Thanks for the replies. Your right about the aluminum, Mike. I want to switch over. I only have 1 aluminum channel right now - a 22" steccone. I love it, I can’t go back to the brass anymore with the hand tools. I don’t mind using brass when I’m doing pole work. The weight doesn’t matter when I’m poling with both hands. The only way, I can see someone wanting to still use brass is if they are doping pole work. Sometimes it helps when you have a really long pole and they can’t get enough pressure against the glass. You can just sort of let the weight of the squeegee do the work for you when you are doing vertical straight pulls with a pole. So I can see some benefits associated with brass, but for hand tools I just can’t see it.
It seems like the brass doesn’t stay as straight either. I got a new backflip a few months month ago and the channel was warped*. I thought that it was just some wavy glass, at first, because I was skipping over areas without making contact. But then I remembered how people were talking about sighting your squeegee to see of the channel is warped.
So I sighted it, like a gun and stared down the length of it. The thing definitely was not straight. I could see how the slight uneveness of the channel amplified the waviness of the rubber. It seems like this happens a lot more in the stainless and brass channels than in the aluminum.
Aluminum is just a lot more rigid than stainless or brass. I am very careful with my squeegees when I am working, I never drop them, so I assume that my wavy channels were defective from the start. I wonder if over-tightening the back plate can cause the channel to warp?
Looks like WCR is all out of most sizes of the steccone channels. I may have to go with the pickle. I don’t like the idea of having to get “special” rubber. Are the pickles/slayers better than the super channel ? I hear that water drains out of them better, and they get better rubber angle on the glass. It doesn’t seem like there are many fans of the super channel out there. Maybe people who are using it, but not many enthusiasts.
The slayer/pickle seems to have a lot more enthusiasm around it. I will have to give it a try. Maybe I’ll pick up some featherweights when WCR puts some more on the shelf.
[SIZE=5]*[/SIZE] Unfortunately, I didn’t get it at WCR. I have been getting all my window cleaning stuff from a local janitorial store. I strongly believe in supporting local businesses. Plus, I had developed a good relationship with the owner. However, they went out of business a few months back. I haven’t had to buy any supplies since then because I loaded up on their rubber when they went out of business. But I will definitely be picking WCR for my supplier, now. I’ve heard on this forum that WCR backs all of their products which is very cool.
Here’s my 9" ledger with 22" steccone aluminum channel