Different brush heads

I've recently jumped from traditional to wfp. I've got a small trolley with an unger 20ft nlight pole and head. There are loads of different brush heads which are puzzling me. My work is all domestic and want to know the best brush. Thanks

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Simonson82 said:

I've recently jumped from traditional to wfp. I've got a small trolley with an unger 20ft nlight pole and head. There are loads of different brush heads which are puzzling me. My work is all domestic and want to know the best brush. Thanks

Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums mobile app

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There is no one who can tell you what the best brush is. If they could then we would all only use 1 brush.

Brushes are a very personal thing and what you will believe is the best brush for you may not be for another cleaner. Much depends on you.

My son and I work together off the same van. He prefers to use a stiff brush. I hate it. I prefer a softer dual trim brush. But when it comes to first cleans, his has the edge over mine.

I have 3 poles on the van (excluding his). The first is an SLX40 with a Gardiner Supreme brush with soft bristles. Its heavier than the Extreme brush I had on it previously but it works nicely and good cleaning power.

On my regular SLX22 I have a Gardiner Ultimate medium soft mixed bristles and I think that is a pretty good all round brush for regular residential cleans.

We have a second SLX22 with an Ultimate Flocked brush which gets used with customers who have leaded or stick on leaded windows.

When I next order I will consider a Gardiner Ultimate medium bristles brush. We have our annual school clean coming up so this might be a better choice with those dirty windows.

You see, even we keep trying different brushes and we have been doing wfp for over 10 years.

We have a number of brushes on the van. I like to use the cill brush for conservatory roofs and put that on my pole for a couple of other cleans we do. Its not the latest Gardiner sill brush. I find its too heavy for everyday use and it doesn't have the splayed side bristles the new brush has.

We use pencil jets in all of our brushes bar one, which is the flocked Ultimate which we had fan jets fitted to. I have tried fans for a while now and prefer pencils, so this brush can be used with either fans or pencils.

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Spruce pretty much covered it all.

I would suggest getting a good all round brush like the ultimate brush spruce mentioned and if you can afford to buy a cill brush then at least you can clean gutters/fascias and conservatories if customers ask.


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I prefer a sill brush atm, but my next brush will be a 35cm brush with 4 jets. With brushes as said above people have different preferences, and different types of houses. Of late last of my new custys have large panes, so a larger brush would make them easier. But smaller windows suit a smaller brush. It's all trial and error. One thing most will agree on is Gardiners brushes tend to be the best, without breaking the bank

Ultimate medium soft for regular windows, ultimate flock for wooden and leaded windows both with pencil jets, flock sill brush with fan jets for fsg and conservatory roof, another favourite brush I use for conservatory roofs and especially cladding is the gardiner cladding brush now discontinued brilliant scrubbing power.

I used ultimates only until trying the gardiners extreme medium mixed with natural bristles in the middle

Scrubs awesome on bird muck and snail trails etc

Better than the plastic bristles on my ultimates

Simonson82 said:

I've recently jumped from traditional to wfp. I've got a small trolley with an unger 20ft nlight pole and head. There are loads of different brush heads which are puzzling me. My work is all domestic and want to know the best brush. Thanks

Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums mobile app

Click to expand...

You see @Simonson82, we all have different opinions. The thing is that no one's opinion is incorrect. Its just what works for each of us. When we start off we learn to adapt to the equipment we have. Its only happened to me once when I bought a non Gardiner brush and took it off the pole 10 minutes later because it was too heavy for my CLX22 pole I was using at the time. (I gave it to son in law and he used it for a bit because it was free. He then gave it back to me. This brush was probably no heavier than the old Vikan ovals we cut our teeth on, but we had already been spoilt with lighter brushes.)

In the early wfp days we only had Vikan ovals and they were flocked brushes. We successfully used them for everything, despite their weight and our flexible aluminum poles.

I don't think you can go too wrong with a flocked brush for leaded windows and a dual trim for regular maintenance cleans. Eventually you will get an idea what works and what you want the brush for. In the future you may look back and think that the suggestions I made were good ones. On the other hand you may look back and think totally the opposite.

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Exactly @spruce

I used to use a seperate flocked for leaded but found the extreme although the inner bristles scrub well if you are not heavy handed it glides over lead easily and now i don't use a seperate brush for lead

I always used flocked for leaded windows, however had a pal helping the other day and only had the one flocked brush so I used the mixed flock and found it better. 

How about engrossing yourself in this video by Alex Gardiner @Simonson82?

I've tried a few in my first year WFP; I switched to Gardiners Super Lite Mixed Medium Sill brush most recently and I bloody love it.  Window sills are so much easier and you need less pressure to get the dirt off of the glass.

It's all down to personal preference and how you work.  Unfortunately at the cost it's not like you can buy a few at a time.  I hated my Unger sill brush that I had in the beginning though as it kept so much mess in the bristles and that added way more rinse time.

