I’ve been thinking about that, I want to try and get away from the bucket as well, but I still have to be able to scrub the windows properly and you can’t do that with a strip washer.
If we’re talking insides, you don’t want your brush or your strip washer saturated with water. I at least, use a minimal amount of water on inside windows because you can’t have the water running over the ledge and down the wall while you’re squeegeeing. It’s even more important if you’re on a ladder inside and can only work with one arm. Sometimes I’ll just brush the top half of the window if I think there is any chance at all of water running over the ledge, then do the bottom half.
You must be soaking up excess water with something, and probably not a sponge. To make that rag last longer you want also want to use a minimum amount of water on the glass.
Now that Mark has invented a boab for the brush, I can’t see any reason why someone wouldn’t be able to use the spray bottle method with a brush and a shamwow in place of a sponge. It’s so easy to maintain the proper wetness in the brush so you don’t drip and with a spray bottle there would be no difference. You just spray it on the brush or on the window whenever the brush gets a bit too dry you have to do the same thing with the strip washer.
it’s not worth the switching back and forth between the 2 as Mark said he will. I think it’s important to note that Mark said the brush won’t replace the strip washer totally in his arsenal either.
I think he said that he cleaned 600-700 windows with the brush in 3 weeks and only used the strip washer for a couple times for some awkward windows over a balcony. There absolutely a place in the arsenal for a strip washer. And I will remind you that this whole thing started because you defended the 7 step window cleaning method as part of the [I][B][U][SIZE=“4”]normal[/SIZE][/U][/B][/I] window cleaning method. I said it was ridiculous to scrap every window top to bottom as part of the normal window cleaning procedure because risk scratching the window and it takes 3x longer and you should just use a brush because a strip washer cannot scrub a dirty window.
[B] Strip washers are only good for a SELECT few windows, like regularly cleaned commercial windows and when you have no other choice. [/B]
There’s also one more thing to think about - we clean windows all year and when we have antifreeze in the solution the water temp is well below freezing. If the brush you are using doesn’t have a handle you could end up getting your hands in some very cold water.
I live in Winnipeg, coldest city over 600k population in the world, colder then Moscow. We clean windows year round, I don’t do it anymore but I still get stuck with the odd house after a cold snap hits in fall. I’ve cleaned all winter long full time for other companys. You need a pair of Alaska fish mits. I’ve done stage, rope chair, boom truck and residential in temps as low as -30C, and I know you can get cold fingers without, even sometimes with, proper equipment.
BUT…it’s easier to keep your hands dry using brush. We don’t have to wring excess water out with our hands like you have to do with a strip washer. We can just give it a couple flicks.
The Brush is the proper tool for scrubbing 99% of dirty windows not a “Few Select” as Mr Squeegee thinks.
