[JackieW]

''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.

 

[Spruce]

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 

[JackieW]

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.

[Spruce]

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.

[Spruce]

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.

 

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.

[dazmond]

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!


regards

dazmond