Im about to order the jflint hard water removal kit. I was wondering if there is any kind of learning curve for it? Would I be In danger of scratching windows with this system? Should I practice on my own windows or will it be easy to just jump into a job and start using it to remove tough stains right away?
Thanks!
Luke
There are a bunch of videos on his website to help you. I did my own first just so wouldn’t look clumsy. It works great. I can’t see and danger of scratching. I clean the debris and dirt off with scrubber first then use the polisher. I was amazed first time I used it. Good luck b
Luke … Congrats on becoming a member here on WCR. The site is awesome and as you go through all of the posts you will find some great information. As far as ordering the MR HARD WATER kit from JFLINT it is a great product and has paid for itself many times over and led to many happy customers from the work i have done. I can get the hard water removed 99% of the time using the MR HARD WATER remover product. The 1% i can’t is because the customer has put different kinds of products on the glass. I can still get it clean but not perfect. Have you used a polisher before ? If not, You may be fighting it a little bit. Should you practice on some of your own windows ?
I would say yes so that way you will get the feel of the polisher and how it wants to move all over and by practicing if you get a job to remove hard water at a customers house you will be confident and the customer won’t wonder if you really know what you are doing.
As far as scratching the glass … Well i have abused it on some glass and still no scratches.I find using the BLUE NYLON pad works the best even on some of the really bad hard water deposits on the glass. The worst thing that will happen if not paying attention is that you break / crack / shatter a pane by putting to much pressure.
If you want to remove scratches you might think about the GLASS RENU kit.
Jeff Flint is a way cool dude and he will answer any questions you may have
ThAnks for the welcome. I have used a polisher before so I think I should be good. I have a big commercial job that has a bunch off panes that have hard water. I’ll be getting there well before anyone gets there so hopefully I will get all the kinks out before anyone shows up.
Which kit did you buy ? The one with the liquid or the powder ? I have not used the liquid yet but i was told it works better than the powder and will cover more square feet. If you do not mind me asking … What are you roughly charging psf ? and how many toatal sqf are you cleaning ?
I just got my kit in a few days ago, but have not tried it out yet. I did watch a ton of video’s last night. Our came with the powder. Which liquid are you talking about?
It is the liquid glass polish in a bottle. Here is some info on it
[B]Mr Hard Water™ 2 – Liquid Glass Polish:[/B]
● 2X Coverage Rates ● 2X Faster ● 2X Stronger ● 2X Safer
[B]DESCRIPTION:[/B]
Mr Hard Water™ Polishing Slurry is an alternative to cerium oxide and is comprised of 1800 nm polishing particles fully suspended in deionized water, making it ready-to-use. Simply spray onto a polishing pad and your ready to polish away glass swirl marks, hard water stains, and glass etching. It is specifically designed for full pane glass polishing where large surfaces need to be polished. It’s also ideal for sensitive glass surfaces that react poorly to powder based cleaners. The Mr Hard Water™ slurry is resistant to shear, making it last longer than ceramic oxide powders. By extending the life of your slurry, operational and consumable costs are reduced. Recommended applications are any polishing operations which utilize polishing pads for polishing glass, quartz, and ceramics.
[B]BENEFITS:[/B]
[LIST]
[]For glass surfaces sensitive to powder abrasives
[]Removes Swirl Marks
[]Glass De-Etching
[]Recommended for polishing large glass surfaces.
[]Ready to use - no mixing required.
[]Safe on metals, stone, and surrounding surfaces.
[*]Easy-to-use. Spray directly pad and polish.
[/LIST]
From talking to Jeff about it it sounds like this stuff is much better than the powder form. The powder form does use a lot and if you are on a big job you will always be mixing up more compared to the liquid polish which = time as which time is MONEY.
I have not used it yet but i will be ordering a large quantity since i will be having a huge job coming up which has 7 panes of glass that each one is over 50 + sqf and has heavy hard water deposits on them.
i wonder how that 1800nm compares to the polish spray bottle in the glass renu kit
What are sensitive glass surfaces that react poorly to powders?
That I do not know since I do not own the glass renu kit. Great question!
Maybe if Jeff sees this post he can chime in and explain this and the post on sensitive glass surfaces.
i am no expert but I can say the mr hard water product works awesome from the jobs I have used it on.
i am sure the glass renu product works awesome since it can take out heavy scratches and remove hard water and it has some awesome reviews from users.
yeah, I’m just trying to understand the raltionships between the two products (flint system, glass renu system) and abrasiveness to figure when one is better (or more/less abrasive) for something than the other.
