Coming Soon to a Window Near You: Squeegees

Finally a film/series about window cleaners that probably won't heighten the professionalism of the game. But not currently coming to a window anywhere near Europe!

Whats up Doc?

A year a go there were reports of carrot fiber replacing carbon fibre & glass fiber. Everyone laughed & went back to what they were doing. It seems the technology is here & will be staying. After carbon fibre made its way into motorbikes & cars, now the yachting world is seriously considering & may have even developed a "challenger" racer with "CurranTM" - the actual substance derived from the carrot. With the rising prices of carbon fibre & related technologys, two fishing mad doctors from Fife, Scotland found a way of making lighter & stonger rods. The company called "Cellucomp" have come up with a product that is stonger, stiffer, lighter & tougher than the carbon fiber counterparts. The high strength nano level cellulose bio-fibers are already making fishing news & are on sale.

Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale the inventors (pictured below) don't sell "CurranTM", but work with the suppliers to extract nano-fibers and combined with high tech resins enable tough, durable components to be moulded to whatever shape, degree of stiffness, strength or lightness required through a top secret process. Only two kilos of carrot (90% water) are needed to make your average fishing rod.
As we speak, wfp companys are ringing the happy Mr. Whale (pictured right). Who said "Right now we're extracting cellulose material from the cells, deconstructing them to pieces that are microscopic and bonding it with a special resin in a way that can be moulded together and is more damage resistant than carbon fibre"???

Tangled Hoses

Having trouble with snagging hoses & ruining customers flowerbeds? Andy Bragg from Somerset, a UK window cleaner has come up with a new gadget that stops this problem. Andy thought up the idea when he had major problems getting hoses caught in various situations. His new product called Slip 'n' slide is a great idea & can also be used by homeowners when they are watering the plants. The simple concept & design has been a great hit on this side of the pond, the best designs are always the simple ones!

Start 'em young!

Thats what I say. Playstation have given a free reign to budding window cleaners everywhere with the "eye-toy". Mind you, the technique needs working on & not a good start with the tongue, but heyho, you've gotta start somewhere. But really, with this sort of technology, wouldn't it be great as a window cleaning tool for beginners? And judging by some results off a water fed pole I'm sure it could be put to good use. Would you loose points for touching the top frame though?

Water out of thin air

U.S. company "AquaMagic" may have just solved the worlds water problems with a generator that condenses the moisture out of the air to make 120 U.S gallons (454 liters) a day of drinking water. Whilst it could help out with water shortages for when councils or states impose water restrictions, it could also be a good tool for making pure water for wfping activities. One has to ask, how much fuel this machine takes to supply 120 gallons? Because the last time I looked, petrol was sparser than water?

German Humour?

Here are a few photos I took in Berlin a while back, its a window cleaners paradise, depending how you look at it. They seem to have started to embrace the wfp these days as well. Even the Hauptbahnhof or central station has a window cleaning robot on the roof.

I've never really understood German Humour.
When it comes to window cleaning -"Glasreinigung" or "Fensterputzen" as it commonly gets called now, it seems even worse? I've added another video, below for you to see just what I mean. "Lost in translation" comes to mind. Click here for another side splitting take of high jinks? I just don't get it?

Window Cleaning Business Coach

On my usual forum rounds, I came across another Window cleaner who specifically markets his window cleaning business to achieve great results. So much so that he has created his own website called "Window cleaning business coach". He gives out information on how he targets his customers, and how he goes about it. The information provided therein amazed me with his insight in to how a customer chooses his services. Kevin operates in Toronto, Canada with his company "Paneless Perfection", truly one of the best websites I've seen from a window cleaning company. In the picture you can see one of his clients receiving an i-mac after winning a raffle announced, recorded & drawn online. Even the flyers & cards are created in such a way to atract the eye & pull in the punters. Do me a favour, go to his website & find out the new & improved way of bringing in clients, its an education!

Cleaning Windows with grocerys

That's right folks, this weeks top tips. Remember this video is from prime time TVE1 Spain, the equivalent of the BBC1 in the UK. I can't wait till he has to go up the ladder with a sack of spuds in his back pocket over his shoulder. Or may be an onion fed pole would do the trick? Next week...................cleaning the toilet with Rhubarb.

Life without suction cups

Lets see how high rise window cleaning is being tackled in other parts of the world. We'll come back & see how they're fairing in a while.

Gardiners Superlite

Typical, by the time you get your act together & manage to perfect a really light pole, Alex Gardiner goes & does it for you. Here are some endurance video's of the poles being whacked against trees, sat on etc. Click on the pictures & logo's to watch. These poles look really amazing on the video & feedback has been great. As I mentioned earlier the only contender for the Super-lite is the Emporium pole from Alan in Hamilton. These poles are slightly lighter than Alex's, but what do you go for? Strength or durability.

