If it's a carbon material it will wear,the metal clamping points on the pole almost eliminate this,the pole does not need to be altered in my view being able to clamp at any position.They are so light even with the top section fully out working from a side angle the weights not noticable,I have never had a problem with not being able to clamp the pole in any other position I can't see the advantage
As always a positive post from NWH, thank you for your opinion. Am I correct in thinking the new poles will not have the metal banding? Will the clamping points only be a tiny proportion at the top and middle of the pole again?
I looked on Gardiners website last night and noticed a few more items disappear without trace. The decent pumps are gone, the decent thermal minibore hose is gone, the gooseneck scrapers and scouring pads are gone. All the decent ideas that get promoted on his site never seem to last long and are replaced with sometimes cheaper alternatives which in my opinion are rubbish, not impressed with the supplier for continuity of stock.
Hi W
Thank you for your perspective about our continuity of stock. I will address the specific product points raised. Overall we are always striving to improve the quality of all products that we make or stock. The cost of the item virtually never comes into a product replacement decision.
Gooseneck Scraper and scrubbing pad - We still sell these Super-Scrapers -
http://gardinerpolesystems.co.uk/all-products/water-fed-poles/brushes/brush-head-attachments/the-new-super-scraper-trade.htmlDecent pumps - we still sell decent pumps -
http://gardinerpolesystems.co.uk/all-products/pump-hose/wfp-delivery-pumps/aquatec-wfp-delivery-pump-100psi-1506.html - these ones replaced the previous Flojets we had sold for many years (not for cost reasons as we now have to buy over 500 units at a time instead of the previous 100 units and there is no unit cost saving) as Aquatec had managed to convince us that the quality of these Aquatech pumps is better (which we agreed with after a long test period) and also because we could have John Guest fittings built-in to them. We found over the years that the majority of customer service issues with pumps not performing as they should were because of incorrectly fitted hose connectors on the inlet side of the pump (air-leaks). These John Guest fittings remove this issue and also make the pump much quicker to install.
Thermobore - We replaced this hose about 2 years ago now mainly because of repeated quality issues in manufacturing. We switched back to a quality UK manufacturer and now our Microbore and Minibore hose is hot water rated as standard and we have found handles hot water better than our previous Thermobore hose. Interestingly the new standard hose is also more expensive to have made than the previous Thermobore.
Xtreme Pole - I feel that the new X3 is a much better pole than the previous version with metal bands - just my opinion, but it is based on over 12 months development and 5 months of real world use. The new pole does not need metal bands (just as an SLX does not need them) as it can clamp in any position along the sections length. It may look more boring, but it does the job better in my opinion. Once again this pole is not cheaper to have made than the outgoing model as it contains more carbon fibre than previously - the decision was made on performance not on cost.
Hopefully that has helped in providing my perspective on the continuity of our stock range
