Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: [GQC] Tim on March 26, 2012, 07:38:10 pm
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After about 4 years of using wfp I thought I'd give fan jets a try, I've had them in my little box for over a year now.
After doing a few windows, I decided I'd just water the plants with them. They are utterly hopeless. Let me explain.
My main issue is that there is almost no flow whatsoever. There is lots of noise (talk about jet wash) but very little water actually coming down the glass. So it takes ages to rinse/clean a window. If you are in the business of money making, and want to be finished with work before the sun goes down, avoid fan jets. It's just so slow. It's absolutely useless compared to pencil jets. It's even worse if you lift the brush off.
If you do dare to lift the brush even a centimeter everything gets covered in droplets. Which turn into big drops which hang off the top of the frame etc etc. You can't selectively rinse a part of the frame or glass just to get some bits down, or with precision blast some stuff out of a crevice, like you do with pencil jets.
Maybe if you use a super slow flow rate with pencil jets there is some comparison, but if you are serious about increasing speed, your flow rate is way up there anyway.
I think you get the point.
Just in case anyone is interested I used the Lurmark ones, 40 degree.
(http://www.gardinerpolesystems.co.uk/acatalog/Fanjets_blue.jpg)
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Fan jets are the Devil's work.
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Hi Tim,
I found the same thing, but the guys who rinse on the glass are the ones who praise them. Turning the flow rate up makes things worse. I don't rinse on the glass and I prefer pencils every time.
Spruce
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Hi Tim,
I found the same thing, but the guys who rinse on the glass are the ones who praise them. Turning the flow rate up makes things worse. I don't rinse on the glass and I prefer pencils every time.
Spruce
Interesting to read your comments.
Personally I always rinse on the glass, except on some downstairs windows where it's faster to rinse off.
I've tried them with lower flow rate as well, albeit not on the actual brush, but seems similar to how much water (or lack thereof) comes down the glass.
Ps. I did rip a whole load of bristle tufts out as well, no interruption of spray, so can't be that.
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send them to me
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what brush were you using.
i'd never ever use pencils - far to slow and no water coverage compared to fans - and i dont get anything other than the window on or off the glass
Darran
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are you joking :o :o :o
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I have to agree with you Tim, you hear people raving about them but as you say they give a very poor flow rate to rince with, although they may give good coverage the lack of flow down the glass slows you down.
Simon.
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Personally I completely agree with your findings. My own preference is to use pencil jets as they give a good quantity of water which allows you to achieve a 'curtain of water' this is what I use to rinse the glass whether on or off the glass.
However a lot of window cleaners really like Fanjets, so it just shows that it takes all sorts. :)
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I use one fan jet, is messy but once you get used to it find it much quicker than pencils and two fans, been using it this way last three years :D
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surely the whole idea is to cover everything in water,frames,glass,sill etc give a massive rinse-job done
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good for gutter cleans though.
I used them for a while - very fast, you can clean two windows at the same time with the amount of overspray they give ;D
Ok if the brush has enough bristles to trap the spray.
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I must say the new gardiner White fans have a very high flow rate on sheeting down the glass giving you very fast rinsing it must be down to the oval port hole.. I love fans and only use fans now but will only use the whites... All the other ones with a square port spray like a mist taking longer
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ive never tried them but i know one thing.in warm weather i rinse more with my pencil jets to get the crud off the glass esp round the bottom of windows.also i sometimes avoid the top frame if its old wood/oxidised etc and when i cant shut a window with my brush.this would be very difficult to do with fan jets wouldnt it? ??? ??? ???
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I must say the new gardiner White fans have a very high flow rate on sheeting down the glass giving you very fast rinsing it must be down to the oval port hole.. I love fans and only use fans now but will only use the whites... All the other ones with a square port spray like a mist taking longer
The white fans are more like a hybrid between a fine fanjet and a pencil jet. They have proved to be far more popular than any previous examples we have sold. Personally I still prefer pencils though!
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are you joking :o :o :o
who ? me ?
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people say fan jets save water but i have found i have to have the pump turned up more to get a decent arc out of them, so imo they dont save water at all. i just use them for fascias, cladding, conservatory roofs etc.
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I must say the new gardiner White fans have a very high flow rate on sheeting down the glass giving you very fast rinsing it must be down to the oval port hole.. I love fans and only use fans now but will only use the whites... All the other ones with a square port spray like a mist taking longer
The white fans are more like a hybrid between a fine fanjet and a pencil jet. They have proved to be far more popular than any previous examples we have sold. Personally I still prefer pencils though!
Interesting, I was going to mention that in this topic as the (fan jet) video shows a completely different story to regular fan jets. Should have picked them up when I was at the office. ;)
Maybe I would feel different about them.
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After about 4 years of using wfp I thought I'd give fan jets a try, I've had them in my little box for over a year now.
After doing a few windows, I decided I'd just water the plants with them. They are utterly hopeless. Let me explain.
My main issue is that there is almost no flow whatsoever. There is lots of noise (talk about jet wash) but very little water actually coming down the glass. So it takes ages to rinse/clean a window. If you are in the business of money making, and want to be finished with work before the sun goes down, avoid fan jets. It's just so slow. It's absolutely useless compared to pencil jets. It's even worse if you lift the brush off.
If you do dare to lift the brush even a centimeter everything gets covered in droplets. Which turn into big drops which hang off the top of the frame etc etc. You can't selectively rinse a part of the frame or glass just to get some bits down, or with precision blast some stuff out of a crevice, like you do with pencil jets.
Maybe if you use a super slow flow rate with pencil jets there is some comparison, but if you are serious about increasing speed, your flow rate is way up there anyway.
I think you get the point.