The Electric Window Cleaner

Do you need a hand with some serious working at height issues? Jeff could be your man. Click on his mugshot for his website & you get the experience & his services for that next difficult clean!

This is my mate Jeff Brimble - the guy who originally thought up the idea to use fishing poles as a way forward in the window cleaning industry. If he was in the entertainment world he would have been knighted by now. Jeff & myself are still dabbling with the various problems in the window cleaning world we come up against. Recently Jeff met his greatest challenge & rose to the problem using & adapting an Emporium Pole to currently hold the world record (88 foot) for height reached using a wfp. Alan from Emporium poles has managed to stir quite an interest with his new brand of fishing "based" poles & accessories. The only other serious contender for Super light poles at the moment is Alex Gardiner maker of the Superlite & Gardiners poles.

Aquatec & Peter Fogwill

Peter has been making his own systems now for a few years. This is the first system I bought & its still going strong. I've changed a few things round, but I still use the major parts of Peters original system to carry out my work. Peter originally was in partnership with Mike at Cleantech before they decided to go there own ways. Peter also has his own forum , where many of you will recognise my username of "karlosdaze" & where I do a little moderating. Peter has realised a number of inventions over the last couple of years. The main booster to the company was his trolley system which is still going strong. He also features in Mark Hendersons window cleaning resources DVD on wfp's.
Over the last couple of years, Peter has patented the new autobrush & its a favourite among window cleaners. Here are a couple of videos of it in action. The time saving & water saving elements of this unique gadget, make it a must for any wfp'er.

Ionics & Fish window cleaning?

Could Fish window cleaning & Craig Mawlem of Ionics UK be forming a partnership? Nah, Craig has naturally followed through in the filter & water purification area to follow on with his passion in Koi carp. KingdomKoi is the new venture for the Ionics based group. Perhaps when Craig goes fishing he remembers to take the right pole?

Too much soap

This video shows what happens when you use too much soap in your mix. It can get quite frustrating. Its a pity really, he has the company uniform, wears the correct footwear & apparently polite to the customers. It just goes all horribly wrong at the end when he tries to close out.

The first water fed pole

I know everyone seems to think that Tucker were the first to produce wfp's in the world, or Tucker UK (now called Aquafactors) if you live on this side of the pond. But its just not true! Thanks again to Shawn from "Reach Higher Ground" for providing the evidence. Robin Tucker in his rather sparse blog & claiming to have "the original water fed pole system" could be up against Albert & Herman from Detroit on this one! Only it was 14th May, 1895 they filed saying, and I quote "this window cleaning brush having a water supply pipe for delivering a supply of water to the brush in cleaning the window". Click on the image to study the detail.

Robin Tucker with his "New Product".

Wfp'ers shoot at traditional window cleaner

This was recorded live by Don Marsh on one of his many live webcasts. It shows how water fed polers get jealous & start shooting him in the back no less!

Ok, not really, but this guy cracks me up. Don deals with everything from "sex on the job" to "beating the french". That got your attention didn't it? This dude rocks. How one guy can think of so many window cleaning topics, beats me.
He has his own forum & sells window cleaning gear at reasonable prices - check him out. I'll be featuring more stuff from Don later.

Marks Video's of low rise commercial window cleaning

Here are two of the videos Mark of window cleaning resources has put out on YouTube. Watch for the shop lifter (2nd video) in the background.

UK Window Cleaning Resource

Have to give Mark his dues. He created this site when there was a need. And still people don't know about it! So here it is Window cleaning resources, & what a wonder it is. It covers all aspects of the industry from buying rounds to "dog-earing your squeegee". He has produced some DVD's for noobies to the industry & I must say they are great viewing. Here is Mark collecting his award from the Federation of window cleaners for ermm, I don't really know? A nice jumper? Only kidding Mark.

http://www.robinson-solutions.com

Yep, thats my web address & Mmmm - webpage still not finished. Between you, me & the triple ladder sectionals, I still don't know when it will be finished either. But I heard that if you list your webpage on as many pages as possible, somehow you go up the google ladder? I've heard that Mallorca is a tad in the backwater, so life moves slowly here. Its been 2 years in the making since telefonica lost my microsoft publisher version.

Ionics pole in action in the US

Heres a quick video from Shawn at http://reachhigherground.com/ that used to be on his old website. Yikes, theres a slight bend in there somewhere? Shawn stocks Gardiners poles amongst others. He has just brought out a new boars head brush with apparently incredible scrubbing power.