Taking the plunge budget £500 ish.

[Wheelie Clean]

So I've built a fairly solid round up doing trad only and my customers are very pleased with the work. I do find some windows are a nightmare trad, flower beds, porches, canopies and uneven ground etc. So with winter only round the corner (sorry to remind you!) I am looking to invest in a wfp system. Until i change my van I'm limited to a backpack so I was thinking of a Facelift BigBoy or gardiners? My budget limits me to a hybrid pole, will a 22ft do over connies or will I need longer? I was looking at a Phoenix hybrid as the clx is out of stock. Again are these any good? Are the di vessels off ebay worth buying? I only currently do 100 houses a month so won't be using that much water at the moment so was planning on using twin dis. I'm open to advice on all aspects so over to you guys /emoticons/smile.png

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[Dave B]

22 will reach but may be a stretch on some jobs

If you have any with dormer windows in the roof making it 3 storey or some big connies to go over 25 would be better

I have some dormers on my round and can just about reach them all with a 25

Also i have a couple with small front gardens with gravel and big bushes but with the 25 i can stand on the pavement outside the bushes and go over the whole lot

 

[blaze]

i would wait until the clx is back in stock,100 houses you will use a drop of water lot of messing about with a back pack van mounted system is the way forward 22 will be ok for most jobs on a standard size house i got a gardiner back pack excellent bit of kit only use it for a couple of jobs now i have van system

 

[Clisty1989]

The cleaning warehouse, water genie backpack, di vessel with resin, 27ft water genie barracuda pole, male & female rectus fitting & 4 jerrycans, £450. Its what i got and its very good kit. Ive done reviews on the pole and backpack on here, youll also need to know your tds reading. Tds meters are £20 for a decent one. If you reading is under 100ppm then youll be fine on di only, above that and go the ro route

 

[Dave B]

I use backpack (gardiners) and can do tops on around 5 houses with a full 22l

No need for van mount for the odd window or just tops

4x25l drums will easily do a days work

 

[Dave B]

You could even put a 2-300l tank in the van and use a bilge pump to fill the backpack if you wanted

 

[Wheelie Clean]

i would wait until the clx is back in stock,van mounted system is the way forward 22 will be ok for most jobs on a standard size house i got a gardiner back pack excellent bit of kit only use it for a couple of jobs now i have van system

My current van won't allow a van mount, I clean wheelie bins so have a pick up which is open to the elements and prying eyes, hence the backpack. I'm changing the van next year and if everything goes to plan a van mount system. I'll then have a backpack system as a back up should an issue occur with the van mount. Cheers for the advice.

The cleaning warehouse, water genie backpack, di vessel with resin, 27ft water genie barracuda pole, male & female rectus fitting & 4 jerrycans, £450. Its what i got and its very good kit. Ive done reviews on the pole and backpack on here, youll also need to know your tds reading. Tds meters are £20 for a decent one. If you reading is under 100ppm then youll be fine on di only, above that and go the ro route

I have a TDS meter arriving today, hopefully it will be under 90!

You could even put a 2-300l tank in the van and use a bilge pump to fill the backpack if you wanted

I have a 750 ltr tank on the van already, one option was to mount the vessels on the van and tee off the main feed with a small pump for water on the go but it would be a bit of a nightmare to find a place on the van for the vessels. Cheers Davy.

Anyone bought vessels off ebay?

 

[J and S]

Doing a full round with a backpack and a 22ft pole....I'd struggle to do mine....no re-phrase that I would need ladders.

You'll be forever filling up.

 

[Hunty]

I started with a backpack and the most I did was 24 houses in a day, I used less water when I had the backpack as well so that's good for space in van, you will be comfortable with that, honestly don't go for a 25ft hybrid carbon will be better and as it has less bend will reach better[emoji1303]

My backpack is 16ltr, cheap one with cheap pump and cheap battery, still going strong (I now use for backs) after 2 years, just fill drums with pure water so no need for anything else to carry, an buy a little sack truck (£10-15 eBay) for those busy days save carrying you will be fine with 100 houses a day.

