Welcome to the UK Window Cleaning Forums

Starting or own a window cleaning business? We're a network of window cleaners sharing advice, tips & experience. Rounds for sale & more. Join us today!

Which are the best water fed trolley systems.

Ash Smith

New member
Messages
11
Location
Tattershall
Hello everyone I'm new on here , my name's Ash and I've decided to bite the bullet and start my own window cleaning business, I have some experience as I used to work for a bloke for around about a year, he gave me a van and the onboard kit and I water fed cleaned windows.

Anyway I'm waffling ... I've got a little bit of cash I would like to invest in a complete trolly system set up, so I can go out there and clean windows without having to buy a big van and van set up just yet. 

Ashby's have a complete system is it a good buy do you think ? It's a huge investment at £1200 but looks to be really good and it filters the water to make it pure on the go !

I've started out traditionally cleaning windows but I'm not enjoying getting up and down the ladder none stop especially if I could do it from the ground .

Anyway, any help appreciated cheers.

Ash

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Use the search. I think most people will suggest either the gardiner backpack mounted to a trolley, or the pure freedom nano. 

Gardiner is good as it’s a self contained unit, battery lasts for ages, simple set up, with good service from gardiner.

purefreedom is good as you can just swap the 25l drums over, no waiting to fill. More robust and professional construction. 

My money went on the gardiner mounted to a ‘handy’ sack truck, comes in at about £150, and manages everything with ease cleaning upto 40ft.

most important is water filtration, but that depends on you tap TDS.

use the search,all the information you could possibly need is covered on here. 

 
I can vouch for their solid build of the Pure Freedom trolleys as well should you decide to go that route. I've used the standard Pure freedom trolley for ten years as my round is very compact and much of it is not near roads. A van system for me, was way more expensive than my work needs dictated.

The Nano is PF's latest offering and is about half the weight of the standard version. This is an important factor if you will be needing to lift it in and out of your vehicle a lot during the day. You will also get a higher flow rate with the PF trolley than a backpack should you want it. I personally find the backpacks to be a bit lacking in that department, but thats just me. There are plenty that do use them. I had to use mine for the first time in a few weeks today and boy was I glad to get back to the trolley.

I think the Nano is about 12.5kg without the barrel. You can lift it with one hand if necessary. Most trolleys are nearer 20kg without the barrel.

 
I have both the gardiner backpack on a lightweight trolley real good is cash is tight, but for me the of nano wins hands down half the weight of a standard trolley my son loves using the nano excellent build quality.

 
I can vouch for their solid build of the Pure Freedom trolleys as well should you decide to go that route. I've used the standard Pure freedom trolley for ten years as my round is very compact and much of it is not near roads. A van system for me, was way more expensive than my work needs dictated.

The Nano is PF's latest offering and is about half the weight of the standard version. This is an important factor if you will be needing to lift it in and out of your vehicle a lot during the day. You will also get a higher flow rate with the PF trolley than a backpack should you want it. I personally find the backpacks to be a bit lacking in that department, but thats just me. There are plenty that do use them. I had to use mine for the first time in a few weeks today and boy was I glad to get back to the trolley.

I think the Nano is about 12.5kg without the barrel. You can lift it with one hand if necessary. Most trolleys are nearer 20kg without the barrel.
I use the standard pf one and a diy one based on the handy sack truck

The pf one wins hands down so the diy one is now for softwash chems

Perfect trolley

 
Brilliant thank you I've really enjoyed reading all your comments, so I've got a decision to make in that regard.

Can I sneak another question in please , it regards Pure Water !

How do you make it ? I've looked into my tap water and apparently it's 100 ppm in one thing and 200ppm in another. Can I buy something relatively cheap that will make me pure water ? 

Many thanks again everyone really appreciate it.

Use the search. I think most people will suggest either the gardiner backpack mounted to a trolley, or the pure freedom nano. 

Gardiner is good as it’s a self contained unit, battery lasts for ages, simple set up, with good service from gardiner.

purefreedom is good as you can just swap the 25l drums over, no waiting to fill. More robust and professional construction. 

My money went on the gardiner mounted to a ‘handy’ sack truck, comes in at about £150, and manages everything with ease cleaning upto 40ft.

most important is water filtration, but that depends on you tap TDS.

use the search,all the information you could possibly need is covered on here. 

 
You need to pick up a decent TDS meter, they’re £10-15 I think.

if your tap water reads below 100ppm you can reasonably economically use just a DI vessel full of resin to purify it.

if your water is over 100ppm you need to look at RO systems, these are more expensive and a little more complicated. Many people start with a 450gpd system initially which will set you back around £200 and a larger di vessel filled with resin around £100.

 
Thanks @High-tower with the ro system how do they work exactly? Do they need to be on all day long (electric costs) and plumbed into its own tap (water costs).
Think of an r/o system as an old tea strainer. When pouring a cup of tea from the teapot the strainer catches the tea leaves but lets the tea through into the cup.

An r/o membrane does the same, except it will filter about 98% of the dissolved solids out of your water.

Yes, water costs money, especially if you are on a meter. If you have decent water pressure then you wouldn't need much in the way of electricity. However, you will need to take steps to prevent your equipment freezing up inside the van during winter, so a frost stat heater is what most of us use. You could also bring your equipment inside during the winter.

