All fibre
Glass Fibre (GF)and Carbon Fibre (CF) poles are made by a single manufacturer called
Exel in Finland. The only difference between them is the head assembly, which pole suppliers put on. Most suppliers add an "off the shelf" brush like a Vikan, some manufacture their own.
Exel Website
A Carbon Fibre pole is not usually lighter than fibre glass, but it is much more rigid. This becomes important when using a pole longer than about 30ft. (And conversely, getting a carbon fibre pole shorter than this might be a waste of money. Glass fibre will usually serve perfectly well)
In addition to the standard pole sizes available, one manufacturer, Ionic Systems, commissioned the manufacture of a pole which only they sell, the
Ergolite. This is about 30% lighter than the equivalent sized CF pole, and has thinner profiles, therefore making it easier to grip. It is expensive, and not really necessary for lengths shorter than 35ft. The 45ft Ergolite is particularly useful, the thinner profiles allowing much better control at that height, and still in 6ft sections so is easy to extend.
Aluminium poles are somewhat different to both Fibre Glass and Carbon Fibre Poles. They are generally lighter than their equivalent sized GF and CF counterparts, and usually have thinner profiles. The two main suppliers of Aluminium poles in the UK are Tucker Pole Systems UK (the UK distributor of Tucker Poles, an american company) who import their poles from the Tucker Factory in the USA, and Omnipole UK who are a UK distibutor of
Coress, manufacturers of the 'Powerwand'.
Omnipole, Stream Supplies and Outreach (as well as supplying CF and GF poles) also sell an aluminium pole manufactured in the USA by a company called Coress. The "Powerwand" is a modular pole, allowing sections to be added or taken away as necessary, and has a good selection of attatchments available:
www.coress.comThe "Powerwand" (or Powerpole as it is referred to by Omnipole) is available in both low pressure (as used for window cleaning) and high pressure versions (more suited to pressure washing).
One of the main differences between Composite poles (CF and GF) and aluminium poles is the clamping mechanism. Composite poles usually have "quick release clamps" which consist of a small lever which is simply flicked up to loosen and allow the pole to be extended or retracted. In the picture below, you can see the clamps on the Universal pole (in the middle) is the one most commonly supplied for window cleaning.
The clamps on the
Tucker pole have to be tightend and loosened by means of a small tool (the "Tucker Tool") and work by bending the metal of the larger profile tightly against the smaller one. This type of clamp was criticized in the HSL report on the use of water-fed poles as inconvenient and often meant that the poles were used at the wrong angle (which could cause muscle strain) because the clamps were fiddly to adjust(especially in cold weather) and the "tucker tool" was easy to loose.
The Tucker Clamp. A tool is needed to tighten and loosen the worm gearThe Powerwand (or 'Powerpole') has screw clamps that are twisted together to toghten/loosen them.
Another important difference between Aluminium poles and composites is their
rigidity. Now, don't be fooled here, the more rigid a pole is the easier it is to use. Aluminium poles are more flexible than CF and GF poles. I have seen aluminium poles advertised as "with unique flex action", what a joke. "Flex action" is exactly what you
don't want when using a pole. For this reason, aluminium poles become less practical than composites for longer poles.
Stream supplies have also recently started to supply their own pole, which is very similar to the Tucker pole, but with a different clamping mechanism.
Here are a few suppliers of both Fibre Glass and CF poles are as follows (in order of company size)
Ionic Systems
www.ionicsystems.comOmnipole
www.omnipole.comTucker
www.tuckerpolesystemsuk.co.ukPure2o
www.pure2o.co.ukBrodex
www.brodexbms.co.ukStream
www.streampole.co.ukAquatec
www.window-tools.com