[Phil Mitchell]

Hi all
Im asking on behalf of a window cleaner who lives just round the corner from me as he has no idea (neither do I!) what to expect from a backpack in weight, price and reliability.
Where is the best place and/or cheapest place to buy one and how have you found using it?
He only wants to clean the odd window each day and Im going to supply him with pure water as he keeps on getting me well paid work
He's going to join this forum soon but until then any help would be much appreciated.
Phil

[colley614]

Backpack can be a little heavy really but well worth it. Its not as heavy as a big ladder and can get a days ladder work done in an hour if it is no stop work. I really do like my backpack and looking forward to taking the next step and getting a full system. Expect to pay in the region of £200 for a backpack any less is a bonus.

[dazza]

I will be investing in a backpack but will also be buying a trolley for it as i do get a bad back from time to time  :

[Kwackers]

Backpack £200
RO/DI £150 Ish
Pole £100+

Thats about it really but youll need a tank to make water, some thing to transfer from tank to backpack so either a sub pump or 25 L Cans.

MY backpack is 16L and is about 23KG full i think

[Feen]

Got 2. Bought a system to start with. Backpack, pole, DI vessel etc. £500. Bought another backpack from Ebay from US £121. Now I have one as original packpack when access is difficult and one on a trolley with the switch mounted outside. If I was doing it again, I would buy the backpack Ebay US and the rest here, spending more than I thought I should on a pole. Without the pole you are struggling.

[dazza]

what pole would you guys recommend for a domestic house 18ft?
I've done a search but still a bit confused which to go for, i've seen a few
on cleantech website.

[NWH]

24ft on your average domestic,you`ll be able to get window`s above con roof with length.

[macmac]

Backpack can be a little heavy really but well worth it. Its not as heavy as a big ladder and can get a days ladder work done in an hour if it is no stop work.

That's nonesense, if it were true we'd all be on 1 day a week! :
And, how can it be none-stop work when it only holds 18ltrs max, you'll be stopping every 10 minutes to fill up

tony

[LWC]

its not nonsense really. a little exagerated. i have a house that used to take me 1.30 mins on my own ith ladders. i can do it in 15 mins now with the backpack. so you can see where hes comign from

i think theyre brilliant. id be lieing if i said i sometimes i didnt struggle. but when i have someone with me i wear it all day. and thats usually 2 days a week.

i get on fine with it. i thought about selling mine the other day, and then i started using it again. i do love my backpack 

[Spursboy1972]

One word only for the backpack = AWESOME!!!

[Phil Mitchell]

Thanks for your comments and I'll pass the info on. Might get one myself in the future but my WFP system seems to be coping with everything ok at the moment.
Phil

[macmac]

its not nonsense really. a little exagerated. i have a house that used to take me 1.30 mins on my own ith ladders. i can do it in 15 mins now with the backpack. so you can see where hes comign from
 

Yes, but does this happen on 100% of your work, you've only quoted 1 job & that'll be the job that it makes the most difference on out of your whole round.
This is where people start to get miss-led, people start quoting things that arn't the norm, one off's, in theory or in an ideal world. none of which is a true reflection of every day working situations.
Backpacks- great, but don't for one minute think you'll be doing 8 days worth of ladder work in a day!

tony

[Simply Clean Windows]

I have a van mount and a backpack,i use the backpack for town houses where you have to go through the house to do the back, and a couple of jobs where the 100m of hose wont reach,bought a sack trolley aswell because i would not fancy carrying the backpack all day.
Malcolm

[calk]

Have used backpacks for over 2 yrs now on upwards of around 1500 properties per month and would never look back and would never get round all the run without the backpack.  Domestic customers were very wary at first but now think it is the dogs bits and out of all the customers that I have I only lost 5 who were not sure about it.  Backpack means no trailing hoses and I find that we get approx 10-15 more houses per day .

[geefree]

what pole would you guys recommend for a domestic house 18ft?
I've done a search but still a bit confused which to go for, i've seen a few
on cleantech website.

x tel... gardiners... 21 ft around 80 quid... dead light... comes down to 5 ft.... i use it for up, down, 3rd stories and above con roofs.

[Kwackers]

Just brought a backpack myself and going to go for the same pole as Gaz, originally was going for a 17 but a bit wary that it wouldnt do con roofs and windows above cons

[KarlJones]

A while ago I started weight lifting again.  i expected this would have a negative effect on my job.  But the reverse happened.

I can now walk around with a full backpack, another 25 liters in one hand, and my pole in the other, whooa I am walking about with over 40 liters of water and I could easily do that all day.  mmm, I think I had better give this up during the icy season though, i could end up like a tortoise on its back!

LWC thinking of selling his backpack?!?  Somethings wrong.

[Jeff Brimble]

Thats great Karl, I had a bad back when I started with the pac and found that over a time my back became better and fitter and so did I ( I also found the excercise very good) I would suggest everyone uprate the padding on the straps in fact if I was starting again I would try to devlope a seperate shoulder yoke to spread the strain over the top of the shoulder blades so that the straps wouldnt cut into the muscle and ligaments.