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Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« on: October 29, 2005, 11:01:09 am »
Just taken receipt of my lance and gutter tool attachment - looks a great piece of solid kit for the price.

All connected and ready to test  :P

Any tips on method ?  Justin Ruggles can you hear me ??  Mick Hay are you taking notes ??   :D

Kind regards,

Sarah
Sarah

Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2005, 08:19:11 pm »
lance and gutter tool atachment? how do you clean gutters from the floor ,platform,scaffolding or are you working from height ????????? :-X :-X :-X :-X if its from the floor how do you know youve cleaned them out properly and how do you get the debris out and past the downpie?

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2005, 08:30:27 pm »
Looks similar to a wfp pole with a hook shaped attachment on top.  You hook it over the gutter and blast away the contents with water fed from a pressure washer.

We have only tried it once on our own house but it worked a treat and goes up to a height of 7.3m

All this whilst your feet are firmly on the ground.  Took hubby 5 mins to set up and he did two second floor gutters in 10 mins !!!

I'm hearing the sound of money rolling my way  ;D ;D ;D

Will try to post some pics later but am being told the update file is full.

Sarah

Ps:  You can feel any obstructions with the hook end as your going along the gutter. Also the force of the water pressure seems to break down the clumps and they easly fall down the downpipe where you collect it all.  Iwatched this process on our first floor gutters from the bedroom window.

Of course you wont be able to move 2ft high bushes but wont take on any that difficult now seeing as we are able to fit in more per day now with the speed of this little monster.
Sarah

matt

Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2005, 08:36:31 pm »
Sarah

1 bit of advice

i used mine for a OAP home, did ground floor, first floor and second floor

this is my bit of advice, watch out for those Downpipe wire nest things, its easy to catch them and they get dragged out, i did it with 2 on the 2nd floor bit, took ages waggling the pole to move them back into place

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2005, 09:10:09 pm »
Thanks Matt,

Any tips/help humbly received.   ;D

Will tell hubby to watch for those when he does his first job with the lance on Tuesday.

Regards,

Sarah
Sarah

Chris Cottrell

  • Posts: 3162
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2005, 09:18:04 pm »
I'd have thought you would be dumping the crap onto the floor what with all the pressure an all,not down the down pipe
I mean there's no better way of knowing youve done the job than seeing it with your own eyes


Glen

  • Posts: 243
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2005, 09:27:45 pm »
Hello Sarah, what sort of power washer do you use for the gutter lance?

I have seen a gutter WFP made by Omnipole, I think - what is the advantage of a power washer?

Could you tell me what sort of vehicle you have to put all of your equipment in? Do you have any pictures?

Regards, Glen.

Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2005, 09:41:52 pm »
Hi Sarah

Sorry about the email problems, I have sent your reply to you now.

Can you forward me any pictures of your gutter system in use please?

Many Thanks

Andrew

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2005, 09:43:21 pm »
Hi Chris

You would think so would'nt you.  However as the hook is kept almost to the gutter floor and done at an angle towards the downpipe it just seems to flush it rather than blast it over the top.  Thats not saying some water doesn't come over the top - it happens when there is a big blockage but the debris seems to stay in (so far).

Glen,

We have an on-board Honda Industrial pressure washer which we can take out and wheel around larger properties attached to the lance (yet to be done but thats the theory).  

We also looked at the other brand but at almost 5 times the cost it was not an option for us at this moment in time.  They also do a gutter Vac which sucks up the debris and stores it in a sack ready to dispose of but at over twice the cost of their gutter/powerpole set up its gonna be along time saving for that one (even though its my wish list piece of kit).  No idea what the powerpole means - perhaps someone else can enlighten us.

We have an LDV convoy with a payload of 1850kg. Its a double rear axle LWB an easily carries all our kit and the bodies.

We do have a 1000ltr tank on board but its never more than half full as we are always no more than 10 minutes from home and a top-up.

Sorry cant load pics - tried earlier and the upload file was full.

Glen - it really is horses for courses when buying equipment but for us its a case of sourcing the best piece of kit for the money you can spend.  If the cheque book allowed we would have an Omnivac sat in the garage right now.  :P

Sarah


Sarah

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2005, 09:45:46 pm »
Hi Sarah

Sorry about the email problems, I have sent your reply to you now.

Can you forward me any pictures of your gutter system in use please?

Many Thanks

Andrew

Thanks Andrew - seems as if the first email address is faulty.

Will send you an email now - let me know if you dont get it as its a big file and seems to be taking ages to scan.

Regards,

Sarah
Sarah

Jake

  • Posts: 348
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2005, 04:22:19 pm »
Sarah

Our last job today was a gutter clean, most of the gutter was full with leaf mould, sludge and moss, some places 3" thick, with well established plants growing out of the hoppers! If we were to use a pressure washer, well, you could imagine the the mess! We would rather do them by 'hand' anyday.

                                  Jake..........Westclean
Exeter, Devon

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2005, 05:05:40 pm »
Jake,

You are right - attempting to do a gutter job on a case that bad with a lance would be just plain stupid.

As I 've said on previous posts - we will have to be selective on the jobs we do with the lance.  Firstly for the reason you stated and secondly any with fitted wire mesh traps at the top of the downpipe cannot be done at all.

