[Jakey boy]

Just completed my first week of wfp, having got a van and a decent system last week,

First impressions are it's certainly faster but only really on thr 'scrimmer' type windows and the nasty little square windows. I loved not having to scrim away for ages! The pole system does a better job on these type windows hands down!

I'm not sure how much quicker it is on standard all glass windows, but I'm still new to it and getting up to speed, I feel like moving the hose about and getting the pole extended takes a bit of time compared to trad. Again I'm new to it and I'm sure it will speed up.

I found some customers were seemingly frustrated by the new method even though I had explained everything before hand! Im sure this will
Settle down as they see the results.

Achy shoulders!!! Muscle will
Adapt in time.

All in all I've enjoyed it and felt better about working, particularly as I have a lot of scrimmers on the round so this wfp system is absolutly essential, I was getting fed up of smeary windows on the hot summer days from scrims.

I'd like to know if you more expierenced uses found that overall wfp was much faster and did a better job than when you were trad? I feel
At the moment I might be spending too much time brushing the glass, a learning curve I'm Sure I'll perfect eventually. Sometimes trad seems like it would be easier for all
Glass windows?

[H20cleaning]

WFP has a over all better result i think... the windows/frames look clean and shiny, they stay cleaner for longer, and its safer.

This is just my opinion though:)

I would suggest checking aluminium frames carefully (if you have any)
Stay away from vents or they will just cause dirty water runs.
Use a nice powerful flow but not to much that its splashing around the frames.

Use a cloth soaked in antibacterial soap when winding hoses in and out (also pole hose every house or so)
Then you will get used to it fast and love it!! I feel for your neck and shoulders at the moment though 

[Mick Kent]

All of the above but instead of avoiding vents id clean them as when clean they are easy to keep clean and makes a big diference to the overall job, i dont see the point in cleaning the frames/cills/glass only to leave the vents.
I get job satisfaction from those dirty vents.... seeing them black from all dirt and dust caped all over them scrubbing them then rinsing watching the dark dirty sludgy water change to pure clean water leaving them with a perfect finish.

[Jakey boy]

I'll take that on board!  Yeah the shoulders are screaming! Need a nice 18ft gardiner as I'm using a facelift Phoenix 25ft carbon at the mo, just because it ment I could
Cover all heights in my round straight away. It's just a tad heavy for 1 floor houses.

Wih regards to water pressure, is it best to have a fairly strong flow then? I'm
Sticking around the 37 mark on my flow controller, trying to
Save water but still get a decent amount if pressure hitting the glass...

[H20cleaning]

I'll take that on board!  Yeah the shoulders are screaming! Need a nice 18ft gardiner as I'm using a facelift Phoenix 25ft carbon at the mo, just because it ment I could
Cover all heights in my round straight away. It's just a tad heavy for 1 floor houses.

Wih regards to water pressure, is it best to have a fairly strong flow then? I'm
Sticking around the 37 mark on my flow controller, trying to
Save water but still get a decent amount if pressure hitting the glass...

I would buy a clx 22, will reach everything you need and quite light! Most people use these as their everyday pole, 18ft is a little to small.

You will know yourself what the water flow should because you will see all the dirty running down the glass and it will just feel right.

[Jakey boy]

Was thinking the slx2 22ft maybe?

[SeanK]

Try and get as light a pole as possible as soon as possible you will notice the difference in your shoulders
and arms.
Vents are something I avoid putting water above for a few reasons, one they can leave run marks and two they
can leak water into the property if the cover on the inside of the window frame is missing.
But each to their own on that one.
You will get quicker as time goes on but don't expect to double you workload especially if you are quick at traditional
methods.
Don't worry about your water pressure I have always worked around the 32 mark very quickly.

[Jonny 87]

32!!!!

I work at atleast double that. Any slower and quality plus speed seems to suffer. Our job is to flush the dirt off the glass.

When your washing your car you don't just use a trickle of water out the hose, you get good flow to really rinse it. Same principle applies.

