[TVCS]

The sun was out this morning, the tank was full to the brim.  The TDS said 000.
I strode out of the house at 7.45.  (early for me)  Drove to my first job, a football club nice big high windows.  45 mins later and £45 better off packed my stufff into the van gave the number 1 section of the old SL2 a quick shake to get shot of excess water before popping it back in the van and ........................................
DISASTER.   it broke.     
ordered a replacement from gardiners which will be with me tomorrow but how typical.  5 years of non stop rain then a day of sun and you break your pole. 

It must be an omen.    "stop cleaning windows"  lol

[matt]

i allways carry a spare pole int he van, its a unger ali pole, heavy BUT its allways at the bottom of the van and stuff gets thrown ontop of the thing, handy for cases like this

[TVCS]

a pic of the offending item

[[GQC] Tim]

Are you sure it was a quick 'shake'? 

[Alex Gardiner]

Wow - that's quite a break!  This can be repaired though which may be useful as a back-up.  To repair: cleanly cut through any remaining material and take the smaller section and slide up from the base of Section 1, pulling through until it's tight. This will usually give you about 4-6 inches of strong overlap.  A quick wrap of tape around the exposed joint would enable you to use this section.  A more permanent repair would be to do the same thing but put a coat of Superglue on the overlap section.

[NWH]

Always have spare top sections i have 3,i`m surprised it broke though there mega strong for what they put up with.

[Moderator David@stives]

I have hundreds of poles as Alex will testify, that is one area where i will never eaver fail

P.s how dod you break it , you must of spun it round your head at 100mph then hit a wall ?

[Allways Cleaning]

you dont have to hit a wall with them. my Sl1 snapped off whilst doing a window!! 5 sections up first time i have used it at height mainly because its a sod to carry a spare section with you for that little bit too hight window or the ground runs away from you. I AM NOT HAPPY.
Did not finish job Tues got soaked allday and then pole broke .
This should not happen?? Clean as a whistle not like the photo below. Not where the ali pole goes over either, right in the bloody middle. I HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE SO FRAGILE!  :'(Still ammused the kids in the classroom where i was cleaning they all came to the window for a good laugh. Very expensive bit of kit to snap so easily.
So alex have i got a duff one?

[ftp]

S1 or S2?

[Allways Cleaning]

1

[Alex Gardiner]

you dont have to hit a wall with them. my Sl1 snapped off whilst doing a window!! 5 sections up first time i have used it at height mainly because its a sod to carry a spare section with you for that little bit too hight window or the ground runs away from you. I AM NOT HAPPY.
Did not finish job Tues got soaked allday and then pole broke .
This should not happen?? Clean as a whistle not like the photo below. Not where the ali pole goes over either, right in the bloody middle. I HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE SO FRAGILE!  :'(Still ammused the kids in the classroom where i was cleaning they all came to the window for a good laugh. Very expensive bit of kit to snap so easily.
So alex have i got a duff one?

We haven't sold an SL1 for about 16 months now.  I would imagine that whichever section it was that snapped must have sustained some damage at some point over the last 16 months which was not immediately obvious until it was next put under strain.  It also depends how much pressure was being exerted.  The SL1s were fractionally lighter than the SL2 but were not as tough. 

Whatever the reason, if it was a clean break you should be able to repair it as per the instructions above.

[ftp]

SL1's are pretty fragile and don't take much abuse - i caught mine on the van roof bracing inside and it snapped  clean in half. Stood on another section and crushed it. SL2 is a different animal alltogether.

[Allways Cleaning]

How much is a new top section?

[Alex Gardiner]

Give the girls in the Office a ring on 01726 66400 and they will have the price (I can't remember!)

[Allways Cleaning]

ok ta

[AuRavelling79]

As Alex says carbon fibre poles are easy to repair. Takes five minutes.

Always carry a small handsaw and gaffer tape.

Saw off - slide one inside the other then tape up.

When you get home araldite or superglue properly - why buy a new section?

[NWH]

Slide the cut off peice down through the top and superglue it,it will be stronger than it was when you got it.

[TVCS]

9 am this morning a replacement arrived on my door.   Ta muchly to the young lady at gardiners.( sorry I didnt catch your name.) but as promised she got it sent out yesterday as apposed to today.   

I will doctor the broken one and keep it as a spare, thanks for tips on how to do it. 

Dave,
I was very suprised as to how easily it boke.  No spinning round at 200 mph just a downward shake to remove excess water.  Not very hard at all really and it just folded over.    Never mind its lasted 12months. 

[karlosdaze]

There is another way....

Meet the ends together as perfectly as you can - a spirit level is useful & a dab of superglue just to get it to hold its position. Then when you are sure it perfectly straight wrap the silver scotch tape around neatly - fill it with expanding foam (you can get long straws.) The only catch is the section won't be able to take other internal sections when packing away.

[Wayne Thomas]

There is another way....

Meet the ends together as perfectly as you can - a spirit level is useful & a dab of superglue just to get it to hold its position. Then when you are sure it perfectly straight wrap the silver scotch tape around neatly - fill it with expanding foam (you can get long straws.) The only catch is the section won't be able to take other internal sections when packing away.

It's stronger the other way, ensuring one split end goes inside the other and glueing it.  To give it further strength, you could wrap fibreglass tape or sheeting around the join and resin it.