Hi Jinky,
The chosen few are now well into the trial and have found these new poles to be quite revolutionary.
I will be publishing a feedback page on our website with comments from all of those who have used this pole during the trial.
6 people had 45ft poles
1 person had a 50ft pole
4 people had 60ft poles
On the whole they have found the poles to be very good. One of the testers (there were 11 in the end) is thinking about sending the pole back for a refund as really his work was not suitable for this type of pole (only 3 storey domestic work).
The pole is most suited to commercial work due to its modular nature. One very serious commercial window cleaner who had a 60ft trial pole from us has since bought another four 60ft poles from us and has decided to get rid of his other 56ft-60ft poles as he now considers them, by comparison, to be unworkable with. He is also, with our development team, working at using them up to 80ft (rather him than me!). Tony, when you get back from your weekend away, you might want to comment.
One aspect that all experienced testers have commented on is the incredible rigidity of these poles. Due to the construction, they not only are very light but also very stiff. At 45ft and above this becomes increasingly important.
One person who has been testng it at 60ft found difficulties in working at height with it but he was using it on his own and had not carried out 60ft work before. Any work over 45ft should always be a 2 person job. The trouble is that this pole is so light that you physically can do things that actually still require a 2 person team for. However this chap has come up with some good ideas about hose fixing for this pole.
All have found the light weight to be almost unbelievable and once you have used it you simply will not put up with using anything heavier. This light weight does come with a premium in that the poles do need careful use. To achieve such weight the sections are more delicate than say an exel glass fibre section. Whilst the larger bottom sections are very tough the lighter top sections are not so sturdy. If using these on lower levels some damage has occurred when putting excess lateral pressure on these sections. These lower sections are not designed to take this strain. When in correct use this damage cannot occur. However, damage has been rare and with care this pole can be used at any height (even ground floor) as our testers have found.
The super-lite brush has received great praise from those testing it (I now use it on nearly all of my poles). Whilst it looks very boring it gets great results on the glass and is very very light. Coupled with the super-lite pole the bristles work well to clean the glass even with minimal pressure. The only complaint was that it didn't clean the glass well at 60ft on a 'builders clean', but I do not think that many would expect it to do this type of work very often!
Being modular in nature with an external hose, has taken getting used to, but most within a couple of weeks have found that it only takes a couple of minutes to have a45ft pole up and working and it will often save this in time on just one window. One tester found that a job that usually took 3 hours with his old 56ft pole took only 50 minutes with the super-lite.
Conclusion: for the right job it is unbeatable. There will be those that find its construction off-putting and it is not suited to smaller domestic work (Jeff Brimble might disagree!). Hence the need for smaller telescopic poles still.
Most of the testers have said that they will not go back to using 'ordinary' poles on their high work and I think that says it all.
We are hoping in the near future to have an open day for all of our products, including these poles, where you will be able to have an 'hands on' test of the product.
I hope that this has been of use to you.
Alex Gardiner
