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Hose management

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H and W

Well-known member
Messages
69
Location
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Hello everyone,

I have recently moved over to wfp from traditional and seem to be getting myself tangled up quite regularly with the hose.

Quite simply any advice on managing my hose would be received with thanks?

Am I best pulling off 100m and starting at the furthest point and working back towards my van. Or the opposite starting near to far?

Kind regards

Dave.

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Hello everyone,

I have recently moved over to wfp from traditional and seem to be getting myself tangled up quite regularly with the hose.

Quite simply any advice on managing my hose would be received with thanks?

Am I best pulling off 100m and starting at the furthest point and working back towards my van. Or the opposite starting near to far?

Kind regards

Dave.

Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums mobile app


We found starting at the furthest point and work back to the van.

Our reels are on wheels. I only ever pull out 100 meters on one clean a month. Pull the hose reel around to the furthest point, tie off the hose and pull the hose reel back to the van layering down the hose as I go.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
When i use a van mount i will pull off a bit of hose and walk to the first corner or side gate etc with it and once there pull enough out for the whole house 

Then walk to the next corner and pull the excess to where you are 

Once you get to the furthest point you have enough hose and can work back towards the nearest point

 
I always work to the nearest house first then the furthest, Best to avoid having hose across the road in layers and try to avoid any idiots parking on hose whilst I am round the back of a house.And usually having layers of hose can cause tangles so I try to keep it 1-2 at most if having over 50m out.

 
what I do is take my pole to furth,est point,if you try to take your pole and hose together it seems to catch tag on everything

then you go back for hose

look for stuff in your way that blxxy hose  will catch everything

 
One big difference for me was going tubeless. When you disconnect the pole hose before you reel it all in you get rid of almost all the twisting. Have saved me a whole bunch of time!

I also move to the furthest point first.

Some jobs are so cumbersome to access, a trolley is the natural choice.

 
What I do is use a trolley.  :1f603:

No seriously I know van mounts work well for many of you guys.  But I have the same problems with hose twisting.  It's probably quicker to remedy as I use a much shorter hose.  Longest I work with is 25mtrs but more often than not I've only got 16mtrs on.  But I find I work in circles all day.  What I mean is I more often than not turn to my left when I walk away from a window or property, seldom to the right, meaning that by the way I work I constantly put a twist in the hose. With a short hose, that quickly starts to cause problems with tangling. So when I turn away from a window to the left, I turn the pole one turn in the opposite direction. I've done it so long now that I do it without thinking. Even so I still have to disconnect the hose every so often to remove a few twists that have crept in.

When I used to use braided hoses I found they twisted up when they pressured up as well. And it was worse when I used hot water

 
I've never had issues with any threaded connections. But a drop of thread locker should do it. Loctite is a good brand.

I use PTFE tape on all threads to ensure they are water tight, but since plumbers tape is so slippery (most slippery material on earth) it doesn't help much with locking the threads.

 
What I do is use a trolley.  :1f603:

No seriously I know van mounts work well for many of you guys.  But I have the same problems with hose twisting.  It's probably quicker to remedy as I use a much shorter hose.  Longest I work with is 25mtrs but more often than not I've only got 16mtrs on.  But I find I work in circles all day.  What I mean is I more often than not turn to my left when I walk away from a window or property, seldom to the right, meaning that by the way I work I constantly put a twist in the hose. With a short hose, that quickly starts to cause problems with tangling. So when I turn away from a window to the left, I turn the pole one turn in the opposite direction. I've done it so long now that I do it without thinking. Even so I still have to disconnect the hose every so often to remove a few twists that have crept in.

When I used to use braided hoses I found they twisted up when they pressured up as well. And it was worse when I used hot water
I also use a trolley nowadays

Had a van mount but found round here it was actually slowing me down so made another diy trolley 

I have 30m hose on it so still a little hose management round car on driveway etc as i dump it by side gate whenever i can and do the whole house from the one spot but much easier than faffing with hosereels and 100m of hose

 
@Dave B has it sussed. I use the same strategy. I also count when I'm reeling the hose out. I think I've got it down to a fine art, I'll pull as much hose off as I can to the first corner with pole in my hand, then I'll rest the pole against a wall or post and pull all I'll need out up to that corner, but counting as I pull, I can estimate how much hose I'll need by counting how many pulls I'll pull. So, if I'm backed onto someone's drive for an average sized house I'll need about 15 pulls (counting one pull for every time my right hand goes in front of my left) from the first corner to get me to the furthest point without having to go back to the van to pull more hose out.

Did anyone follow that?  :1f602:

 
I just pull up and pull the hose off to the furthest it will reach to the front of the van including houses on opposite side of road....then put reel to back of van and work back out as far as I can reach again including opposite side of road....I can go 3 to 4 hours without having to move the van.

 
@Dave B has it sussed. I use the same strategy. I also count when I'm reeling the hose out. I think I've got it down to a fine art, I'll pull as much hose off as I can to the first corner with pole in my hand, then I'll rest the pole against a wall or post and pull all I'll need out up to that corner, but counting as I pull, I can estimate how much hose I'll need by counting how many pulls I'll pull. So, if I'm backed onto someone's drive for an average sized house I'll need about 15 pulls (counting one pull for every time my right hand goes in front of my left) from the first corner to get me to the furthest point without having to go back to the van to pull more hose out.

Did anyone follow that?  :1f602:
You get used to judging in your head how much to pull off

Never have to go back for more but might only have a metre or 2 excess

 
I use a backpack with about 30m of the gardeners reinforced hose, it really gets a good twist in it. I also use a univalve.
So here is my method for untangling hose n my undetstanding of hose tangling.

When water has been pumping n water stopped by univalve, pressure is built up in hose. This pressure causes the hose to kink.
Solution, switch of backpack power, then tug on univalve to open, this releases the pressure, you do lose a bit of water, but start reeling in n the kinks fall out much easier when reeling.

Same technique, can work on the big reel as well.

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Thanks all who have made time to reply. I have tried various this week mainly the getting stuck under a tyre or round a bush and f*****g swearing a lot.

Think for me for the estates ive done this week the - get to the front gate and count the pulls 10-15 to get round the full house has worked best.

Going from traditional to wfp I feel as though I've gone from super fast wireless broadband to tethered dial up. But I'm sure I'll fathom things out.

Thanks again for the help fellow window cleaners. [emoji13][emoji1303]


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