Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: JackieW on February 25, 2013, 06:24:44 pm
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I have an analogue controller (Liquid Logic from Gardiner's) set at '4'.
I split between either an Aquadapter
or pinching/kinking the hose and using a flow valve attached to brush end of hose.
I use fan jets, which I think seem to use more water than pencil jets.
I get through about 20 litres per house, so I'm running out by about 3pm.
Is 20 litres per house too much?
Added later http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37623184.html?premiumA=true
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How much water do you carry?
How much water does it take to earn £100?
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Depends how big the houses are surely?
How big is your tank?
Bit more info needed mate please :)
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i have done 20 today,all except one which is a big farm house,have been 3
bed semis,fan jets on at 50 psi,hot system and i used about 250 lts
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http://images3.propertywide.co.uk/properties/1157/1794709/7932121/18933042/1.jpg
http://images3.propertywide.co.uk/properties/1265/2188627/8366938/19786061/1.jpg
Sorry for small pics but houses like these.
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how big is ur water tank tho
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On a good day I could use 450 - 500 litres and so could each of the lads.
I would say on average that we each use about 300 - 350 litres using a flow controller and Aquadapters.
If your tank is smaller than that then this is probably why you are running out. I would have thought that 20 litres per average 3 bed semi is about right. Son usually uses his back pack of 18 litres on a house back and front, although sometimes it may be a couple of litres less.
I've never understood why 250l Brodex tanks are so popular.
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Tank size doesn't really come into it though, in my opinion, it's just whether 20 litres is too much on those type/size detached houses.
400 litres, 20 houses.
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Tank size doesn't really come into it though, in my opinion, it's just whether 20 litres is too much on those type/size detached houses.
400 litres, 20 houses.
Of corse it does as no one knows what "those type/size " really means as there is no picture and little description in the original post.
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how does tank size not come into it?? you may have a 1000 litre tank in the back or a 200 litre tank in back of van.
20 liters doesn't really mean anything one house may need 20 liters another house may need more scrubbing ore be awkward and end up using 30 litres.
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I prefer a good rate and yours seems on a par if not higher slightly than mine.
It's down to personal prefference. If you slow it down are you working at a rate that pleases you?
Have you got capacity for more water?
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http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37623184.html?premiumA=true
Houses like this. Assume no conservatory.
I can do (just) about 20 of these at 20 litres each = 400 litre tank between 8:30 and 3:30.
If I had a 100 litre tank I'd manage 5 houses.
If I had a 650 litre tank I'd manage 32 houses.
In any of the above tank size situations it's the 20 litres per house, even with an Aquadapter, that I'm asking about.
Am I using too much water?
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No
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no
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http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37623184.html?premiumA=true
Houses like this. Assume no conservatory.
I can do (just) about 20 of these at 20 litres each = 400 litre tank between 8:30 and 3:30.
If I had a 100 litre tank I'd manage 5 houses.
If I had a 650 litre tank I'd manage 32 houses.
In any of the above tank size situations it's the 20 litres per house, even with an Aquadapter, that I'm asking about.
Am I using too much water?
I would be most surprised if I only used 20 litres on a house like this.
However, if your name was Jeff Brimble, then 20 litres would be far too much.
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http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37623184.html?premiumA=true
Houses like this. Assume no conservatory.
I can do (just) about 20 of these at 20 litres each = 400 litre tank between 8:30 and 3:30.
If I had a 100 litre tank I'd manage 5 houses.
If I had a 650 litre tank I'd manage 32 houses.
In any of the above tank size situations it's the 20 litres per house, even with an Aquadapter, that I'm asking about.
Am I using too much water?
I would be most surprised if I only used 20 litres on a house like this.
However, if your name was Jeff Brimble, then 20 litres would be far too much.
you are right, you must use more than 20 litres on a house like this!
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20l seems alot. I normally do 15 - 20 houses a day on 150l - 200l
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Yesterday I did 12 houses with a large bay window upstairs and down (which takes a lot of water), each had around another 6 or 7 windows.
1 terrace.
1 pub with about 18 big windows
I used just short of 300 litres which averages out at 21 litres per property.
What you use seems about right.
I don't use a controller though.
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It takes what it takes to clean a house some will need more some will need less.
One month you will clean a house and use 20lts the next month 15lts, because they were not as dirty didn't have bird poo on them.
Its your tank size that's the problem.
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Sometimes I go out and hardly use any water, other days I seem to use loads.
The OP could do a test run of a couple of houses and rinse less than he does now which will reduce his water useage. Let the windows dry and go back and inspect.