With a higher pressure just rinse off the glass by keeping the bristles as close to the glass as possible. Works a treat.

I worked with a low flow for ages but then I saw the light.

[H20cleaning]

32!!!!

I work at atleast double that. Any slower and quality plus speed seems to suffer. Our job is to flush the dirt off the glass.

When your washing your car you don't just use a trickle of water out the hose, you get good flow to really rinse it. Same principle applies.

With a higher pressure just rinse off the glass by keeping the bristles as close to the glass as possible. Works a treat.

I worked with a low flow for ages but then I saw the light.

Depends on how powerful pump is etc...
I work with 26 on my controller but its the same as 40 on others...

[DG Cleaning]

Slx 22 is a great pole reaches everything easily for me and it's very light.
Having said that if I was a full time windy I'd have an extreme.
Wfp will be much quicker than trad once you get first cleans out of the way then in a few months once you get the hang of it you'll be quicker still

[Jakey boy]

Might try raising the pressure slightly, I've got a shurflo 100 so maybe 40psi would be better for me, it does seem to take ages to rinse.

Looking into the new gardiner slx range, might go for a 22ft bit tempered by the 18 just for single story houses as I've already got the facelift 25ft...

[Jakey boy]

Slx 22 is a great pole reaches everything easily for me and it's very light.
Having said that if I was a full time windy I'd have an extreme.
Wfp will be much quicker than trad once you get first cleans out of the way then in a few months once you get the hang of it you'll be quicker still

Ok why the extreme? Is it really that much better? Price difference is huge...

[SeanK]

Slx 22 is a great pole reaches everything easily for me and it's very light.
Having said that if I was a full time windy I'd have an extreme.
Wfp will be much quicker than trad once you get first cleans out of the way then in a few months once you get the hang of it you'll be quicker still

Ok why the extreme? Is it really that much better? Price difference is huge...

Because its a better pole, but for anything under 22ft an SLX or CLX is more than good enough and better value
for money.
Above that then I would be looking for an xtreme if I had enough work at that height to justify it.

[Clever Forum Name]

32!!!!

I work at atleast double that. Any slower and quality plus speed seems to suffer. Our job is to flush the dirt off the glass.

When your washing your car you don't just use a trickle of water out the hose, you get good flow to really rinse it. Same principle applies.

With a higher pressure just rinse off the glass by keeping the bristles as close to the glass as possible. Works a treat.

I worked with a low flow for ages but then I saw the light.

Depends on how powerful pump is etc...
I work with 26 on my controller but its the same as 40 on others...

I work with 40 and same van has twin setup. 40 vs 65 and it's same L per min.

So yeah agree.

[SeanK]

Might try raising the pressure slightly, I've got a shurflo 100 so maybe 40psi would be better for me, it does seem to take ages to rinse.

Looking into the new gardiner slx range, might go for a 22ft bit tempered by the 18 just for single story houses as I've already got the facelift 25ft...

Other than first cleans what are you actually rinsing off, the answer is very little most will be removed during the
scrubbing process.
Your could rinse all day at full flow and you still wouldn't touch all the glass.
A high flow is o.k. if you have a lot of spiders webs or similar to remove but for most cleans you don't need it.

[DG Cleaning]

Might try raising the pressure slightly, I've got a shurflo 100 so maybe 40psi would be better for me, it does seem to take ages to rinse.

Looking into the new gardiner slx range, might go for a 22ft bit tempered by the 18 just for single story houses as I've already got the facelift 25ft...
[/quote

I wouldn't bother with a controller they're handy to save water on first cleans but other than that I don't see the need.

[duncan h]

Might try raising the pressure slightly, I've got a shurflo 100 so maybe 40psi would be better for me, it does seem to take ages to rinse.

Looking into the new gardiner slx range, might go for a 22ft bit tempered by the 18 just for single story houses as I've already got the facelift 25ft...

