Since hot water is better at cleaning than cold, and adding detergent to water is better at cleaning than plain water, I’m thinking of doing my WFP cleaning (for initial cleans, at least) utilizing two setups. First setup, with a stiff brush using heated detergent solution, then rinse with plain water. Second setup, using conventional WFP: pure water, light scrub and rinse. I know it’s an extra step, but I’d like to eliminate having to do the ‘nose to glass’ for initial cleans. What d’ya think?
i am always confused abit when people mention initial cleans. here it is rare for people to clean windows more than once a year some do twice but thats usually the most. so to me every job seems like a first clean.
i use pure water wfp. twice in the last years i did a quick prescrub with a soapy applicator for some especially grimy looking dirt.
i am going to hot to increase speed and a perceived value to the customer but not because i “need the extra cleaning power”
there are 4 components to cleaning
chemical strength
agitation
temperature
dwell time
when one of those is reduced at least one of the others must be increased to acheive the same result.
i you want to add heat and chem to your process i think a much more efficient way would be as follows:
-get a back spray you can carry or put on a small dolly.
-fill it with soapy solution and extend and mount it’s hose to your wfp brush (don’t worry about jets you just need to be able to squirt some on the glass).
-start with a squirt of soapy solution and agitate it with your hot pure water wfp.
-continue agitation until rinse
this means you have only one pole to run up to window, you control of amount of soap solution, agitation amount dwell time, rinse time.
keep in mind that pure water is replacing the chem component so you are effectively hitting it with a double wash and then rinse.
if you use a hot soapy solution it will be cooled of before your brush even hits the glass whereas the hot purified water in a continuous stream will allow you to increase the dwell time and the power of the heat.
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Up here, there are people who haven’t had their windows cleaned for years. That’s my idea of an “initial” clean. In the great debate between conventional and WFP enthusiasts, the squeegee guys argue that you can’t be sure it’s really clean unless you are “nose to glass”. Not taking that time-proven advice with a grain of salt, but preferring to use WFP, I want to be 99.9% positive the glass is truly clean by utilizing the four cleaning components you mentioned. After spreading the solution on the glass with a bit of agitation, move on to the next couple of windows (allowing dwell time), then come back and brush and rinse with tap water. I’m thinking the rinse does not need to be hot water.
The plan is to have the fuel tank, demand h/w heater, battery, pump, and small container of concentrated detergent solution (pure detergent would be too thick to pump easily) all on a dolly. Not a lightweight setup, but should be manageable.
The windows should then be extremely clean and free of detergent, but spotty. I plan to use a different pole and brush setup for the final step to ensure the (unheated) pure water brush does not get contaminated with detergent solution.
i think your justr wasting time and money. yes hot water cleans faster when your pressure washeing but these are freking windows. wash 2 windows one your way and one with just pure water and ask 5 or 10 people which one is cleaner. my guess no one is going to notice a difference
Ya… I believe your just over thinking this . ladders are just a must sometimes that’s the way it is with window cleaning. No matter what you do your not getting silicone or paint spray off with a WFP. Yes you could scrape it from the ground with a pole , but at that point you might as well be nose to glass .
Im. Not saying you can’t do first cleans with a WFP because I have . Hot water is very helpful , pre-scrub helps also. A little Ecover if needed could help too.
I really like e idea Kyle Stafford came up with wrapping a T-Bar with 000 steel wool .
I think if you use that along with hot water , and if that fails ladder up
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Okay, I admit to over thinking things sometimes and being a bit OCD. 
I’m okay with using a ladder for second storey residential, if necessary. But I was also trying to think of a way to avoid having to rent a lift on 3, 4, or possibly 5 storey buildings. That and cutting down on the amount of pure water I’d have to produce and carry with me.
So your suggestion for initial cleans sounds similar in principle to what I’m proposing. “Hot water is very helpful , pre-scrub helps also. A little Ecover if needed could help too”. But you’re advising that the method I’m proposing is overkill and that anything that conventional WFP couldn’t get off wouldn’t come off with my ‘extra time and effort’ method, either; not enough to make a visual difference, anyway, which is what matters.
I like the idea of the 000 steel wool. I assume that’s soft enough to not do any harm to the glass, but abrasive enough to get some of the bits off?
Thanks for the advice, guys. I may still have to do some experimenting to see for myself.