I over wash and rinse. My son in law spends half the time I do on each window and the results are fine - I've done random checks.
I think that if the OP is happy with the clean he does and so are his customers, I would carry on in the same routine. If you start loosing confidence in the quality of work you are doing then its all backwards from then on.
All of which goes back to the size of his tank. If he is running out mid afternoon then he needs to increase the size of his tank so it will last. The question was asked as to what size tank he has, but it hasn't been answered. In fact the OP seems to have got a little irritated with the question which I find confusing. He either has a 350 litre tank, a 400 litre tank etc.
Solving the problem isn't exactly rocket science. If he is running out of water in the mid afternoon, then the chances are that he wouldn't be motivated enough to go back to depot (home) and put some more water in and start working again, which is totally understandable.
If the OP needs a bigger tank but his van/car/trailer is too small, then he needs to invest in a bigger vehicle. Being able to do another 4 or 5 houses a day will more than cover those additional purchase costs.
If he can't justify those additional costs to grow his business - not enough customers etc. then he must be content to finish when the water runs out.
The other solution would be to go back to base at midday and refill the tank then. That way, he would be 'forced' to go back out.
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''Tank size doesn't really come into it though, in my opinion, it's just whether 20 litres is too much on those type/size detached houses.
400 litres, 20 houses.''
My tank is 400 litres. I can do about 20 houses as in the little pictures I added between 830 and 330.
If I want to do more, then yes, I either need a bigger tank, or I need to modify my method of washing and rinsing, hence the question of whether 20 litres per house on average is about correct or am I over doing the water usage.
I'm no expert by the way.
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It takes what it takes to clean a house some will need more some will need less.
One month you will clean a house and use 20lts the next month 15lts, because they were not as dirty didn't have bird poo on them.
Its your tank size that's the problem.
The answer in a nutshell ;)
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Quite possibly. And most probably the way I'll go. Much better to have plenty of water on board.
If however I was to post that I was using 100 litres to clean each house shown and therefore I was only managing 4 houses per day out of my 400 litre tank, then probably the advice wouldn't be to get a bigger 2000 litre tank to clean 20 houses. I'd assume someone would advice me that I was doing something else wrong.
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JackieW
I can understand why you are asking the question - we were in the same boat as you when we first started. I had a small trailer with 3 x 125 litre tanks on the back.
There were no flow controllers in those early days and we used 1/2" garden hose from the hose reel to the pole. We used Unger Ali poles with Vikan oval brushes fitted with 3mm jets.
I carried 100 litres of additional water in my Suzuki van and even with that it didn't last the day. Again like you 2.30 to 3.00pm I had used all my water. My problem was that I didn't have an IBC tank to process water into, so I had nothing for the rest of the day - I processed my next day requirements directly into my tailer tanks overnight. I found not having enough water very frustrating.
I noticed an immediate difference when I replaced the garden hose with minibore, and put a Varistream controller on the system when they first became available. The brushes were replaced with Vikans with 2mm jets. Now I got though the day with about 400 litres, but as I was working on a low flow rate, I spent too much time rinsing each window, so I wasn't achieving that much more a day. I again got it wrong - the pendulum had swung to far the other way.
Hence the reason why both the boys have 500 litre tanks in their vans today - so they have more than enough to get them to the end of the day.
There is one thing I have learnt in this business is that its more cost effective to slightly overwaste water than trying to be too economical with water useage. I would rather do 20 houses and run out of water than do 21 houses with a reduced water flow that took a couple of hours longer. That's a no-brainer.
I found that I wasted water with fan jets and prefer using pencils, but fanjet users who rinse on the glass prefer them. I don't rinse on the glass and have always used flocked brushes until recently.
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Quite possibly. And most probably the way I'll go. Much better to have plenty of water on board.
If however I was to post that I was using 100 litres to clean each house shown and therefore I was only managing 4 houses per day out of my 400 litre tank, then probably the advice wouldn't be to get a bigger 2000 litre tank to clean 20 houses. I'd assume someone would advice me that I was doing something else wrong.
;D ;D ;D
I'm glad you bought that up, because another thing also comes into this - pricing. If you were getting £50.00 a house then I would be more than happy to use 100 litres on each house and only do 4.
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i cleaned 28 jobs with 350L today with a few ground floor windows tradded.i use microbore,pole tap and a mega high flow rate.930am-4pm.
these were all maintenance cleans with very little scrubbing and rinsing needed.
i do use 400L some days.i never try and scrimp on water.as spruce says you can work faster with a high flow! ;D ;D
regards
dazmond