[A & J Owen Window Cleaning]

hi mates
just a quick question for ya ad a unger wfp the green one 25ft do you think its a bit heavey when using it seem to be pulling shoulder muscles all the time

[Pristine Clean]

Yes very heavy.

The cheap poles. If you want a lite pole you need to go for a carbon fibre pole.

But they cost just a tad more but worth it.

Dave

[dd]

If a lot of your work is residential or lower level you could always use e.g 17ft xtel (sames as unger) which is a lot lighter and just use the 25ft when needed.

[A & J Owen Window Cleaning]

might change the pole anyway ad a good usage of a streamline pole just plumbed me ro in and avin a few probs with it doesit take a long time for the water to drain through

[Sapphire Window Cleaning]

I have the 18ft pole and that ok, not the lightest but certainly not the heaviest.



Matt

[Slash]

Your better off getting the alloy hydra from Brodex,it's alot lighter than my 24 foot glass fibre and alot more rigid,I think it's a SUPERB pole ,yet cheap and has a three year guarentee

[Johnny Coyle]

I would avoid glass fibre & Aluminium poles at any height.

Ever used a trade ladder?
All the wfp poles are lighter and a lot less strain than carrying one of those around all day

[dd]

I still use ladders for some of my work but would not fancy sticking a brush on the end of them and trying to clean windows.

With RSI prevention is much better than cure. Have not used cf pole but get most of my work with a gf 17ft xtel and sl brush.

[dd]

The difference in the price between a 17ft glass fibre & carbon fibre poles is not much, it’s also the cheapest CF pole you can get, very easy to recoup your money back, just for the benefit alone of cleaning the windows above a conservatory with ease is worth having a 4 section CF pole.

18ft slx is approx £100 more than 17ft xtel. Is there really that much advantage with a carbon pole at that height?

I can understand advantage of carbon on a longer pole.

[dd]

Ok I agree the price of these poles could be better, but still if do 2,000 cleans a year that extra £100 you have to pay equates to an extra 5p per clean.

So what would you rather have save 5p extra per clean or an easier time cleaning? I would rather have the easier cleaning as well as the extra energy & time saved by using the better CF pole.

Ironically these shorter poles 18ft – 25ft are the most important poles as they are the most used poles, getting the best productive pole here is probably a good idea!

If you average out the cost of most of the various pieces of kit we use it only works out a small amount per clean, but it still dents the wallet.

My question is are you appreciably quiker using an 18ft slx over a 17ft xtel

[dd]

Yes, over a period of time, for instance a year a 18ft CF pole will easily give the fastest window cleaner an extra days working time back, me personally I reckon I get 2-3 days if not more which for me easily covers the extra cost for the 18ft CF pole over the fibre glass pole. That time saving is only with that 18ft pole, you save more time when using other CF poles.

The point is if you can save as little as 15 seconds on cleaning a property when using a CF pole and you have 200 a month to maintain over the year you would gain 10 hours, which could be turned into cash, for some on here that 10 hours would be 2 days pay, which I expect would be more than £100, personally I can almost save 15 seconds alone trying to clean just the window over the conservatory which I didn’t like doing with any bendy/whippy pole, now it’s a straight forward job and no hassle.

I’m done with using aluminium poles and the same goes for glass fibre now, I wouldn’t use them if you could get them for free, let alone with a 3 year guarantee, there not nice to use and ultimately a false economy. Some window cleaners spend years compacting a round, then go and clean it with a banana.
 

Thanks for reply Ewan. Some food for thought.