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Brush heads so you don't need to rinse!

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68
Location
London
Hi everyone, I've heard that there are brushes on the market that make it so you don't need to rinse after you've scrubbed the windows. Have any of you used them? Are they any good? and if so, what is the correct name for these brushes? so I can purchase them. I need a few new brush heads and I keep meaning to enquire about this with you guys. Many thanks in advance for any help or advice. Take it easy, Matt.

 
I gather that you are talking about rinsing on, as opposed to off the glass as there always has to be a rinse otherwise all we do is push the dirt around the glass in the water.

In my experience, the best brushes for rinsing on the glass are monofilament brushes. Flocked brushes tend to be more problematic when rinsing on the glass due to the amount of dirt that they hold in the flocked part of the bristles.

My personal favourite is the Gardiner Extreme natural hybrid as it marries well weight wise with the Extreme pole I use. When using my SLX then I also like the Ultimate med soft.

 
Ultimate medium is the best I have used for rinsing on, even though the ultimate medium soft and DuPont hybrid are both good for rinsing on in my experience.

 
Quite a number of years ago there was a chap named Richard Sorrell from Tecbuk that started making brushes in his garage @Matthew Phillips

One of them was called an Aerial Brush and he boosted that with his brush all you needed was one pass and you didn't have to rinse if you had a high water flow, thus saving time, doing more cleans a day and hence, earning more money. (He never did specifiy what flow rate was best and never put up a video on Youtube to demonstrate his brush's marvelous abilities despite being asked to on numerous ocassions.)

He even went into detail about how many bristles his brush had when compared to the Gardiner brush, which I think at the time was Alex's Superlite.

Richard had his own ideas about brushes. According to him they needed to be heavy to work properly and his ideas went contrary to the popular design of reducing weight. They were also much smaller in width.

I bought one as did a few others. I can assure you that the brush didn't do what Richard said it would do. It was too heavy to work with comfortably and was much heavier than he advertised on his website. You were insulted if your dared to complain or criticise about the weight of the brush.

In the end he stopped trading. His business attitude and the way he dealt with customers didn't help his cause either. Someone else commented that he (Richard) is a great example of the common abbreviation of the name. He had a fall out on the other forum and did his best to delete all his posts and left. He came onto the other forum incognito and tried rubbishing other company(ies) using the name Ewan who pretended to be a customer of Richards'.

I think he was on here for a while as well.

I did try to emulate Richard's 'one pass no rinse' advise but it didn't work.

Reach It have also tried to market their Constructor brush as a brush that doesn't need a specific rinse cycle as it has an upper spray bar. If you are cleaning the glass the water jets are above the bristles so rinsing on means the water will always be clean and not contaminated by dirty bristles.

Some cleaners love the brush and some don't. Its a very expensive brush if you can't get on with it as they aren't cheap. They are also rather heavy.

 
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Quite a number of years ago there was a chap named Richard Sorrell from Tecbuk that started making brushes in his garage @Matthew Phillips

He boasted that with his brush all you needed was one pass and you didn't have to rinse if you had a high water flow, thus saving time, doing more cleans a day and hence, earning more money.

I did try to emulate Richard's 'one pass no rinse' advise but it didn't work.
Think some of lads round my way have took on this methodology although it's more like the mark of Zoro one quick Z in 2 seconds and done, Totally baffled as to how they are getting away with it as the end result must be bad.

 
Think some of lads round my way have took on this methodology although it's more like the mark of Zoro one quick Z in 2 seconds and done, Totally baffled as to how they are getting away with it as the end result must be bad.


It eventually catches up with them and they start loosing customers faster than they get them.

We have a few in our area who are experiencing this, but still don't understand that the reason why is because of their poor quality of clean. As a fellow cleaner said on Friday, they think the pole is a magic wand that they wave around for a few moments which brings them in money.

 
It eventually catches up with them and they start loosing customers faster than they get them.

We have a few in our area who are experiencing this, but still don't understand that the reason why is because of their poor quality of clean. As a fellow cleaner said on Friday, they think the pole is a magic wand that they wave around for a few moments which brings them in money.
You would think so wouldn't you, But not in some cases I know a duo who have being on the go well over 20 years still do a lot of trad but do wfp quite a few tops and have done for over 6 years. Watching them is quite shocking at the speed they clean windows they don't clean windows above connys or do velux's on ground floor extensions and have seen green upper pvc sills. 

I have to say the thing that's being bugging me recently is the assumption that new enquires that turn me down on price are putting me in the same pigeon hole as these guys and the like. 

 
You would think so wouldn't you, But not in some cases I know a duo who have being on the go well over 20 years still do a lot of trad but do wfp quite a few tops and have done for over 6 years. Watching them is quite shocking at the speed they clean windows they don't clean windows above connys or do velux's on ground floor extensions and have seen green upper pvc sills. 

I have to say the thing that's being bugging me recently is the assumption that new enquires that turn me down on price are putting me in the same pigeon hole as these guys and the like. 


Sadly that's what happens when price is the over riding factor. People may put us all in the same pigeon hole but it doesn't mean that we are in the same pigeon hole. I keep saying to my son, "just because he says it doesn't mean its true or right."

There will always be those windies who still manage to keep their heads above the tide of poor quality workmanship. We have a few in our area that think of the pole as a magic wand they can wave about for a few moments and have the money rolling in.