"Can I buy something relatively cheap that will make me pure water?"  WFP isn't cheap. Thinking cheap is going to cause problems for you. @High-tower has suggested a 450GPD which is the minimum size r/o to get. You can get smaller ones, but you won't have enough water. Even with a 450GPD my experience tells me that you need the process water into a larger holding tank. Most of us use reclaimed 1000l IBC tanks. A 450gpd r/o will take about 36 hours to fill that.

To clean windows with low overheads is to carry on using ladders - not recommended.

Who is Ashby's?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks @High-tower with the ro system how do they work exactly? Do they need to be on all day long (electric costs) and plumbed into its own tap (water costs).
Have a look at this Youtube video

He will explain how di works (his focus is on di as he wants to sell his brand of di vessel/s.)





The r/o works before the di vessel. Most of us use a single vessel if you have an r/o system as we process water at home. In the USA they are inclined to plug their 4040 r/o units into a customer's tap and process the water needed to clean their customer's windows - hence the double di.

So a di vessel polishes off the remaining dissolved solids that got through the membrane to make totally pure water.

I usually change my resin when it gets to 1ppm from the di vessel before my holding tank. I know I can clean with water up to 4ppm without spots so I have a small window of opportunity to change resin in my di vessel.

 
Hello everyone I'm new on here , my name's Ash and I've decided to bite the bullet and start my own window cleaning business, I have some experience as I used to work for a bloke for around about a year, he gave me a van and the onboard kit and I water fed cleaned windows.

Anyway I'm waffling ... I've got a little bit of cash I would like to invest in a complete trolly system set up, so I can go out there and clean windows without having to buy a big van and van set up just yet. 

Ashby's have a complete system is it a good buy do you think ? It's a huge investment at £1200 but looks to be really good and it filters the water to make it pure on the go !

I've started out traditionally cleaning windows but I'm not enjoying getting up and down the ladder none stop especially if I could do it from the ground .

Anyway, any help appreciated cheers.

Ash
Did a quick google on Ashbys, Dont bother that trolley with the di vessel wont be any good for you with a tap tds of up to 200ppm plus the pole will be rubbish. 

As for buying a big van with a set up, Big vans aren't needed and a diy van mount can be set up for less than £1,200 if you are a single user then a 350ltr tank will be big enough to do 20+ houses a day. 

 
Ok thank you guys , I must say everytime I think I've got a game plan set up there seems to be a stumbling block. Alot harder than it looks this window cleaning business. I would even go so far as to say I am now completely confused about what to do lol my apologies I'm not the brightest spark !!

Basically I would really like to do window cleaning full time, I've got a small Seat Inca van and I can invest £1500 to start with for equipment . I'm now not even sure I could get the equipment and pure water making capabilities with that amount of money?

Totally confused .com 

 
If your're going to maintain 700 houses your're looking at around 20 per day on a 6 weekly rota.  

This is perfectly manageable with WFP -- HOWEVER you are going to have to spend some cash.   You want the right gear off the bat otherwise you will have your soul destroyed in no time.   A small RO is pointless as you need water, and then you need water in reserve.  As spruce says most of us use 1000L IBC tanks for production and storage.  

You could spend 10K plus with the likes of Grippa or you could get a system that will work perfectly well from the likes of The Cleaning Warehouse for less than £4k   (Just like cars, with some brands you pay for the badge) but when it comes to poles you'll find most of us go to Gardiners (the Audis of the pole market) sleek, well built, reliable and with top tier customer service.  

 
I'm a one man band, use a 400ltr upright tank for storage in a cabin in my garden and a 300gpd RO. It keeps me in water no problem. Yes production is slower in winter than in summer but with a booster pump fitted it still keeps up with me.

You could also see if you have a local supplier of pure water. I have one near me. I just choose to produce my own for convenience and I have the space to do it. If I didn't I'd happily buy it from him.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok thank you guys , I must say everytime I think I've got a game plan set up there seems to be a stumbling block. Alot harder than it looks this window cleaning business. I would even go so far as to say I am now completely confused about what to do lol my apologies I'm not the brightest spark !!

Basically I would really like to do window cleaning full time, I've got a small Seat Inca van and I can invest £1500 to start with for equipment . I'm now not even sure I could get the equipment and pure water making capabilities with that amount of money?

Totally confused .com 
Just an example their is other suppliers but their is near enough everything you will need to go wfp. this is from http://thecleaningwarehouse.co.uk and their is some slighter cheaper options 

20171121_183233.jpg

20171121_183252.jpg

 
I started off with the 50 litre trolley system package on this page but with a few upgrades.

https://purefreedom.co.uk/product-category/water-fed-pole-systems/window-cleaning-trolley-system/

Ended up paying around £1450 inc the VAT.

Think I upgraded the Ro and pole and bought 8 extra barrels and 25m of hose.

That was it I was up and earning.

Within about 4 months though I was wanting a tank and 100m hose on a reel so after 8 months I did.

Then I decided I was fed up with faff with Ro so with a TDS of 80/100 I went double Di.

All mainly on credit cards with 6 mth int free or very low interest rate deals.

 
Back
Top