Just in case anyone is interested I used the Lurmark ones, 40 degree.
(http://www.gardinerpolesystems.co.uk/acatalog/Fanjets_blue.jpg)
You're not a fan, then?
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i'd never ever use pencils - far to slow and no water coverage compared to fans - and i dont get anything other than the window on or off the glass
What he said.
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Is it April fools day allready?
Fans take a while to get used to, took me a month before i was sure i wanted to convert over.
Fans are much quicker, cover more area of glass when rinsing.
I actually prefer to rinse off glass, and lift the brush a good few inches off, as this will get you much wider coverage,so infact its quicker.
Just be a lil carefull on the top of the window, but there again even with pencils you have to be carefull here.
Myself, i hate pencils with vengence,and would never go back, each to their own though i suppose
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Hi Tim,
I found the same thing, but the guys who rinse on the glass are the ones who praise them. Turning the flow rate up makes things worse. I don't rinse on the glass and I prefer pencils every time.
Spruce
me too :)
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comes down to each to thier own, I have tried fans quite a few time I find them sloppy and slow compared to pencil jets although they sound nice :)
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I've always found the blue Lurmark fan jets to be very good. :D
You do have to use a much stricter cleaning technique to make sure you don't get overspray going everywhere.
If the spray is contained within the bristles of the brush and you strictly control the flow of water you will see the benefits.
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I've always found the blue Lurmark fan jets to be very good. :D
You do have to use a much stricter cleaning technique to make sure you don't get overspray going everywhere.
If the spray is contained within the bristles of the brush and you strictly control the flow of water you will see the benefits.
are you saying effort brings it's own rewards ?
Darran
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Well others have said they find them slow and sloppy?
In most cases I find I clean quicker with them. 8)
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Fanjets are much slower :)
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Ive just got a new sill brush from alex with the white fan jets .im still undecided as to which i prefer.
In my opinion i would clean all 1st cleans with pencil jets get the windows spotless and then use fans after for each clean.
Ive found if windows are really dirty its hard to wash debris of windows like balls of spider webb etc.
Still undecided which i prefer though.
Also the white jets if the pressure is turned down enough i find they act like pencils anyway.
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Problem is, even if I took a year to get used to them, the matter of the fact is, that there is far less water coming down the glass. It's very obvious.
I've found the key to being very fast on the glass is a high flow rate (and hot, but that's another story), with plenty of water flowing through the brush and sheeting down. It's not happening with fan jets, at all.
I'm sure the white fan jets from Gardiners act differently, but still it wouldn't make me go with them for regular work. I think it says a lot that Alex sticks to pencil jets as well!
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Problem is, even if I took a year to get used to them, the matter of the fact is, that there is far less water coming down the glass. It's very obvious.
I've found the key to being very fast on the glass is a high flow rate (and hot, but that's another story), with plenty of water flowing through the brush and sheeting down. It's not happening with fan jets, at all.
I'm sure the white fan jets from Gardiners act differently, but still it wouldn't make me go with them for regular work. I think it says a lot that Alex sticks to pencil jets as well!
Funnily enough I checked this a while ago with some fanjets. The first thing I did was to connect them (at the same pump setting) and compare water flow over a minute with a set of pencils. Identical.
Have you tried measuring rather than perceiving?
Vin
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using fan jets worry me because i found they leave spots on the glass . is it best to rinse with the brush still on the glass ???
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Is it April fools day allready?
Fans take a while to get used to, took me a month before i was sure i wanted to convert over.
Fans are much quicker, cover more area of glass when rinsing.
I actually prefer to rinse off glass, and lift the brush a good few inches off, as this will get you much wider coverage,so infact its quicker.
Just be a lil carefull on the top of the window, but there again even with pencils you have to be carefull here.
Myself, i hate pencils with vengence,and would never go back, each to their own though i suppose
well done trippy i could not agree more spot on
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Stand up, put your feet together, get someone to measure the distance between both feet.
Then do the splits, again get someone to measure the distance between both feet.
Now apply this logic to pencil and fan jets
You aint gotta be a rocket scientist to work out how much more water coverage the fans will give you compared to pencils.
Someone said fans dont use the same amount of water as pencils, well today i had to turn the pump down! too much water coming out of those fans, even for me who works at a rapid rate.
There is no difference in the water output between the two jets.
Fans distribute the water much more evenly
Pencils just chuck it out in one spot, wasting water and time in my opinion
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Problem is, even if I took a year to get used to them, the matter of the fact is, that there is far less water coming down the glass. It's very obvious.
I've found the key to being very fast on the glass is a high flow rate (and hot, but that's another story), with plenty of water flowing through the brush and sheeting down. It's not happening with fan jets, at all.
I'm sure the white fan jets from Gardiners act differently, but still it wouldn't make me go with them for regular work. I think it says a lot that Alex sticks to pencil jets as well!
Funnily enough I checked this a while ago with some fanjets. The first thing I did was to connect them (at the same pump setting) and compare water flow over a minute with a set of pencils. Identical.
Have you tried measuring rather than perceiving?
Vin
Interesting. Problem is all that water just goes all over the place, giving no curtain of water whatsoever. That's what makes me go fast, and I'm not talking about normal fast, I'm talking about faster then fast. With fan jets you are just waiting till the water comes down, not so with pencil jets.
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not often I agree with trippy ;D
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A stream of water runs faster than a mist vertically with the weight of the water and gravity:)
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A stream of water runs faster than a mist vertically with the weight of the water and gravity:)
Something along those lines indeed. Anyway, this wasn't so much of a fan-jet vs pencil jet debate, as in my opinion there was never any question of a fan jet being better now that I've tried it.
Topic has served it's purpose I feel, closing it otherwise it will keep getting resurrected.