[the bfg]

whether its called the mumpasa effect or not, it dont freeze on the glass so the jobs a gooden 

[mikecam]

thing is tho even if i have 3 vans with 3 of these hot systems in them and i can work for a whole month where you cant and each van does a minimum of £1000 a week thats £12000 coming in, say £1000 for loan, £2500 wages, £4800 for tax and vat, £1500 business costs, im still takin over £2grand home which is £2grand more than you and your cold system!!!!!!!! so yes i see it as a big risk but isnt not working a risk as well, i want to provide window cleaning all year round for my customers also we are now marketing a lot of work for the winter so that we have days where we can work doing other adhoc stuff so were prepared for the winter

Maths not your strong point Richy?!!!

[mikecam]

the year before last i had a lwb transit rwd, every day it snowed i couldnt work simply due to the fact i couldnt drive anywhere, last december (just before the bad weather arrived) i bought a swb transit and luckily it had traction control. ive also got a L5 and a fogwash, i never lost one single day to the weather as my van got through it all and my hot water (dont forget two of the cheapest sytsmes on the market) systems coped with it. ok there is a knack to the way you work as in getting the water flowing before putting the hose on the floor so the warm water is moving and will therefore not freeze, i also had a few bags of grit as well as notes to put through customers doors to explain that i had cleaned and gritted after me as well as keeping water to a minimum around walkways. i had the odd issue with water freezing but each time this happened i called the custie up that night and asked how the glass looked and they said it cleared ok with no spots.

The problem with ionics is that people will not pay the money for them, how many of you on here though would have a system if money was no object? i bet a lot of you would be knocking at their door. ive seen there systems and ive heard people who have them speak very highly of them, yes there expensive to buy and maintain but so is every top of the range system. as ive said ive got a diy ish hot water system but yes if i had the money i would get a ionics one, but to be totally honest i still think i would struggle buying one over a pure freedom set up as i feel if that had issues i would be able to fix it very quickly whereas the ionics one may be a bit more specialist and therefore you may lose some days whilst waiting for a fix

Ionics have mobile "systems" engineers charging from as little as £95 for a call out    Losing days shouldn;t be a problem.

[mikecam]

whats a system , i want lone

Its a snazzy name for a water tank, RO membrane, pumps,controllers and usually a DI cannister!!!!

[barry mallett]

oh ive already got one then , thought i was missing out .

[G Griffin]

The Mpemba effect says that warmer water CAN SOMETIMES freeze quicker than colder.
Surprisingly, it wasn`t a water fed pole based theory, so it`s not always relevant to this argument. 

[ladders no more]

Iv been saveing up for a pf system this winter seen it work. seems top quality.  it has 2 heat exchangers ionics has one so two men can work. i was told you can reserculate back into the tank. preheat the hose reels as well. frost pump protection. and a quarter  of the size of ionics. with more components . with a digital controler temp readings for pump 1 and 2  batt voltage, and van temp. a lot of kit. all webasto parts.

[Nameless Drudge]

Do not get this loan if its secured on anything at all or guaranteed by any living person. You are a train crash waiting to happen.Who is the person that shares all these great forecasts,can he/she clean windows? I`d be wary you are just being told what you want to here especially so if they are drawing a wage from you.What would you do if 2 vans crashed in the winter and the employees were hurt and couldn`t work?
Anyway,hot water is about treating yourself and probably not a justified cost for employees.

[AuRavelling79]

Get the work then get the van/man. Don't get the van/man before you've got the work.

I worked through last winter by being prepared:

My RO and van tank is insulated - my storage tank is insulated. I warm my water before the start of the day with pond heaters floating in the filler holes and oil filled radiators underneath the storage tank inside the insulation.

Cost?

Insulation less than £50
Oil filled rads x 2 from Argos at £30 each = £60
Pond/Aquarium  heaters at 150w x 2 at £12 each off of ebay = £24

One 25kg bag of salt/grit
One 25kg bag of sand to mix with the above

One yard broom

All ready for winter at less than £200.

[neil kellett]

Do not get this loan if its secured on anything at all or guaranteed by any living person. You are a train crash waiting to happen.Who is the person that shares all these great forecasts,can he/she clean windows? I`d be wary you are just being told what you want to here especially so if they are drawing a wage from you.What would you do if 2 vans crashed in the winter and the employees were hurt and couldn`t work?
Anyway,hot water is about treating yourself and probably not a justified cost for employees.

Yeah, very true. He wanted to get into CC ing last week. Now its three Thermopures? I have an Ionics Thermopure, got it 5 years ago.  Things were going slack 2 weeks ago. I was thinking of heading over to the U.k So I contacted himself and offered my CC know how, equipment ( Alltec and the works) and van and was willing to put it at his disposal. I,m glad he did'nt respond to me now, he's away with the fairys, complete loo-la.

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

Do not get this loan if its secured on anything at all or guaranteed by any living person. You are a train crash waiting to happen.Who is the person that shares all these great forecasts,can he/she clean windows? I`d be wary you are just being told what you want to here especially so if they are drawing a wage from you.What would you do if 2 vans crashed in the winter and the employees were hurt and couldn`t work?
Anyway,hot water is about treating yourself and probably not a justified cost for employees.

is it me or is every one aving a go a my m8
the wilts is mad as a hatter yet he as a huge window
cleaning business is rapidly expanding
granted he does buy thing at the drop of an hat ie gutter vacs
n was talking ov carpet cleaning but he's a gud lad an
will achievive his goals very soon 
Yeah, very true. He wanted to get into CC ing last week. Now its three Thermopures? I have an Ionics Thermopure, got it 5 years ago.  Things were going slack 2 weeks ago. I was thinking of heading over to the U.k So I contacted himself and offered my CC know how, equipment ( Alltec and the works) and van and was willing to put it at his disposal. I,m glad he did'nt respond to me now, he's away with the fairys, complete loo-la.