But we have also had quite a number of cleaners pack in recently. One asked me to quote his house and I quoted him the same as the other houses we do in the street which are all identical. He was visibly taken back. He moved into this house about 18 months ago and leafletted all my customers quoting a price much lower than mine but got no takers.

Another did a leaflet drop in Redcar offering first cleans for free and £4.00 there after for a 3 bed semi. He lasted 6 months. It didn't stop customers phoning around to see if anyone else would better the deal or at least match it. But they soon found out that the deal was too good to be true. The rest of us are too busy to even give an enquiry like this a moment of serious consideration - I wouldn't even bother to give an enquirer a quote as I know I would be wasting my time.

My reply to an enquiry like this is; "thats a really cheap price. I wouldn't hesitate to take him up on his offer. But the price is just so good that I can't help wondering what his real reason is to gain access to your property. Do you think he could be wanting to case the joint out?"

A have a standard reply to the customer whose cheap window cleaner stopped coming. With my teeth together, mouth slightly open and sucking in air through my mouth with a very serious, dead pan expression is. "oh, he died!  (pause) He straved to death as he couldn't afford to eat on what he was charging."

Despite all the cheap window cleaners around including one business charging £2.50 fronts and £2.50 backs for a 3 bed semi, I'm passing new enquiries over to another window cleaner as I'm chock-a-block. Over the years we have had a constant drip feed of geniune enquiries from their ex customers who have got rid of them because of the poor quality associated with their cheap price.

So these cheap window cleaners maybe influencing customers but I'm not going to let that become a big problem for me. But then again, we are well established; I might be more concerned if I was a newbie starting out.

.

 
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So these cheap window cleaners maybe influencing customers but I'm not going to let that become a big problem for me. But then again, we are well established; I might be more concerned if I was a newbie starting out.


There is no way a newbie would last more than a few months if they thought they had to price low to get the work.  Also, sometimes I think that guys who have taken someone on and work in twos suffer this a bit too just from listening to customers. I guess they need to speed up to justify working in twos, and the job just ends up poor.  Let's be honest some windows can be done faster than others, but when one guy has the back and another has the front they both seem to try to work at the same rate.  When was the last time it took a single person exactly the same time to do the front and the back?  And, there you can see the quality problem that occurs naturally if a pair try to be fast.

 
@Spruce I totally get what you mean, I shouldn't be bothered as my rounds are almost as full and as refined as I would like them to be only another 15 clients or so which I am in no rush to gain. 

 
Those of us with established rounds, often get our residential work targeted with flyers and canvassers etc, and you often get a flyer off a customer showing you a cheap price. And for me it's reassuring that some of your customers show you these not as a bargaining tool to get a reduction, but to tell you somebodies canvassing the area.
Things have changed in residential areas a lot over the years many windies are happy to travel distances for odd houses (albeit well priced).
However i do a lot of compact work and I find customers still think that patches exist and if your a familiar face in the area and do a good job they don't like others canvassing work in your area.
I find that nice and reassuring.

Sent using the http://Window Cleaning Forums mobile app

 
Those of us with established rounds, often get our residential work targeted with flyers and canvassers etc, and you often get a flyer off a customer showing you a cheap price. And for me it's reassuring that some of your customers show you these not as a bargaining tool to get a reduction, but to tell you somebodies canvassing the area.
Things have changed in residential areas a lot over the years many windies are happy to travel distances for odd houses (albeit well priced).
However i do a lot of compact work and I find customers still think that patches exist and if your a familiar face in the area and do a good job they don't like others canvassing work in your area.
I find that nice and reassuring.

Sent using the http://Window Cleaning Forums mobile app


You've made a good point here.

I've experienced this as well. Some long time customers are genuinely concerned about the amount of window cleaners using the pole. "They seem to be everywhere these days." "I've never seen so my people using your system."

Whilst it is also nice and reassuring it is also a personal reminder that our standards need to be higher than the others.

 
I had one yesterday telling me how he saw another guy with a pole over the road putting in a right "performance".

I told him its not as easy as brushing the window and squirting water at it, we're similar to a good painter and decorator as we use a brush and have to cut in perfectly,and get full and thorough coverage over the surface to achieve a proper finish.

 
Those of us with established rounds, often get our residential work targeted with flyers and canvassers etc, and you often get a flyer off a customer showing you a cheap price. And for me it's reassuring that some of your customers show you these not as a bargaining tool to get a reduction, but to tell you somebodies canvassing the area.
Things have changed in residential areas a lot over the years many windies are happy to travel distances for odd houses (albeit well priced).
However i do a lot of compact work and I find customers still think that patches exist and if your a familiar face in the area and do a good job they don't like others canvassing work in your area.
I find that nice and reassuring.

Sent using the http://Window Cleaning Forums mobile app
 
Same across the new build estates i have being on for years always a constant stream of lads dropping flyers and canvassing only 1 out of my 100's of clients have jumped ship for a cheaper price. 

You've made a good point here.

I've experienced this as well. Some long time customers are genuinely concerned about the amount of window cleaners using the pole. "They seem to be everywhere these days." "I've never seen so my people using your system."

Whilst it is also nice and reassuring it is also a personal reminder that our standards need to be higher than the others.
Agree it's good to be kept on your toes and maintain high standards .

 

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