So I just purchased my first waterfed pole from WCR. Due to budget and wanting to not go overboard on equipment, I ordered a DI tank only rather than an RODI. Now, I have read that one of the best ways to conserve water is to wash with tap, and then rinse with DI, but the hassle of that for larger jobs seems incredibly impractical. However, I had an idea. Why not have two hoses running up and connecting to your brush, both with univalves, and one connected to your DI tank, and one connected to a bypass so that it comes straight from the spigot? Is there a major flaw with this idea that I’m missing? Maybe water weight is more than I thought and this would make the pole too heavy? What are your thoughts guys?
As you already know, I am new and have yet to get a WFP (still want to try making one). I have a lot of questions and a lot to learn about this too. So, this thread will be very helpful.
You shouldn’t need a whole lot of water for the wash part, right? Get just enough to get it all wet, then cut it off with a kink while agitating, then back on for rinse. Just like trad, you are just softening the dirt and mixing it in the water, and then the rinse is what takes it all away. Or am I wrong about this, and completely off track?
I would think that using tap for the wash would be adding unwanted chemicals that would require more rinse water to avoid spotting.
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I think what you are conserving on DI you are loosing at a higher rate on labor time.
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You both bring up really good points. I was actually going off of what the spokesman for Constructor Brush has said in this videos. Sometimes it just takes other people’s input for me to see something clearly as I tend to overthink things and love inventing and problem solving so much that I tend to miss the obvious solution in favor of a complex solution that I get to engineer, haha! Of course the hastle of making such a setup and the time lost in using it wouldn’t be worth it, thank you guys. 
I’ll just have to find another problem to come with a complex solution for. 
lets say you can make $60 an hour and over the course of the job it take 5 min to switch back and fourth, that’s $5
if your di water cost is $.20 per gallon, and you use say 25 gallons, your cost is $5
but you’ll need at least half that to rinse so you might end up spending $5 to save $2.50.
plus it just sounds like a huge hassle
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Well it doesn’t help that I miscalculated my cost of water and thought it was going to be 5.00 a gallon. 
when I calculated correctly it came out to 20 cents a gallon.
yes i think the loss is negligible, we do alot of wfp and it would be annoying going back and forth.
ive cleaned hotels first cleans after being built four years prior and it takes more scrubbing but was easier than using two water sources.
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I tried it once after seeing a video Perry had made , but yeah my resin lasts long enough for that hassle his argument in the video was NO you NEVER need an RO if you do it in that particular method, also how much you turn the tap on for water flow makes a HUGE difference.
I general only turn most taps on 1/8-1/4 turn, eye it off once I see about 1 liter per minute flowing out, I was talking to a competitor and he was complaining how his resin only lasted 2 weeks, he was very surprised when I informed him my resin lasts me many months, once we started talking it became clear that he was unaware what he was doing wrong by cranking the tap to its fully open position allowing 20-30 liters per minute and what can happen is you have so much pressure that the force of the water can make the glass spotty.
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my resin lasts about 6 mos and i do a boatload of wfp. 5 stage cart
i also manage water flow like you do makes a difference
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This is what I do to conserve water, since I work off a 40 gallon tank. The only issue is, if you are too sparing with the water during the agitation phase, you will take longer to rinse effectively. You want to be getting the majority of the gunk off the glass surface during the initial agitation. Then your rinse phase goes a lot quicker.
It’s a bit of a learning curve learning to use the optimal amount of water for both time and water efficiency. But I’m able to get a lot more windows cleaned, at a much lower resin cost and much shorter setup time, than I would if I was hooking up to customers’ water for every job.
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If you want to conserve water, wet the window, kink the hose while you scrub, then rinse.
Switching back and forth between pure and tap sounds like the very definition of hell to me lol
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In theory you could run two poles with an open Y-connector at the source and shut off at the pole. Pre-scrub really bad windows with tap and final scrub and rinse-rinse-rinse with DI.
I did say “in theory”.
I thought about this too after seeing that video and even brought it up here; not really so practical.
What is practical is to charge enough for your service in order to cover cost.
Are you in a high TDS area? Sock away a percentage in your (TAP) that works for you from each job and buy an RO/DI unit if your TDS area is high. Otherwise DI will work fine for you.
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Alex im not sure how too handle actual calculations but too me id rather spend few minutes connecting too a customers hose than carrying water everywhere and everyday.
i would burn through 40gal pretty quick. just those 40 gals weigh 320lbs which you pay for in fuel economy and additional wear and tear.
plus i guess i like not having too stress if ill have enough water or not. and when not in use having that tank space also.
how many jobs can you do with 40gal? or is it mainly residential
I think it can be dangeous especially in summer if tab water splashes on a window, which your are not cleaning at the moment and it dries there and causes hard water stains.
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I have a 165 gallon tank mounted in my 3/4 ton van. We fill it at the end of the work day if it gets below 100 gallons or if we have a large job the next day. I don’t worry about the extra weight in regard to fuel economy, wear & tear, etc. The time-savings of carrying my own water are immense and I don’t care about a possible couple of extra dollars each week in fuel cost. We save 6-10 minutes (or more) per set-up, compared to setting up the filter, running garden hose to the customer’s house, etc. and then breaking it down at the end of the job. On a good day, we can clean exteriors of 10-12 medium & large sized houses or commercial buildings. 6 minutes saved on each of 10 houses saves an extra hour. That’s enough to do another job or go home early. The large tank is awesome! Don’t fret about spending a couple of nickels worth of fuel, especially with only a 40 gallon tank. It’s nothing.
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im sorry i really don’t see that much of a difference 5min too roll out a water hose and roll it up when you spend the same time filling at end of the day.
i imagine both ways aren’t much difference in terms of economy rather preference
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Great post Tony!
You got it dialed in.
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But I don’t spend the same amount of time re-filling the tank at home.
It might take 60-120 minutes to fill up the tank at night, but I don’t spend that time sitting by the filter as it makes pure water. I spend a couple of minutes hooking it up and a couple of minutes unhooking it. It fills as I go about my evening. I save as much as 60 minutes each day on the job and spend literally 6-8 minutes max, at home hooking and unhooking the filter from my van. Carrying my water actually saves 60+ minutes on a day with a lot of stops. It’s not even close.
Additional benefits of hauling my own water:
- I don’t use my customer’s water. That seems to bother some people, although I don’t understand why. We don’t have water shortage issues here (not yet anyway).
- I’m not beating up my filter system by loading / unloading it many times each day. It sits safely in my garage and backyard.
- I don’t deal with the physical toll of loading and unloading the filter multiple times each day. As I get older, I notice this more.
- We have really bad water in my area. When I’m at home, my filter is filled by softened water, which is better than the water at some of my customer’s homes. My home tap has a TDS of about 260. Some of my customer’s homes have TDS in excess of 650; one had a TDS of 1100! My DI resin lasts longer when I fill from home.
This is much more than simply a personal preference. It makes a really big difference for me in both time savings and water quality.
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i replace resin twice a year membranes have last around 8yrs very minimal expense for our cart.
i live in az we have very hard water one area over 1500 if im remembering right.
we still enjoy western hospitality here, no one complains about water usage. most will make sure you’re not thirsty or hungry.
i don’t unload or load my rodi cart either. its mounted in my van i just run longer 5/16 hose. i also use my van for other services and would definitely miss the space taken up by a tank.
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