[Dean Aspects]

In theory the idea that the trad method leaves a thin film for dirt to stick to seems sound and the pure water leaves no film for dirt to stick to also seems valid but in reality i have noticed very little difference
If the weather is such that dirt is getting  to the windows then the window will get dirty if the weather is good then the windows stay clean
I have never used staying cleaner longer as a selling point although one customer did mention this once to me


Dean

[L.J.Thorpe]

I think it has more to do with the solution that you use. I use fairy, and the windows that get done trad are always much dirtier. As an example I did a hospital today the last time I did it was 5 months ago, some buildings are easier to trad most are wfp. The trad ones were minging but the wfp ones looked like they didn't need cleaning.

I think fairy will always attract the dirt, maybe gg3 or squeegee off makes the windows repel the dirt.

Simon.

i started out using fairy then after trying a few others settled on squegee off (never could get the hang of mixing glass gleam,always seemed to drag the blade) which i still use for trad.I think the glass does stay clean for longer its another reason why i want to make round bigger,get another week or so between cleans,though some houses get dirty quicker because of location generally glass seems cleaner.I do think that using squegee off before making switch to wfp helped,i took some houses off a mate who used fairy and they took more cleans to get em coming up good

[macmac]

hi tony i cover athersley as thats where i was living for 22 years and i do upton which is a big portion of my work and south heindley where i live now , used to nock about with a lad from gawber in my younger days john white ,you minght know him , dave

I would probably know him by sight, lived there 30 odd years. my mothers family are from athersley, wingfield road (i think) quite a big family, haigh is their sirname. All my uncles were miners & all were deputies at some point.

Tony

[Highrise]

Well I can honestly say using the WFP inside really keeps the windows cleaned longer, I have never had a customer ask me to do them again....     

[Paul Coleman]

When I first switched to WFP,  had a customer for whom I did two jobs.  One was their house (at £18.00).  The other was their guest house (at £40).  When I first started to inform them that I was switching to WFP, he looked at his wife and said  "You know.  That method that keeps the windows cleaner for longer".  My first thought was "Oh no.  Wait for it."  Sure enough, a few months later she decided that she only wanted the house done 12 weekly while explaining that she wanted the guesthouse still done 6 weekly as per normal because it was more important to them as it was their business.  As the two properties are a few miles apart, I treated them as separate jobs.  Also, I was not totally happy about some safety aspects on the guest house (needed a ladder to access flat roof and had to place ladder amongst parked cars with tight gap and no reasonable way of stopping the ladder blowing over in wind).  Anyway, I took a chance on them cancelling the guesthouse by declining to continue at the house.  They carried on having the guesthouse cleaned until last Autumn, I turned up to clean and she sent out an underling to turn me away as the windows didn't need cleaning (in direct contradiction to what she had already said).  I haven't been back since.  I made no contact.  I know that isn't very professional but it was one of those jobs where my main thought was some relief that I would have to run the gauntlet of parked cars to access the roof.  Nor would I have to tolerate the unnecessarily difficult receptionist any more.  Their choices are fairly limited because, even though I did use trad on it at first, it does really need WFP.  More WFP about now than when I first started so they should be able to find someone OK.
Anyway, THEY clearly think that the windows stay clean longer.  If they wanted me to continue, the mistake they made was waiting for me to get there before sending me away.  Maybe they wanted me to walk as much as I wanted to walk but I doubt they will get someone to do it for £40.  And that was a place I had been going to since the late 1990s.

[macmac]

"You know.  That method that keeps the windows cleaner for longer".     

They had obviousley already been primed though shiner, if they hadn't & you never said anything would the outcome have still been the same. They could have been mentally influenced by what they already had been told.

Tony

[Paul Coleman]

"You know.  That method that keeps the windows cleaner for longer".     

They had obviousley already been primed though shiner, if they hadn't & you never said anything would the outcome have still been the same. They could have been mentally influenced by what they already had been told.

Tony

I think they said that they had seen something about it on TV.  I'm wondering if that Newsnight programme (you know the one) mentioned anything about it.  It would have been around that time.

[Londoner]

Its not whether it does or it doesn't. Its what the customer believes that counts.

I think cleaning with Squeegie Off as opposed to Fairy makes the windows last longer but thats just my opinion.

[d s windowcleaning]

[

I would probably know him by sight, lived there 30 odd years. my mothers family are from athersley, wingfield road (i think) quite a big family, haigh is their sirname. All my uncles were miners & all were deputies at some point.

Tony
 yes mate i no them if its same family , andrea , mel & steve who i no . same as me mate all family worked in mines  . i did for a while up until the strike in 1984 . dave

[macmac]

[

I would probably know him by sight, lived there 30 odd years. my mothers family are from athersley, wingfield road (i think) quite a big family, haigh is their sirname. All my uncles were miners & all were deputies at some point.

