[H S and Son]

I've had the good fortune over the last few days to be able to try out one of Gardiners new brushes, I dont think they're on the market just yet, hopefully will be soon.

It's called the ‘Medium-Mixed Xtreme brush’ .

Extreme it certainly is, in weight and bristle density. This brush has been on a serious low-fat diet. On first inspection there doesn't seem to be anything to it. When it first arrived I got it out of it's box and looked at it and thought, 'Well, that aint going to do anything, its just not 'man enough', there's nothing to it'.

Saying that, given a bit of time it slowly convinced me, despite all my reservations. Notably, I had a couple of leaded windowed properties to clean and thought that it made the job particularly easy, seeming to iron out any undulations normally associated with these kinds of jobs. After my first day with it, as previously mentioned above I still couldn't help going back in my mind thinking it just wasn't 'enough' or rather 'man enough'; but I have been really rather pleasantly satisfied with its performance as a whole. I would be hesitant on first cleans I have to say, and particularly soiled jobs too; I wouldnt want to use it with a hot water system, Im sure the bristles would splay too much in that case. But as an everyday maintenance clean brush I think it ticks all the boxes. It is super-light weight, you seriously are unaware of it being on the end of the pole in that regard, gets in to all the corners nicely, is fantastic for rinsing on the glass.









I havent used it on Georgian yet, but see it doing particularly well there bearing in mind what Ive learnt about it.

I would personally like to see a slightly stiffer bristled version come out. This would have to be done at the expense of certain qualities but I do prefer a stiffer bristled brush myself.

All in all a surprisingly pleasant expereince, I had to give a couple of days to be convinced, but convinced I am.

It seems Gardiners other range of brushes are now bricks on poles by comparison to this latest offering. But if this is the future of WFP brushes I'll quite happily come along for the ride.


Matt

[Dave Willis]

I have a couple on order and managed to try one out. Very similar in feel to start with to the soft black version, then you add a bit more pressure and the outer bristles splay bringing the shorter black ones into contact with the glass. I like it a lot but then I really liked the black soft mono. I use a flocked dual trim superlight on conservatory roofs and that now feels like a tarmackers in comparison.

http://www.gardinerpolesystems.co.uk/acatalog/info-BRUSH-SL-XTREME-MMIX.html

I often wonder how a much stiffer central couple of rows would work for scrubbing bid poo off - probably bounce too much. I was thinking sort of nail brush stiffness.

[Lee GLS]

Matt, what has been changed for it to be 20g lighter than the other extreme brushes?

[H S and Son]

In detail Lee I dont, but I'd say the stock has been trimmed down, and a good proportion of the bristles have been removed.

[Lee GLS]

In detail Lee I dont, but I'd say the stock has been trimmed down, and a good proportion of the bristles have been removed.

Ok. Cheers matt

[Dave Willis]

Well the bristles have lost a cm or two in length in the middle so that would shave a bit off.

[Tomboler]

i used to know a girl with a wax job like that top pic - now that was extreme

[[GQC] Tim]

Alex, what's the difference between this brush and the standard? Inner trim is shorter, but any reason why the brush is rated at 60 degree? Is that because the inner trim is made from soft bristles? Is the outer trim shortened?

[Lee GLS]

Matt. What brush have you been using before this one?

[davids3511]

I'm sick of the white brushed, have just gone back to my old dual trim flocked. I'll never but a white one again. I was using a white extreme, its fantastic for about a week then the bristles start coming out from the outside (either side of the brush) rows. Almost every house I do has at least one white bristle proudly sticking out of the frames somewhere on the house. Some have loads more.

I didn't have a bad brush, i've had 3 and they all did the same. Alex needs to sort that out as it is a right pain.

[[GQC] Tim]

Don't have any problems with the white Xtreme, might lose a single bristle when it gets stuck between something, but that's hardly the brush its fault. Barely ever happens.

[davids3511]

Don't have any problems with the white Xtreme, might lose a single bristle when it gets stuck between something, but that's hardly the brush its fault. Barely ever happens.

Well, it happens with all brushes but not nearly as frequently. I would say for every black bristle stuck there are 10 white ones. I will take a few pics over the next few days and post them up. I know I am heavy handed but I can't see how it could be user error so its nothing other then the brushes fault.

Also, I'm not the only one to notcie, others have posted in the same vein on here.

[Alex Gardiner]

Don't have any problems with the white Xtreme, might lose a single bristle when it gets stuck between something, but that's hardly the brush its fault. Barely ever happens.

Well, it happens with all brushes but not nearly as frequently. I would say for every black bristle stuck there are 10 white ones. I will take a few pics over the next few days and post them up. I know I am heavy handed but I can't see how it could be user error so its nothing other then the brushes fault.

Also, I'm not the only one to notcie, others have posted in the same vein on here.

Hi David

I've just seen your post.  The reason is probably to do with the thickness of the white bristles on the standard dual trim brush.  Both the flocked and the dual trim brush are fixed in exactly the same way so it will not be the stapling method.  The white bristles on the standard dual trim are .07mm wider in diameter than the finer bristles on the flocked brush.  It must be that the slightly fatter bristles are getting jammed in crevices more easily on the work that you do than the finer bristles do.

You seem to have worked out already that for your type of working method a finer/softer bristle brush such as the flocked brush is more suitable.  I have noted myself that the worst windows for grabbing brush bristles are poorly made uPVC windows.  These often have a thin gap between poorly fitting panels.  Wooden windows rarely seem to do this.

[Alex Gardiner]

Alex, what's the difference between this brush and the standard? Inner trim is shorter, but any reason why the brush is rated at 60 degree? Is that because the inner trim is made from soft bristles? Is the outer trim shortened?

Hi Tim

There are several differences between this and a standard Xtreme.  The outer white bristles are about 7mm shorter and are a softer/finer formula bristle.  The inner bristles are even shorter again to give a proper dual trim brush and these shorter black bristles are softer/finer than the outer white bristles.  It really is an Xtreme version of the standard medium mixed dual trim.  This makes it a very fast and precise brush to use.

It is rated at 60 degrees because of the finer bristles (although they are the same material as the fatter bristles).  The weight saving is purely down to shedding bristle length.

[H S and Son]

Matt. What brush have you been using before this one?

Lee, hi there, I was using a Dual Trim Salmon, for 2 years probably, but used various dual trim Gardiners prior to that and Vikans prior to that.

[Lee GLS]

Matt. What brush have you been using before this one?

Lee, hi there, I was using a Dual Trim Salmon, for 2 years probably, but used various dual trim Gardiners prior to that and Vikans prior to that.

Quite a variety 

[H S and Son]

Oh and a Peter Fogwill auto-brush 

Now THAT is a contraption. I loved it, thought it was brilliant, that should go down in history that thing, Ive got a real soft spot for it, its still in my van, with it's blue crinkly bristles 

[windowswashed]

I've used extreme brush, sill brush and mixed brush.

Trouble with black bristles is although they scrub better than white bristles, they agitate any rubber sills that bleach more than white bristles, if water 38 degrees and above, leaving streak marks behind if rinsing brush on (at height, so not practical to rinse off).