Horses for courses

C Rose Cleaning Services said:

I've tried a few in my first year WFP; I switched to Gardiners Super Lite Mixed Medium Sill brush most recently and I bloody love it.  Window sills are so much easier and you need less pressure to get the dirt off of the glass.

It's all down to personal preference and how you work.  Unfortunately at the cost it's not like you can buy a few at a time.  I hated my Unger sill brush that I had in the beginning though as it kept so much mess in the bristles and that added way more rinse time.

Horses for courses

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same brush as me, i love it but a wider one would suit my work better. I'll still keep it for "normal windows" though

The best all round brush  I've used is the medium mixed sill. Everything from first cleans to fsg and conny roofs great all rounder.

Money no object I would go with an extreme pole and extreme brush for a really light setup but the brushes don't last longer than a few months at best.

adamangler said:

The best all round brush  I've used is the medium mixed sill. Everything from first cleans to fsg and conny roofs great all rounder.

Money no object I would go with an extreme pole and extreme brush for a really light setup but the brushes don't last longer than a few months at best.

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I know people who use them exclusively and get 6 months out of them

Mine is 2 weeks old and used daily even for a conny roof clean and some minging first cleans and still looks new

Well worth the money imo

C Rose Cleaning Services said:

I've tried a few in my first year WFP; I switched to Gardiners Super Lite Mixed Medium Sill brush most recently and I bloody love it.  Window sills are so much easier and you need less pressure to get the dirt off of the glass.

It's all down to personal preference and how you work.  Unfortunately at the cost it's not like you can buy a few at a time.  I hated my Unger sill brush that I had in the beginning though as it kept so much mess in the bristles and that added way more rinse time.

Horses for courses

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It makes more sense to buy a few at a time

No postage then

Dave B said:

I know people who use them exclusively and get 6 months out of them

Mine is 2 weeks old and used daily even for a conny roof clean and some minging first cleans and still looks new

Well worth the money imo

It makes more sense to buy a few at a time

No postage then

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Mine lasted 6 months, but it was well overdue replacing, it was shot at 3 months, but i was determined to get my moneys worth.

I would get one again though, they are really light and nice to use, want to wait until i get an extreme pole to go with it though, should makes my slx and sill brush seem like a brodex in comparison. 

i think there is free brushes you need :

upvc cleaning gardner sill flocked

standerd glass mono brush 

leaded windows flocked brush 

now you just need to find what sutes you ! then you need to think wether you like pencle jets of fans , im a pencle jet man my self but on upvc its gota be fans , i think you want to be looking at waight as well for me 225grams max is what i like anything over and i fiel it on my back sholders ect after a long day ,as you are cold wfp then u will want a beta scrubing brush wich will be heaver 225 gramer  so a gardner supreme or a xline 26cm or ultmate ide stay away from the extreme brush using cold as its to lite and not scrub anough biut then it depends on were you work lol and how long it takes to get round your round , so lots to think about m8  :1f44d:

I've had my gardiner sill brush for around two years and Love it! The only reason it's lasted though is because I replace lost bristles when they fall out. I've customised it by putting in a row of short very stiff bristles in the center, the rest of it is medium except I've put stiff bristles in the top and bottom rows, sides and short stiff around the fans so they don't get interrupted. I've got enough spare bristles from two old gardiner brushes (that were so worn they were about an inch shorter than new) to keep it in good nick for a couple more years, or until the brush head itself wears out.

I use a gardener supreme sometimes but the sill brush works for everything!

Skxawng said:

I've had my gardiner sill brush for around two years and Love it! The only reason it's lasted though is because I replace lost bristles when they fall out. I've customised it by putting in a row of short very stiff bristles in the center, the rest of it is medium except I've put stiff bristles in the top and bottom rows, sides and short stiff around the fans so they don't get interrupted. I've got enough spare bristles from two old gardiner brushes (that were so worn they were about an inch shorter than new) to keep it in good nick for a couple more years, or until the brush head itself wears out.

I use a gardener supreme sometimes but the sill brush works for everything!

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Reminded me of the experience of one cleaner many 'moons' ago who decided to remove all the bristles from his Vikan brush. He then removed all the bristles from another brush which he liked the lightness of the brush stock and painstaking replaced them with the Vikan brush bristles. He later reported that it didn't work. :1f61e: I can't recall how he 'secured' the Vikan bristles in the 'new' brush stock though.

I quite like my Gardiner sill brush, but it just too heavy for everyday work for me. What that one needed was some bristles on the side like the new Gardiner sill brush now available.

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I can't stand the new one with the side bristles

They don't actually do much

Dave B said:

I can't stand the new one with the side bristles

They don't actually do much

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:1f602: Saves me buying one to find the same thing out. Thanks.

I tried it on fake georgian sash windows thinking it would be good for the side channels where the windows slide up and down

Didn't touch the dirt

Then tried on conny roof with the idea od getting the sides of the upvc bars 

Worked just the same as a normal sill brush

Each to their own though.. i didn't like it