Having said that we have just cleaned our whole house gutters and there was stacks of embedded moss and small bushes - it moved it all.  Ironically we checked using the ladders and will continue to do so until we are sure we have done it properly.

Have just lined up 3 jobs to do in the morning and even with inexperience, set up and travel will do them in about 2 hours (max). £150 which would have taken us double the time with ladders and the old tools.

With that sort of hourly rate we have calculated we dont need to do the real dirty jobs.

Sounds a bit like im lance bashing - I dont mean to.  Its just like when we first went wfp.  Nice not to have to worry about the hubby up a ladder in this kind of weather and all the sceptics knocking it before they have tried it. 

In the future I am sure you wont see many w/c cleaning guttering up a ladder - safety and speed will prevail.

I will let you all know how we get on and I will be honest about its performance - so its a case of 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

Thanks for your comments though Jake, 

Regards,

Sarah






Sarah

thewindowcleaner1

  • Posts: 779
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2005, 10:41:15 pm »
Any more info on the performance of your Power Lance Sarah?
 as Northern tools had a free delivery day I've just orderd one along with the gutter tool and nozzels plus a petrol power washer (not told the missus yet)plan to make it pay for its-self before she ask's?
I thought with all this wet and cold weather comming I should have a back up plan for those horrible wet days.
plus I could add shop signage and cladding to my services.

Alan
The secret is not doing as you like but liking what you do
www.thewindowcleaner.biz

Glen

  • Posts: 243
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2005, 11:07:45 pm »
I know i have alluded to this already but would it not be better to just get a gutter cleaning attachment for a WFP rather than a power washer and gutter cleaning lance?

gaza

  • Posts: 1642
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2005, 12:05:56 am »
had 1 along time your best of with a power washer with a vario psi
system so you can alter what psi your using.

 short of nothing ive got ;D

  gaza
IM AT THAT AGE MY BACK GOES OUT MORE THAN I DO

pjulk

Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2005, 01:24:46 am »
Quote
would it not be better to just get a gutter cleaning attachment for a WFP

I don't think there is one for a WFP.

Omnipole sell a gutter cleaning attachment and trigger to convert there poles but as i understand it you still need a pressure washer.

Would be good though if you could remove your brush head and slip a gutter attachment on would make some jobs a lot easier as you would not need to cart around extra equipment.

Paul

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #16 on: November 06, 2005, 09:38:24 am »
Hiya Guys,

Pauls correct - the Omni powerpole system is no doubt a good one, but soooooo expensive at almost 4 times the cost of the NT one.   In principle its the same thing.  A pole with a hook attached to a pressure washer. I was told you needed the pressure to break down the debris so would not work on a pump alone.

If you have a powerpole already then it is easy to buy the hook and use the same pole - saving costs and extra equipment.  I was told by Onmi that their gutter hook attachment did not fit any other brand of pole (I have a Brodex Fibreglass) so hence my NT purchase.

I suppose if you had the complete Omni set up in the van and a big enough tank you could do it wfp but the quality of water makes no difference to the clening job so most connect to the outside tap because of the pure water costs.

Alan,

The initial 4 cleans have been good, thanks.  Hubby is getting better with his technique which we did completely wrong when testing it on our house.  he got soaked and so did the surrounding area !!!!!

Its quick to set up (minites) and so much quicker to do the job itself, although we have yet to do a really bad, mucky  job.  Just quoted for  472ft Nursing Home job with bushes and hills growing in it and cannot attempt to send this through the downipe so if we get the job will have to take the end caps off anb blast over the sides and clean up after.  Would normally have taken a day but think we can do it in half.

Chapter 2 (sorry its like a novel).

had some great tips on w/c sites and one was by either Matt or Gaza, who mentioned these wire mesh covers at the top of te downpipe.  You can check their prescence by using the tip of the hook and either take them out or leave the job.  The second is to keep the nozzle on the gutter bed and angle it at 40 deg.  this ensures you feel the debris, it breaks it down and the water is mainly kept in the gutter and not all over you  :P

For £100 its a great piece of kit and seems to do the job well, although ironically we are still checking after by ladders until we are confident in our technique.

Only time will tell but a dam good investment I'd say.  If you need any help setting up or whenyou first try it email me.

Kind regards,

Sarah




Sarah

carl foster

  • Posts: 1
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #17 on: November 06, 2005, 06:13:36 pm »
hi could you send the pics of the guter cleaning  thing to me please sounds great thanks carl ;D

Sarah Sarill

  • Posts: 1537
Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #18 on: November 06, 2005, 06:25:57 pm »
Hi Carl,

Just sent some by email as you can only post one at a time here and they come out REALLY big.  :P

Let me know if you have trouble receiving them.

Regards,

Sarah
Sarah

H h20

Re: Northern Tools gutter lance - its arrived !!
« Reply #19 on: November 06, 2005, 06:35:22 pm »
Hi Carl,

Just sent some by email as you can only post one at a time here and they come out REALLY big.  :P

Let me know if you have trouble receiving them.

Regards,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,can i be cheeky and ask you to send me some pics?,please ,Gaz.