bought a couple of Energies which weren't the same and were less rigid. We still have a working Senoflex unit in son's van which he uses on a job he takes his car and backpack to. It looks really tatty now and very unprofessional.
We will include these in the 'good ole days' stories for the grandchildren.