Other than first cleans what are you actually rinsing off, the answer is very little most will be removed during the
scrubbing process.
Your could rinse all day at full flow and you still wouldn't touch all the glass.
A high flow is o.k. if you have a lot of spiders webs or similar to remove but for most cleans you don't need it.

Don't talk to me about spiders webs. I can you have a tank washing those away

[SeanK]

Might try raising the pressure slightly, I've got a shurflo 100 so maybe 40psi would be better for me, it does seem to take ages to rinse.

Looking into the new gardiner slx range, might go for a 22ft bit tempered by the 18 just for single story houses as I've already got the facelift 25ft...

Other than first cleans what are you actually rinsing off, the answer is very little most will be removed during the
scrubbing process.
Your could rinse all day at full flow and you still wouldn't touch all the glass.
A high flow is o.k. if you have a lot of spiders webs or similar to remove but for most cleans you don't need it.

Don't talk to me about spiders webs. I can you have a tank washing those away

Tell me about it, I have a Harris pole with a web brush on the end, I find its quicker to go round all the frames with
this before finishing with water.
Saves me time on rinsing and cleaning the wfp brush if the frames are really bad.

[j timms]

Just completed my first week of wfp, having got a van and a decent system last week,

First impressions are it's certainly faster but only really on thr 'scrimmer' type windows and the nasty little square windows. I loved not having to scrim away for ages! The pole system does a better job on these type windows hands down!

I'm not sure how much quicker it is on standard all glass windows, but I'm still new to it and getting up to speed, I feel like moving the hose about and getting the pole extended takes a bit of time compared to trad. Again I'm new to it and I'm sure it will speed up. If

I found some customers were seemingly frustrated by the new method even though I had explained everything before hand! Im sure this will
Settle down as they see the results.

Achy shoulders!!! Muscle will
Adapt in time.

All in all I've enjoyed it and felt better about working, particularly as I have a lot of scrimmers on the round so this wfp system is absolutly essential, I was getting fed up of smeary windows on the hot summer days from scrims.

I'd like to know if you more expierenced uses found that overall wfp was much faster and did a better job than when you were trad? I feel
At the moment I might be spending too much time brushing the glass, a learning curve I'm Sure I'll perfect eventually. Sometimes trad seems like it would be easier for all
Glass windows?

personally I only find wfp faster and better on certain jobs. Whatever people say on here some windows just don't like it. It will take u time to work out where its better and where it's not. Don't worry to much about being quicker as it could result in bad workmanship, instead work on technique so you can provide good results or you will upset long standing customers. A lot on here we're poor trad window cleaners or have only ever poled and don't understand how quickly and well a good trad man can work. I'm probably about fifty per cent trad and fifty per cent wfp as I have a lot of bungalows I still trad and a lot of old windows I still trad and also sometimes it's just easier and quicker . Try to see wfp as another string to your bow and you won't go far wrong but also maintain your trad skills where needed.

[Spruce]

There is some very good advise on this thread.

Aching shoulders and neck are just an initial phase you will go through as you are working and using muscles that you haven't used before.

I would take the base section off your pole and use it as a slightly shorter version to begin with as it will be a little lighter. But you need to stay away from old street houses that still have their electricity cables overhead.

I clean above vents and run the brush over them at every clean. On the first clean I switch the water off and then work the wet bristles into the vent gently to loosen the muck on the vent grates. When rinsing, I use a low flow rate with the brush angled not to get water into the inside. You will get to know your 'difficult' vents.

Ali frames can be a nightmare, but we only have a couple of them left on the round now.

We find that we have the most problems with top opener windows on the single pane underneath. New windows aren't that much of a problem though. Water gets into the top opener's frame through poor seals and drips down the main glass leaving streaks when they dry. We have a house where I do all the top windows (top and bottom rows) and come back a few hours later and then clean the rest of the house doing just the main glass of these windows.

A friend of mine locally got rid of all his houses that had these types of windows.