[combat1]

Whenever the snow is about I revert to the Ettore Reach pole with a backflip and  drums of warm water from the bath tap.
Make the same amount of money, no drips to freeze, but then your work is probably high rise Richy. I hardly lose any days.
But having said that I'd love a Thermopure system!
All the best to you mate.

[richywilts]

Do not get this loan if its secured on anything at all or guaranteed by any living person. You are a train crash waiting to happen.Who is the person that shares all these great forecasts,can he/she clean windows? I`d be wary you are just being told what you want to here especially so if they are drawing a wage from you.What would you do if 2 vans crashed in the winter and the employees were hurt and couldn`t work?
Anyway,hot water is about treating yourself and probably not a justified cost for employees.

Yeah, very true. He wanted to get into CC ing last week. Now its three Thermopures? I have an Ionics Thermopure, got it 5 years ago.  Things were going slack 2 weeks ago. I was thinking of heading over to the U.k So I contacted himself and offered my CC know how, equipment ( Alltec and the works) and van and was willing to put it at his disposal. I,m glad he did'nt respond to me now, he's away with the fairys, complete loo-la.

things may be slack for you pal but im hectic with window cleaning and i want to protect my round best i can and hopefully by investing in either thermopure systems or pure freedom whichever one we decide, i can continue to clean in the cold weather etc ok fair enough if the roads are that bad then granted we may not be able to work, but i dont understand why everyone is so negative when it comes to investing in your business so what if you all have one man bands etc i dont and i have employees to pay etc through the legal channels not cash in hand where i can jib them off at first sign of bad weather.

i have over 700 customers now which is rapidlly growing so if i want to offer them a 12 monthly service then so be it.

i was looking into carpet cleaning etc because i have such a large round now but for now im going to focus on the window cleaning and build that so its working efficiently then when we have funds available may be look into the carpet cleaning

[neil kellett]

I'm not slack, I'm out the door coz theres a heat wave on. But working for the domestic sector i know as does everyone that custard is only going to be loyal when it suits themselves. Thats during the summer when the sun shows up every thing. No one is getting there windows cleaned in October or January in the current climate. We'd all like to offer it but you could end up with 3 new rigs and shiny new hot water systems gathering dust with the bank manager breathing down your throat in the new year. The height of the summer is no barometer on how the whole year will go. Chrismas will be the next rush so don't over expose yourself. I'm moving in the CCing now and I over the WCing free to sweeten the pot. But its the gutters belive it or not where there is a major gap.

[ronnie paton]

neil are you saying no one wants there window cleaned between oct to jan?

[ronnie paton]

richy concentrating on the window cleaning makes good sense, im sure you are doing but only get what you need vehicle wise, has if it grows more and you need another vehicle it wont be a problem borrowing the money.

you do not want a van sat there doing nothing

[neil kellett]

neil are you saying no one wants there window cleaned between oct to jan?

No ofcourse not, however Richy stated last month that he had 600 regulars. Now its 700. Hes not gonna grow like that from october into Nov. Its swings and round abouts and might get in way over his head. He seems to talk about business like he read it out of a book. Imagine having vans repo'd with Those systems in them???!!! I started in the dom sector in March this year and have had a few down few days since then. I did'nt start in Jan, Feb why? Who the hell gets their glass cleaned then? I'm expecting to get the "Not this month" brigaders in Oct with them all coming crawing back before the Crimbo. That why I'm marketing the CCing now and into the next few months to take up the slack. I'm a lone wolf operator. Richy thinks he's Mitie.

[Nick Wareham]

There are some on this site who just cannot get their head around the concept of a window cleaning business big and successful enough to need 3 vans with top notch kit in them on the road.

Some window cleaning businesses are HUGE, I know of a guy who has 11 (yes, eleven) window cleaning vans, all with ionics systems in them, doing mainly domestics.  He is doing very well, and this is something that has inspired me to move ahead confidently.

[neil kellett]

There are some on this site who just cannot get their head around the concept of a window cleaning business big and successful enough to need 3 vans with top notch kit in them on the road.

Some window cleaning businesses are HUGE, I know of a guy who has 11 (yes, eleven) window cleaning vans, all with ionics systems in them, doing mainly domestics.  He is doing very well, and this is something that has inspired me to move ahead confidently.

Yeah? well perhaps if you'd read all of the previous posts you'd see that Richy's empire consists of 600 custard. One van doing between 15 - 20 gaffs a day thats 100 custard per week per van. So do the maths pal or get your buddy with the eleven vans to give you a hand crunching the figures.

[mikecam]

I think there is a lot of jealousy here. These Ionics thermosystems will easily earn their keep. I've had a word with my finance guy (me) and he reckons that when our doorknockers (me again) have generated more work than we (me again) can cope with then we are going to have to expand and get more vans and staff. I've had a word with our HR dept (me again) and we're all ready to go as soon as the extra work comes in. To much negativity here sometimes. I've done all the sums, and even if the loan is a grand, you'll easily take that in December if it freezes. Can't go wrong?