So i ran few time tests between 14 inch and 16 inch squeegees
turns out although 16 inch was bigger it took more time to fan the glass
14 inch squeegee took me on average 4 seconds less than 16 inch which is quite a bit percentage wise. plus i wasn’t able to get the edges with 16 so i had tons of water on the sills
so i took my 16 inch channel and cut it down to 15 inches
turns out 15 inch is faster by 3 seconds on average than 14 inch and i didn’t have to detail the edges
15 turned out to be faster than 16 by 7 sec, which is a lot
results will vary for everyone
the idea: if you have a breaking point size in the squeegees try using a size in between .
I was wondering who is timing you on this? I personally dont have time to do this type of “Testing”. Good info , I think. This is what i believe, The bigger squeegee you can use the shorter amount of time a job will take. Just my opinion here.
I forgot to add it was done on residential windows.
Obviously on huge commercial windows you can fan with bigger squeegees because you have more glass space to play with.
Sometimes when you have a big squeegee although it dries wider area it might not be as fast as little bit smaller one which covers slightly less area so you just have to find
Right now the biggest size I’m using is a 18" but I’m leaning towards going down to a 16" since we do almost all residential. There are only a handful of windows where a larger size would speed things up.
It’s good to really work things out like this and find the sizes that work best for you. I know I used to experiment and compare how the various sizes work for me in various situations.
I used to carry so many different sizes of channels but after a bunch of testing and on the job experience I settled on using just 6", 14", and 18" channels. These three are the ones I use day in and day out.
I don’t need any smaller, bigger, or in between sizes, except for the occasional cut to fit channels for interior French panes.
The testing does pay off becuase it allows you pair up the right tools for your particular needs.
For residential windows I’ve been using that small squeegee Ettore was giving away at the Atlanta IWCA convention in Feb. I’m not sure, but I believe it’s a 12’’.
It’s super light, almost too light. When I got it I thought it was a toy. Turns out that was one of my favorite little squeegee’s now. For some reason it closes out on windows with a pole really nicely.
I used the 16 inch on residential for years and have just recently gone to 18 inch and find it to be faster. The 18 inch takes fewer strokes. I am even thinking about using some larger channels for the larger windows to reduce the amount of fanning. I would in fact prefer one stroke per window although that would require a whole slew of channels to carry around.