Glass Renu removes glass stock…to the point where there are stages needed to bring back clarity. Same as SRP system, Scratch Hog etc…Flint system is more of a surface cleaner, using different chems/pads to remove what’s on top of the glass, not underneath the glass surface. It may micro polish, but thats different than stock removal.
thanks David, you do have a lot of experience with glass restoration
in terms of micro polishing or whatever, what would be more aggressive, the jflint powder and steel wool pad or the glass renu grey disk full of stock (which isn’t removing stock since its full but just polishing is my understanding)?
what’s your guess where the glass renu felt and polish spray fits in?
I deal mostly with hard water rather than scratches and am just trying to understand these relationships before my next field service on a couple upcoming jobs
I bought Mr. Hardwater for a couple reasons. Biggest reason was the cost. Next reason is I almost never see scratched glass except maybe sliding doors with dog claw scratch marks. And lastly because we have lots of people who water their lawns with irrigation water. This is farm country and the irrigation canals in the valley feed sprinkler systems in most of the subdivisions. This water is very hard. I needed a good system at a good price. Took about 3 jobs to pay for itself.
If you have scratched glass I would buy the glass renu. If you have hard water, I would get the JFlint system.
More aggressive would be the GR pad, keep in mind, to get the grey disc white, you’ve already scratched he glass, the “white” is glass fines. I don’t think more aggressive is always the correct and or quickest route, especially dealing with just staining. Flints equip would be fine for the staining. I’ve never used the felt pad solely for HW stains so I cannot attest to its efficiency in that regard. I will say that I finally, after 5 years ran across some staining that foam would not remove,so I will be doing my first stain removal with the GR system. In order of abbrassiveness, the sanding pads are first…then your Flint system, with pads be it nylon, wool, or combinations thereof are next…felt last. I would put foam cutting pads somewhere in the middle.
thanks David
(yeah I was thinking of a grey disk laying around from a previous job already full of stock.)
Gotcha…that stuff falls off rather easily…but I get ya.
Did my first job with the system. The windows looked like they turned out great. When I was up next to them. However I just drove by the job this evening and the sun was shining on them. I could see every path that I took with the polisher. I used the steel wool pad. Would going back over the glass with the scrubbie pad take the swirls out?
Great thread! Thanks WCR! By the way, I love the new WCR Product Catalog. It fits in the glove box, is easy to read, and there’s tons of products and information. Here’s the answer to the polishing question: What I’ve learned over the last few years is that windows are changing. They are not just glass anymore. Sometimes they may have coatings or thin films applied at the factory that you cannot see. This causes changes in how the glass should be cleaned as well as restored. So I think what’s going to happen in the future is that as the glass changes, so will the chemicals that are used to clean it. I recently introduced a new product called Mr Hard Water 2 - Liquid Glass Polish. This product is designed for windows that may have coatings. Coated windows can sometimes be more sensitive to both chemicals and polishing because the coatings can be much softer than glass. So to be safe when cleaning these types of windows by hand or with a polisher I recommend trying this new material. It is a substitute to “cerium oxide.” It comes from the same family of chemicals but is better and less expensive. The reason it works better is because the microscopic particles used to clean the glass are specifically designed for polishing telescopes, lenses, and other glass surfaces. It also uses particles 50 X smaller than those used by hand cleaners. The particle size is crucial during polishing. They need to be small to avoid leaving the light swirl marks. And because the polishing particles are suspended in de-ionized water, the liquid adds lubrication during polishing, speeds up the process, and helps to increase coverage rates. This liquid can also be used with any type of pad. Some use super fine white pads available from other suppliers. We have a new nylon pad with foam in it that can hold the liquid well. It polishes evenly and works great. I’ve even used it with steel pads for etched windows. This material is also capable of removing swirl marks as well as light etching caused by chemicals! So, I like to use it as a back up in case you run into etched glass or swirls. Overall, it’s just what you need if you are polishing full panes of glass because its safer. I will be releasing some new videos demonstrating this material within a week or so.
I have this exact problem on the first residential job I just did with the Mr. Hardwater system. Did you come up with a solution?
