How often do you guys wash your porcupine wand scrubbers? Do you wash them every time you use them in a day?
I wash mine the same as I wash any of my other washer sleeves. Whenever I feel they need more than a hosing off. I just throw them in with my towels and let air dry. Probs once a month or two.
Am I missing something here? I wash the scrubber sleeves, including the porcupine, at least once per week, sometimes even more. I have 12 sleeves for me and one other dude to use and we can go through them in 5 days or less.
We usually go through one scrubber a day—each.
Am I doing something wrong?
. What is going on???
I usually have a load of scrim and scrubbers to wash every 2 weeks.
Maybe I am. Haha
Why wash the sleeves at all?
You are working with soapy water. It gets dirty. You dump the water. Tomorrow you put the strip washer in more soapy water and it gets dirty in about a minute whether the strip washer is clean or dirty. If the washer is clean, it is dirty in a very short time.
I don’t see the big reason for washing it. The level of dirt is always advancing and contracting and it never stays clean for long. You can rinse it off with a hose if you want to, but you are soon back where you started.
One day last week we was in a house and I kept smelling something really bad I could not figure out what it was. Come to find out the guy that works with me feels the same way as you. He said he hasnt washed his sleeve in about a month. It really smelled like a dumpster. Now he has been washing it every couple day and the problem is gone.
Therefore would you say that if your sleeves do not smell, they do not need washing.
I wash mine regularly - once a week, sometimes even more. Depends on the jobs Ive been doing. Who needs paint flakes, grime, greasy fats and dirt, even drowned spiders (lol) from the sleeve dumped into clean water and then smeared straight back onto glass ? (not to even mention the smell ! )
Welcome.
Most of that stuff comes out in the water. I don’t see any spiders or grease in mine. Paint flakes can be rinsed off with a hose or just come out in the water. If the glass is smeared, I would change the water until it did not smear. The soapy water is cleaning the sleeve. How much of what you believe is psychological and how much is real? That is the question.
If I observed all of the dirt you described, I would wash the sleeves also. If I smelled the sleeves, I would wash them. I might also add some ammonia to the water once in a while…possibly even a little bleach in the water bucket to keep the algae down when there is a lot of sun.
I find that old towels smell much more than sleeves even shortly after they were washed. Those I would definitely wash frequently. For me, towels are the problem, not the sleeves.
I rinse mine daily at the end of the day and hang to dry over night. It just makes sense to me to start off fresh every morning. But as Merv points out, it’s mostly psychological.
It’s also the same with my water. I always start off in the morning with fresh solution but I know a lot of window cleaners who use the same water 2 days in a row or more. (mostly storefront work). Heck, if I listened to some of my residential customers, they’d have me change my water after every 4-5 windows.
WHAT??? 
. Why not just throw the sleeves in with the towels. Wouldnt that be much easier. It seems to me that your trying hard to Not wash your sleeves then anything. What ever works for you I guess. How did this thread really last this long? 
:o
I try not to do more than I have to. Since I see no problem with my sleeves I do nothing about them. Why should I unsnap or pull the velcro on each sleeve, put it in the washing machine over and over again, wear it out in the wash, and put it back on the handle if it is not necessary? Basically I see it as spending time and labor to wear out my sleeves for no reason. The thread lasted this long because you keep posting to it. :rolleyes:
Yeah I only wash them(I mean my wife does, if it werent for her I might never wash them) when they start to stink. Ive found that when theyre washed they very quickly go back to the same state they were in before washing.
Its good to see another Ventura County window cleaner here!
I have more than one of each sleeve I use, so t is easy to rotate in a clean one.
For residential, I typically switch water after completing the interior and beginning the exterior. I rinse the washer sleeve (this is not the same as cleaning it) prior to cleaning the exterior, as needed while working, and after completion.
Washing a sleeve in the clothes washer assists in removing surface dirt and debris as well as removing dirt and debris from the backing of the material.
It doesn’t take much time to wash, IMO. Sleeves are engineered to last a long time, especially microfiber ones (500+ washings.)
I keep spare washer sleeve / t-bar sets ready in a convenient place (as well as in the van.)
In the same way that it is no big deal (keeping dirty sleeves) to you, it is no big deal (cleaning sleeves) to me.
It has been a long time but I will try washing them again.
I know it is pleasing to have clean sleeves, even though I don’t think it is essential.
Restarting, buruuuuuuum buruuuuuuum…
I never wash my sleeves…I may periodically rinse them with a hose but that’s if there is a hose on the spigot and if the hose has a nozzle on it.
I rinse them in my working bucket but otherwise they just wait for the next job ! Some times if your leaving your swab in a pile of wet rags or such like, they’ll get a moldy and smell !
I’ll change my water when it gets to dirty or between jobs ! Still i just can’t see any bennies in washing my sleeves !
Now this isn’t “Son of Ettoreship” but just personal preference. But once I did see a residential client look at my tool that was old, but didn’t say anything…Maybe to some folks looks are everything !
I shave , and wear clean work shirts and wear my booties indoors,and have clean water when I do inside ! New sleeve are sweet once you break away any lint !
Dange
I throw my sleeves in with my rags, maybe twice a week. Why not?.. I’m already washing the rags anyways right? I usually dont dry the sleeves though.
