I ordered a couple 12 packs of hard rubber, Unger and Pulex. I tried the Pulex out for a week and it worked pretty good. Then it got cold and it didn’t work as well as the ettore rubber, but still did the job. Pretty good not really bad.
Then I put in the Unger late friday and forgot about it. Monday and Tuesday were painful. I thought I had hit my head and forgot how to fan the window. I was leaving like entire splotches of water on the glass and I just couldn’t close to save my life. I was getting seriously pissed off. Maybe my channel was screwed up or maybe the rubber was waving up on me so I uncrimped the channel and added the brass clips back in to hold it it and nothing helped… and I remembered I was trying out the unger rubber.
I put the pulex in this morning and the sweetness was back. So I got home, ate some chicken wings, and remembered that I wanted to see if the rubber was the same size or what the heck. Went back out to the truck and pulled the rubber and check it:
The unger (right) is smaller and shorter than the pulex (left - in channel). That little hair of a millimeter caused me to question my business, my technique, I couldn’t close, couldn’t sleep, my dog farted, and all I wanted was a pepsi. Pretty bad not really good.
I’m wondering if the unger channels are that much shorter as well. I guess, at least in my case, I can’t mix and match my ettore channel with unger rubber. So the pulex will become my main rubber since it seems to last longer than ettore. But ettore is better in the cold so I’ll keep some of that around for the week or two of really cold weather.
Rubber advice to newbie’s: ettore makes a good all weather rubber. When it got cold the hard rubber was more difficult to use. If you’ve got ettore channels and want hard rubber, then pulex is pretty good. If you’ve got unger channels, eh, do whatever you want.
JaredAl I really really dislike unger rubber for the exact same reasons u just mentioned. So I will only use ettore or Sorbo for wide body because I just don’t want the frustration. Ettore and Sorbo act the same every time.
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It wasn’t really how the rubber sat in the channel so much that the rubber was short. I don’t know if the whole pack is that way, but that millimeter of difference in height really screwed me up. I wish I had an unger channel so I could throw my calipers on it and actually get some exact measurements, but I’m guessing that the unger channel is a little shorter than the ettore channel so that the proportions are probably the same.
I gave away some unger handles and channels to a friend of mine who was a little short on cash but needed some extra stuff to get her through last year.
Yeah, ettore is just good all the way around. I’m going to buy the pulex hard in bulk and keep some 12 packs of ettore around for the “winter” that we have here (late december through early february)
I just wish I had thought to try out the professional rubber brand. I’m curious how it holds up and it’s significantly cheaper than all the others. So it has me curious.
Unger channels are definitely shorter than ettore and other brands, necessitating the shorter rubber. Polz’n Bladz has a vid or two on the subject. I really liked the unger hard rubber when I tried it, but it didn’t play nice in my ettore stainless channels. I do like it for the occasional storm window job, where I’m doing straight pulls to cut fatigue, and have the panels on my easel. The unger rubber has less “play” to it, so I’m able to get very tight to the seals, and have zero detailing- just wipe the water off the frames. The hard rubber seems to keep its edge a little longer than softer rubber, too.
I really want to try some facelift rubber this year.
[MENTION=3209]SqueegeeNinjaNJ[/MENTION] wow, I’m gonna have to download those tunes again. My cassettes are long turned to dust but I remember a lot of those songs. I like to throw out the pepsi thing now and then to see who’s down with the ST.
I see Mike is still rockin the headband. I remember Infectious Grooves, but always liked ST mo better. I saw this pic and was like “Oh yeah, that’s my dog”
Mark [MENTION=67]Beautiful View[/MENTION] Great picture. So it’s not just my batch of unger, it’s just how the make them. That’s good info to know. I’ve got a 12 pack of this rubber so I’ll put it in my straight pull squeegees and get some use out of it.
But I thought I was going insane on monday and tuesday. And since we’re rockin this thread:
Really? Then dang, the pulex channels must have a heck of an overhang on the rubber… which might make a good training aid for newbies. I’ve got some pulex channels and ettore and I’ll measure them and post the sizes. I don’t have any ungers.
I do remember going from Pulex to Ettore and I had to make some adjustments before I could rock the ettore.
I know it sounds crazy but bear with me here…… It seems that if you use Unger channels you should use Unger rubber.
Ettore channels and Ettore rubber.
Pulex channels and wait for it…Pulex rubber. No doubt they’re all designed to be used with their own however when it’s all said and done if were talking traditional and not widebody I prefer an Ettore.
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