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[Wheelie Clean]

Gardiner backpack, slx27 and 30m of hose is £463 with vat. I understand the slx will serve me well, so it will be a sound investment. What about brush heads? What would be your go to brush head?

 

[Adams0211]

Maybe think about having a look to see if there's a pure water supplier near you to start you off. £500 won't go very far if you need to get all your gear plus what you need for making your own water.

 

[Marko067]

An SL-X will definitely serve you well. Nice thing about the new SL-X27 according to the specs, is though it has an extra section over the 25, each section is slightly shorter which means it's slightly shorter than the 25 when collapsed, which is better for working in tight spaces when working at ground level. That extra few inches less length does make a difference. Well it does on my round anyway.

Brush-wise, my favorite is Gardiner's Ultimate range. Shorter bristles for a better feel on the glass, lightweight and good cleaning action. Flocked for leaded windows and mono-filament for regular work. A good medium/soft mono will work as a good all rounder though if you're only going to go for one brush to start with. Flocked as an all rounder is not bad but I find after a windy day there can be a lot of debris on window ledges that clogs the brush and slows me down. Mono-filament brushes don't seem to collect this debris so easily.

If you use the Quickloq gooseneck from Gardiners you can switch brushes real quick should you choose to use more than one.

 

[Wheelie Clean]

Thanks Marko that's just what I was looking for!

Turns out my TDS is 82 so I will just get one di vessel for now looking at an 11 litre here: 11ltr Dumpy EMPTY DI VESSEL - Window Cleaning/ Filter - 400 sold so far 12x15in

Then when my TDS rises buy another and run double dis. Is there anything else I'll need?

 

[Marko067]

Where the DIs are concerned you need to get advice from others as I have to run an RO as well. My tap TDS is around 400 most of the time. My RO turns out water at 005 so I hardly use any resin. I just use a 10 inch DI canister.

Get yourself a few spares as you go on because you don't want to be stopped by silly things like fuses or hose connectors and the like failing. There are a threads on here about that worth checking out.

 

[Posh]

I use backpack (gardiners) and can do tops on around 5 houses with a full 22lNo need for van mount for the odd window or just tops

4x25l drums will easily do a days work

Totally agree

Why do people mess around taking back pack in & out of car/van is beyond me

 

[Wheelie Clean]

Totally agreeWhy do people mess around taking back pack in & out of car/van is beyond me

I'll guess you meant to disagree?

At this moment in time the only possibility for me to use wfp is to use a backpack, if I could afford a new van then I would van mount but I can only work with what I have.

 

[Dave B]

I'll guess you meant to disagree?At this moment in time the only possibility for me to use wfp is to use a backpack, if I could afford a new van then I would van mount but I can only work with what I have.

I think what @Posh is getting at is he leaves the backpack in the van and uses a reel to get the water to the house

Best of both worlds as if needed for access etc he can take the backpack out with a short length of hose and use it like it is supposed to be used

 

[Wheelie Clean]

That would make sense then haha, so what length of hose can I use on a Gardiner backpack and still get good flow?

 

[Dave B]

I don't know for definite

Posh uses less than me but in the past i have used 30m of 6mm id microbore and around 40-50m of 5.5mm id pole hose joined together on a reel with no issues

Realistically you don't need that much as now i use about 20m of reel hose connected to 30m of gardiners pu hose with no problem getting round any of my customers houses that don't have access issues with alleyways etc

If i have to go through the house i will pull the hose through and shut the back door on the hose to do the windows above with no problems

I have in the past used 100m of hose but i reckon it would be a strain on the backpack if used like that constantly

 

[Posh]

Hi @Wheelie Clean

Daveyboys right

I didn't mean buy a van mount.

I got the same set up as a backpack but without the pack

Basically it's a pump & battery & switch. Instead of the hose going into the backpack it goes into a 25l drum.

A pump battery & switch would cost you about £30.

I use about 150ft of hose & it's fine. Obviously it's very rare I use all the hose. If you look on eBay you can buy a setup for about £60.

Both me & @daveyboy bought one & it's fine & with a controller on it.

I'll try put a link on

 

[Posh]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401173149530

Something like this but it can be made a lot cheaper