I am very new to wfp’ing, I have done some searching and briefly read the wfp guide but still have a few questions.
It seems the norm with wfp is to use pure water? My friend who used to wfp for a company claims that all they did was hook up their hose to a regular garden hose outlet on the house and thats it. He mentioned a few rural places on the outskirts of town you can’t do that because they have hard water. Could it be the case that our drinking water is good enough to use and not leave streaks?
I am going to get into the residential market. I am going to buy a 35 foot tucker pole with the double hose for the soap and start market towards 2 story homes in my area. Advice?
Skip the soap thing. You don’t need it for windows. Maybe if you’re doing awnings.
I seriously doubt there is any tap water pure enough to leave windows spotless. Though harvested rainwater might do the trick.
If you have a crew go with a Tucker. It been my experience employees done take care of eqipment as well as the guy paying for it would. If you’re solo or maybe one employee go with something better. Tuckers are cheap, heavy and relatively easy to fix and maintain. The the majority say carbon fiber or fiberglass/carbon fiber mix is the way to go.
Dont waste the extra expense on Tucker soap injectors on glass. It’s a rare ocation to get spotless results strait from the tap. I do alot of commercial from tap water with adaquit resaults but I’d never do a resi that way. I ever get a carbo fiber pole, I’m throwing my Tucker off a cliff.
I have read about grdiner having low quality poles?
My friend highly recommended the tucker, and it is very well priced for the 25’ pole (300ish)
The heavy factor isn’t really a concern to me right now, although it would be nice to have a feather weight pole, the 25ft tucker 8pound pole doesn’t seem that bad. It helps that I strength train regularly and I am 6’6" 220lbs.
Basically I want something low priced, durable and reliable and easy to use.
From what I gather I should start by doing this: Attach regular garden hose from house to DI tank, attach WFP hose from di tank to pole.
I have used Tucker and I have a Gardiner which I’ve used since 2 springs ago. No comparison- Gardiner wins. Tucker is less expensive, but as has been stated- heavier, less controllable at comparable heights and a major inconvenience to adjust lengths.
I seriously would even suggest getting fiberglas or composite before a Tucker if money is a major issue.
You have the basic idea right. Garden hose to DI tank and then 3/8" or 1/4" hose from the tank to the pole. Gardiner is a very reliable pole. I haven’t read anything bad about Gardiner outside of some sales propaganda from Ionics or Excel who can’t compete w/ Gardiner quality.
The Tucker will be cheaper but you will quickly regret the choice.
I’ve used all the poles I’ve mentioned here thus far and the Gardiner wins hands down.
If you want I’d be happy to discuss this on the phone 319-325-9475
Last year we purchased poles for few jobs where safety was a major concern. Running directly from a the residents tap we only had one job that left spots out of 10-15 jobs. The TDS on that job was 34.
Purchased a DI tank this month and looking forward to using it.
Hey Guys,
Allow me to tell a story about WFPing windows with 250tds tap water.
Nick Long stopped by to watch me clean a restaurant with my backpack WFP set up. We got to talking and by mistake I refilled my backpack from my regular tap water jug instead of one of the pure water jugs. I guess I was distracted by our conversation so I cleaned the last eight big picture windows with 250 tds tap water.
I had no idea the mistake had occurred until that evening when I discovered the empty tap water jug. I raised out there the next morning to redo the windows and to my amazement they were PERFECT. No redo necessary.
The important thing to remember is that 010 as a spotting point is simply a guideline. You can sometimes get away w/ much higher readings but it’s all a guess. Some minerals cause spots and some don’t. It all depends on what your water is made up of. Of course there are other benefits to have purified water to clean w/ besides no spotting.
I have used the tucker in the past pain the butt to adjust and it will be heavy at the end of the day. I have the simpole and love it stiff and lite . Unless you have a tds of 8 or less your going to leave spots. If you want a cheap stiff pole for 2 story check out the nija by wcr.
It could have been a case of the perfect storm of good rinse and low spotting minerals in the tap water. I’ve done windows where my TDS was almost 90 (DI tank was spent and I had 5 windows to finish) and there was no spotting. It happens but I wouldn’t make it a habit just because I got away w/ it once.
Hey Warren,
Have you seen the original Unger Hi-Flo WFP cleaning kit. It sells for about $139. It comes with a 30ft hose, brush, angle adapter, and an inline soap dispenser with an on off valve. It snaps onto the end of an Unger 30ft TelePlus window washers pole. It costs about $120. That’s what they sold before they got into real water fed poles. Hooks right up to the hose from the faucet. I bet you can get OK results. Back in the day that’s how we got it done. Buy a DI tank and you’ll get great results. Much better way to go “cheap” than getting a tucker pole. That’s my opinion.
