Window cleaning brushes

Window cleaning brushes
What window cleaning brush?

There has been a lot of talk lately about window cleaning
brushes, and what ones are best.

Let me start by clarifying one thing, the most popularly
used is not necessarily the best. Awhile ago there was a
certain brush manufacturer that caught on to the fact that
the reach and wash system and water fed poles in general
were gaining popularity among window cleaners, and quite
rightly got in on the act. They realised their was big
business in window cleaning brushes and started promoting
their car washing brushes at trade shows etc, and offering
good deals to water fed pole suppliers. They even made some
changes to the brush to make them more window cleaning
friendly, trouble is they forgot about two main factors
that overwhelmingly effected the cleaning power of the
brush. Firstly the density of the bristles, their brush is
far too dense and this restricts the flow of dirty water
passing through the bristles, and working its way down and
off the glass. Secondly the bristles were splayed at the
ends to make them softer for car paintwork, as glass is a
hard surface this was not necessary for a window cleaning
brush, it had a negative effect and trapped dirt particles,
again restricting the easy passage of dirty water through
the brush and down to the bottom of the glass. These two
factors although not the only disadvantages makes the most
widely used window cleaning brush a nightmare to use.

How did the average window cleaner not notice this? They
were supplied with the brush from their supplier, they
didn't know any better, after all if you pay good money for
a window cleaning system you would expect to be supplied
with the best equipment to do the job it was designed to
do. Trouble is most of the window cleaning suppliers have
never cleaned a window in their life, they picked up on a
brush that was being heavily promoted, got a good deal and
the rest is history. The window cleaner got round the
defects on the brush by brushing the window and then
lifting the brush off the glass to give it a final rinse,
which is both time consuming and a much higher water
consumption over the course of the day.

There are another couple of disadvantages with the brush I
am talking about. The weight of the brush, and the shape of
the bristles. Again the clever window cleaner has
compensated for the weight by using a much smaller brush,
the size of the brush brings the weight down considerably,
only problem with that is again more time wasted covering
the glass with the smaller brush, and again more water
wasted as you are on the glass longer. Next there is the
shape of the bristles, they are straight. If they were
slightly crinkled it would serve as a more aggressive
cleaner, as there is a more abrasive contact on any dirt
sticking to the glass. Slightly elongated bristles servers
the same purpose allowing the bristles to splay more and
would allow the non splayed tips of the bristles to come in
contact with the dirt. This would also allow for faster
cleaning, which in turn reduces water usage.

The funny thing about all this is I have had customers of
mine changing from the brush I supply which has none of the
disadvantages of the above brush, to one of the
disadvantaged brushes. Why? Simply because they have been
told by other window cleaners that the brush they use is
not a window cleaning brush, and that they have to change
over to the disadvantage brush that they use. Its not all
bad though, these helpful chaps sometimes show them some
new exciting ways to get a spot free finish on the glass,
they show them how to take the brush off the glass and give
it a final rinse, and how to waste time and water into the
bargain.

----------------------------------------------------
Peter Fogwill, Traditional window cleaner for 25 years, and
water fed pole window cleaner for the last 6 years. For
more window cleaning brush information contact Peter on the
email address below.
peter@window-tools.com
Website...
http://www.window-tools.com