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!

Pure Freedom Trolley optimum flow rate?

cloudnine

Member
Messages
73
Location
Pembrokeshire
Any owners care to share what flow rate they normally use on the Pure Freedom trolley?

Im trying to find an optimum between good rinsing and just ripping through the water too fast..

(Ive got the Nano trolley if that matters)

 
Personally for maintenance cleans I use a flow rate of 65. The problem with having barrels is you start off trying to save water to delay replacing them but it's a false economy. Higher flow rate means minimal rinsing. 

 
My son is approx 30 with 100 degree fan jets when he now occasionally uses the nano.

 
My son is approx 30 with 100 degree fan jets when he now occasionally uses the nano.


Thanks for the replies..

I have been using a fitted half turn valve but is a bit of a pain (i should have put a uni valve straight on the pole).

I have been using pencil jets with a supreme dupont brush.

Any reason to change to fan jets?

 
Univalve is a must especially with trolley system imo.

gardiner 100degrees fans are both our personal preferences better coverage,  less splashback and uses less water when you get use to them when rinsing off the glass you need to hold the brush close to the window as the water can atomise if to far away. 

 
I've used the standard Freedom trolley for eleven years. However, I've modified it so my input may not be helpful to you.

For weight saving I'm using a 5 lpm backpack styled pump I acquired from eBay, powered by a 12v 10ah battery. It does the job perfectly for me. I find that I work with it most efficiently when running between 80% and flat out on the controller. I also use the 100 degree fanjets from Gardiners.

 
I used a trolley years ago and made the switch to  1mm pencil jets to fit these to your gardiners brush you will need an old drill bit and hammer to knock the pre-fitted jets in your brush out, the jet hose should pull straight off the jets but you may need some hot water to soften the hose, then rotate the jet hose so the end that was in the T connector goes over the new jets, dip the hose in a cup of hot water and place over new jets just beyond the thread otherwise they will drip. 

The 1mm jets will give you more powerful rinse so you will need to turn down the flow and rinse closer to the glass on some jobs to avoid splashback also you should reduce your water consumption by approximately 1/3 

 
I think it was this video that got me to switch to a higher flow rate. 2 litres per minute I think it said. Best thing I did! 


Yes - it does sound counter-intuitive but a faster flow rate not only means you clean windows quicker but also allows you to save more water (in my experience anyway).

 
Yes - it does sound counter-intuitive but a faster flow rate not only means you clean windows quicker but also allows you to save more water (in my experience anyway).


Took me a while to give it a try because I couldn't wrap my head round how it could work, but it does. Been using this method for a good couple of years or more now.

 
Guys what reading do you get of your controller when you have charged your trolley battery?
12.9.

You have to check the charge at least 4 hours after charging to let it settle. I taught @spruce all about this ?.

As for my setting on the controller, for maintenance cleans I’ve always been happy with 55

 
What reading does it drop to when it's close to flat?


Now that depends on what chart you are looking at.

In my books a lead acid battery that has stood idle for those 4 hours is flat if your multimeter reads 12v or less.

Other charts will say that 10.4v is considered flat. It appears that that comes from a battery under load. Our Spring and Varistream controllers are programmed to switch the controller off at those voltages although the latest Spring controllers can over-ride that value.

Its recommended that we never let our battery drop below 50% capacity (12.4v). This basically means that an 85amph lead acid battery has got a usage capacity of 42.5 amps.

PF are also using a Lithium Ion battery in their Nano trolley. This Li battery is only 16 amph. You can use these batteries to a much lower state of discharge, but must never be completely discharged as a normal charger won't wake them up again.

IMHO 16 amp is a rather small battery so this battery would have to be completely recharged every evening.

 
I’ve never let it gone completely flat before. But I think once it’s gets bellow 11.5 it shuts of automatically.


Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Forums

 
Now that depends on what chart you are looking at.

In my books a lead acid battery that has stood idle for those 4 hours is flat if your multimeter reads 12v or less.

Other charts will say that 10.4v is considered flat. It appears that that comes from a battery under load. Our Spring and Varistream controllers are programmed to switch the controller off at those voltages although the latest Spring controllers can over-ride that value.

Its recommended that we never let our battery drop below 50% capacity (12.4v). This basically means that an 85amph lead acid battery has got a usage capacity of 42.5 amps.

PF are also using a Lithium Ion battery in their Nano trolley. This Li battery is only 16 amph. You can use these batteries to a much lower state of discharge, but must never be completely discharged as a normal charger won't wake them up again.

IMHO 16 amp is a rather small battery so this battery would have to be completely recharged every evening.
You once posted on here how many amps was being drawn per hour.

What was that figure again please @spruce?

Got a new battery in November. Charged it until full last night, used it for around 6 hours today, down to 12.3 ?

 
You once posted on here how many amps was being drawn per hour.

What was that figure again please @spruce?

Got a new battery in November. Charged it until full last night, used it for around 6 hours today, down to 12.3 ?
I don't know what pump they use.

A Shurflo pump draws about 4.5 amps with a flow of 4 on a Varistream.

Our backpack pump is much smaller so has a lower current draw. The problem is the smaller pump doesn't work with a Varistream or Spring controller as it needs more power than the pump draws to activate dead end. PF must be using a specially made controller for that pump.

The PF site spec on the Nano says  the pump is a 4.5lpm pump. This isn't a million miles away from the 5.2 lpm Shurflo pump.

If its this one

https://purefreedom.co.uk/product/streamflo-4-5lpm-100psi-diaphragm-pump/

then the specs on the pump say it draws a max of 2.3 amps, half of the Shurflo. So the 16 amp battery, using 80% of its capacity should last 5.5 hours of actual 'pumping' time.

We estimate that our pumps run for about 50% max of the time we work on compact residential, so a nano trolley battery should have more than enough to last you through the day. Commerical work, especially big properties are different and we estimate that a pump can run for 80% of the cleaning day. But that's us.

One day we will look at monitoring exactly how much power we use on certain jobs and see how it compares with our estimates. The best product for this is a Victron BMV-712, but its expensive.

 
We estimate that our pumps run for about 50% max of the time we work on compact residential, so a nano trolley battery should have more than enough to last you through the day. Commerical work, especially big properties are different and we estimate that a pump can run for 80% of the cleaning day. But that's us.


My work is also pretty much all compact residential with average sized windows and I have found the same to be true for me.

As stated in my earlier post though, I use a modified PF trolley. The pump I used to reduce the weight of my trolley I think uses slightly more current than the Surflo it came with when running flat out, which is how I like to use it.

With a new 12v 10ah Yuasa battery, if I forget to charge it I manage to get through about 1 and 1/3rd days work before the performance starts to drop off, at which point I consider the battery flat. I normally charge it every night so it never normally goes flat during the day.

These batteries seem to last about ten months before the performance starts to drop off before my day is complete at which time I replace them. 

A 7ah battery does a full day only in winter but doesn't quite manage it in summer.

 
Back
Top