Tony
 yes mate i no them if its same family , andrea , mel & steve who i no . same as me mate all family worked in mines  . i did for a while up until the strike in 1984 . dave

That's the ones dave, small world eh? Their dad reg' died last year (my mams brother). It's a big family mind.
Do you clean any of their windows?

Tony

[d s windowcleaning]

it is a small world mate , no i dont clean any of the windows for them . i went to school with them all mate . sorry to hear about reg , i didnt no him unless i was a cheeky little get to him when i was young , its a big place athersley and i do no most of them from there . i reckon i do around 95 houses round there as its i think hard to work for those you know . thats why i go to upton where i do around 300 houses and a few shops keeps the bills paid .             

[rpjltd]

I would like to point out that a few of my customers who know nothing at all about window cleaning without any promting from me have remarked that the windows seem to stay cleaner for longer now that Iuse purified water.
 with regards rpj cleaning co.

[taze95]

I agree I think wfps are over hyped and some windowcleaners have been gullable you can't knock the safety aspect of being on the ground but what if some one trips on the hoses! also the waters they claim is pure, ok but it goes through a filter with resin which keeps windows cleaner for longer so logic tells us the water is not pure that is used on the windows, I have been cleaning windows for 30 some years now I started at age 11 in school hols with my Dad and when I left school started my oun business, i'm happy with my methods of cleaning and so are my coustomers, I think some one is making a lot of money out of scareing windowcleaners into buying expensive unessasery equipment!

[Jeff Brimble]

Welcome to the forum Taze. Try to keep an open mind one day you may change your mind and want to use one, you wont be the first non believer to change. The pure water is used in surgical operations. So the glass can be is surgically clean. You can diy your own system for a lot less than £500 so it doesnt need to be expensive. Or you can chose to buy off the shelf.
I simply earn more £££ and safer than when on ladders.

[Captain Scarlet]

what Jeff said!!!

[Ian_Giles]

Trad does leave a sticky film on the glass, I don't mean sticky to the touch, but sticky to dust and so on, and by that I mean ultra fine dust!

Specialist window cleaning solutions leave far, far less than washing up liquid, but that film is still there.
Go back a day or so later (or a month later come to that) wash it with WFP and you will see a very faint sudsing effect and if you don't spend a little extra time washing and rinsing the glass will dry spotty.
Now that is an absolute fact, I know this because every week I have some shops (that I am going off to do shortly) where if I get to park the van in one spot I can use my WFP to clean them, failing that I do them trad with a pole, so I experience the above all the time.

But does the glass stay cleaner longer?

Sometimes yes, but it depends on several factors, there are a couple of panes where because of their location they are always caught by a vortex induced by the position of an adjacent building, done trad there is always a light film on them the following week, done WFP that film is not usually there...but if the conditions are bad enough then that film IS there.

I think I just come down on the side that windows cleaned WFP have at least the POTENTIAL to stay cleaner for longer, but the weather conditions between cleans is the ultimate factor in how long they stay clean.

Ian

[[GQC] Tim]

Ian...that was one of the best constructed posts I've read in a long time.

Jeff Brimble's wasn't bad either.

[M & C Window Cleaning]

I also agree with Ian. I've noticed all the same things.

When I started 5 months ago I was skeptical about the 'stays cleaner longer' issue so I never 'sold it' to my customers that way. I felt that would invite problems. So I went with the 'health & safety' issue as that's what forced me to try it and by far the majority saw the sense of it straight away.

I mentioned that I had been working off a ladder between 3-500 times per week and that I could reduce that to no more than a dozen times per week. The safety implications were obvious to all but one. He told me to my face that he 'didn't care about my safety.'  Needless to say he didn't remain a customer!

His new window cleaner came over to me the other week and expressed considderable interest in WFP and the benefits of it, so the old custy may well be looking for another window cleanerner before long.

I've also been cleaning windows for 30 yrs I wish now I'd tried WFP years ago.

[frames to panes]

I am actually missing out on work because one local cleaner told a customer that his system is so good that her windows only need cleaning once a year! This customer happens to be my wifes' best friend so when the conversation starts "my husband does windowcleaning do you need a cleaner?" her friend blurts out how good the system is, and you would only need them cleaned once a year  :

[M & C Window Cleaning]

When he doesn't turn up for a few months and the windows are filthy, I'd suggest doing some canvassing.

Some years ago I lost some custies to the miracle chemicals that were flooding the market that supposedly made windows too slippery for dirt to stick to. I soon got them back when the bird muck started sliding from the top of the windows to the bottom. Customers usually see through the nonsense some people spout in the end.