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!

Facelift Phoenix Pole

rcproperty

Well-known member
Messages
7,757
Now this has been published in the Aprils addtition of the Window Cleaning Magazine I will post this on here too!

www.windowcleaningmagazine.co.uk

I first time I saw the Facelift Phoenix range of poles was when they got revealed by Mike from Facelift at the CleanItUp VanFest back in September 2012. After spending time watching Mike demonstrating the Phoenix poles to ‘wulfy’ we got the chance to have a play with the 22ft Glass fibre, Hybrid and the full carbon Phoenix poles, was impressed with them then.

At the end of January I went onto The Window Cleaning Warehouse website and looked into the Facelift Phoenix range of poles, they do a good range to suit all budgets from the Glass fibre range of Phoenix poles costing from £83.94, the Composite Phoenix Poles costing from £113.94 then there are the Carbon Phoenix poles starting at £209.94.

For more information have a look at their website www.faceliftcleaning.co.uk

I decided if I’m going to get a new pole that I should go for something that would last and that I can use daily on most of my round, so I ordered the Phoenix X 26 UL at a cost of £275.94. Received the pole next day and then it was play time!

I threaded the pole hose up the inside of the pole, screwed my brush onto the plastic angle neck that came with the pole and placed it on a set of scales, it weighed in at just over 1.7kg. On the website the bare weight of the pole is 1.4kg

The Phoenix 26UL has 6 sections to it and has a closed length of only 5ft. After screwing the plastic angle neck and brush onto the pole its closed length is 5ft 7inches which makes it a great size to fit inside my Citroën Berlingo’s roof space where I store my poles up out of the way.

The look of the pole is great, each one of the carbon sections have been finished off with a nice chequered look paten giving them a really stylish look. The clamps are nice and compact too but easy to use with the one finger, they flip over without a problem leaving the pole to come out smoothly and in one action, making it fast to put up to clean the windows.

When bringing the pole back down the design of the clamps have 2 good features, the first one is that they have a great breaking feature so as the pole slides down fast you just pull the clamp back a little to slow the pole down or to stop it from hitting your hand or the top of the clamp below it. The second feature of the clamps is, if you have a part of your hand or finger above the clamp they are designed in a way that it will push the part of your hand or finger out from between them stopping you getting them pinched in anyway, so no more blood blisters. Each of the clamp section has had a letter printed on them to make it a lot easier to identify if you ever need to replace one.

One other thing I like about the poles is that there is no stop tape on them. They have a silver colour coded area at the bottom of each section to show you when the pole is at the point you should stop. This makes breaking the pole down to clean easy and stress free, there is no trying to get your screwdriver into the clamps to prise it open and trying to slide the pole out at the same time, also makes it very easy to change sections or even add sections onto the pole itself.

First day of using the pole took me a little while to get used to it but after the first few houses I got there in the end. It’s light to work with, nice and compact to get around some of the tight spaces like between fences and conservatories. I passed it onto another window cleaner friend of mine to try as he has always only uses poles from another well-known company, and he was very impressed with the Phoenix.

I would personally recommend these poles to anyone they are a great pole no matter if you are just starting out or been in the trade for years and looking to replace your poles and exceptional value for money. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with it at all.

View attachment 1478

View attachment 1479

 
You have far to much time on your hands RC.

How much are they paying you for that review :laugh:

 
You have far to much time on your hands RC.
How much are they paying you for that review :laugh:
didnt take to long, did it over a few nights lol

lol dam, thats one thing i forgot to ask about! lol

 
Anyway it's always good to hear about what others think about products so thanks for posting. :biggrin:

Would like you thoughts on the pole in a year or two or before that if you have any issues.

 
Anyway it's always good to hear about what others think about products so thanks for posting. :biggrin:
Would like you thoughts on the pole in a year or two or before that if you have any issues.
yer will keep informed about things, in a way looking forward to seein what its like this time next year! but so far so good!

 
I might just have to have a try of one. Thanks for the review, great pics too.
thats ok, there are a few on here that has the phoenix's too, and they seem to like it, they had a few teathing problems to start with, but they are all sorted out now!

 
ive had my phoenix 22ft pole since jan, nice poles. i would deff buy the carbon fiber one next time. takes a little getting used to the extending it when not looking and the sections coming out. but i find if you extend each section 2 arms lenghts its just on the limit to the change in colour bit. im waiting on the add on sections that are coming out i think soon. down side to my pole was the little rubber cap on the bottom keeps falling off, but a bit of duck tape does the job nice.

 
Not impressed with these poles, two of my colleagues have had them and the clamps have broken on them both, buy cheap buy twice.

 
Not impressed with these poles, two of my colleagues have had them and the clamps have broken on them both, buy cheap buy twice.
not had anything go on my full carbon pole yet! maybe had a bad one or maybe other reasons why they broke!

 
The clamp on mine broke twice now, ok not the clamp, but the bit at the end were the hose goes through, that locks onto the angle adapter, this bit broke twice facelift sent a new part out free and that broke just after 7 months use(not continuous) just bought a new piece for couple quid see how that goes..

 
The clamp on mine broke twice now, ok not the clamp, but the bit at the end were the hose goes through, that locks onto the angle adapter, this bit broke twice facelift sent a new part out free and that broke just after 7 months use(not continuous) just bought a new piece for couple quid see how that goes..
oh yes that was a design error and the bits got recalled, new ones are meant to be better.

 
The clamp on mine broke twice now, ok not the clamp, but the bit at the end were the hose goes through, that locks onto the angle adapter, this bit broke twice facelift sent a new part out free and that broke just after 7 months use(not continuous) just bought a new piece for couple quid see how that goes..
Gmeister,

We did have an issue a small number of the end adaptors, pretty sure it's remedied now with a stronger mix of the plastic. Even with strength testing, certain elements weren't encountered. We've coming up to 2000 Phoenix poles out there now and apart from the first batch of problems, they are going very strong. The range is in constant development with more improvements coming all the time. We've had phenomenal feedback on the clamp design.

Any issue or problems please contact me ([email protected] or mike) for them to be rectified.

 
Back
Top