[G & M]

How many of you guys use a gutter vac and how much easier does it make the job?
What do you do when the tiles are very close to the gutter?
I have often thought of hiring out a vac from a local hire shop and extending the hose to empty the gutters, has anyone tried it, and if so how did it work out? As always your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Michael

[choice.clean]

bought the omnipole one last year all the customers are impressed. but i'm not why
1. suction is unbelievably low leaves half the stuff in the gutter
2. hose kinks all the time and blocks up with muck so much so we have to flush thru with our demin water to unblock something you can only do in our yard so if it blocks on the job no hope.
3. the pole is lethal on the hands as when you releas the clamp it becomes a slide hammer trapping hands if your not careful
the system for holding the hose at top of pole is very weak too with rsult that hose slides about everywhere.

conclusions if you want to impress the customers buy one. if you want to clear the gutters get the ladder out. hope that helps

[Jeff Brimble]

Wrap a piece of velcro loose round each section and leave it there it, it gives a slight cushion effect to stop those love bites.

[poles apart]

bought the omnipole one last year all the customers are impressed. but i'm not why
1. suction is unbelievably low leaves half the stuff in the gutter
2. hose kinks all the time and blocks up with muck so much so we have to flush thru with our demin water to unblock something you can only do in our yard so if it blocks on the job no hope.
3. the pole is lethal on the hands as when you releas the clamp it becomes a slide hammer trapping hands if your not careful
the system for holding the hose at top of pole is very weak too with rsult that hose slides about everywhere

Exactly why I bought this one www.upkeeper.co.uk

[thewindowcleaner1]

Hi Poles apart
looked at that gutter cleaner last year when you posted the American site address looked impressive then what kind of price do they retail at ?? from Ionics ?

Alan

[qwert]

Poles.

Does it really shift thick moss 3inch deep though??


Looks great for loose stuff but for full and thick gutters does it it completely clean them???

Thanks

[G & M]

Choice clean the omni vac doesn't sound very good. The gutter keeper looks the like the real deal, however I still wonder about using it where there is very little room between the tiles and  the gutter.
Michael

[DASERVICES]

Poles,

How heavy is it, can you lift it up into the van single handed.

Thewondowcleaner,

You're talking around £2.5k but they do lease it at around £60 per month if I remember correctly rom the cleaning show.

The money would be in commercial not domestic.

[poles apart]

Hi Poles apart
looked at that gutter cleaner last year when you posted the American site address looked impressive then what kind of price do they retail at ?? from Ionics ?

Alan

Not sure, someone on here mentioned £2700 but it's best to ring them

How heavy is it, can you lift it up into the van single handed.

No, i've got a trailer with a ramp so no probs for me.

Poles.

Does it really shift thick moss 3inch deep though??


Looks great for loose stuff but for full and thick gutters does it it completely clean them???

Thanks

Most of the jobs I've done so far have been gutters which have not been cleaned for years. There were large sections of plant growth, moss, grass and you name it growing out of them. The only problems I've had have been where the gap on one particular site between the gutter and tiles was about 1"! You couldn't get a gloved hand in to clear it!

Rod

[need a cleaner]

Most of the jobs I've done so far have been gutters which have not been cleaned for years. There were large sections of plant growth, moss, grass and you name it growing out of them. The only problems I've had have been where the gap on one particular site between the gutter and tiles was about 1"! You couldn't get a gloved hand in to clear it!
Rod

How did you solved that 1?

[Steve Lowe]

bought the omnipole one last year all the customers are impressed. but i'm not why
1. suction is unbelievably low leaves half the stuff in the gutter
2. hose kinks all the time and blocks up with muck so much so we have to flush thru with our demin water to unblock something you can only do in our yard so if it blocks on the job no hope.
3. the pole is lethal on the hands as when you releas the clamp it becomes a slide hammer trapping hands if your not careful
the system for holding the hose at top of pole is very weak too with rsult that hose slides about everywhere.

conclusions if you want to impress the customers buy one. if you want to clear the gutters get the ladder out. hope that helps

I have an Omnivac along with a camera system and i get no problems like this. In the last year the vac hose size has been increased and the vac hose no longer hangs from the pole but connects to the bottom of it . These modifications by omnipole have made it 100% better. It also goes up 48ft which gives you more potential.

Steve

[qwert]

How does your system deal with thick moss and grass??  Is sucktion strong enough to remove these thick growths?

[Steve Lowe]

Not a problem but at first i did not have a camera and this is invaluable. I video the gutter before cleaning and video afterwards so no guesswork is involved. I then download to a dvd a pass onto customer. They then know its clear!

Steve

[choice.clean]

this sounds a very time consuming way to do gutters i.e. video to start attach camera to pole
clean can't see what i'm doing but I have some idea
video again oh no i missed a bit, camera off again
redo with pole etc.

then go home copy the dvd and return to the customer to deliver
how long does all of this take?
do you still have to get the ladder out to clear bits that are too narrow or too stubbon like we do?
What do you charge to justify all this effort?

[Steve Lowe]

The camera can be attached on the pole while cleaning and no i do not use ladders at all. For stubborn bits i use the gutter spike and then just suck it out. It sounds like you have one of the first machines which are different to what is being sold now. I bought mine when they first came out and was not happy but have upgraded it as time has progressed. The recording of it all takes minutes and for what i charge its not a problem. If you dont use a camera it takes twice as long and you will never be sure if all is clear.

Steve

[neil marshall]

We got a gutter vac in April this year, we are impressed and so were our customers. But we need more work for it and despite lots of adverts and leaflet drops haven't got any new jobs.

Any one got an idea what we might be doing wrong. Is £2.50 per metre to cheap/dear.

Let me know.

[Steve Lowe]

Hi Neil
What area are you from as i have more gutter work than i can handle at the moment?

Steve

[marc]

what sort of camera and moniter do you use and how much are they thanks             marc

[newpy]

I've just had a interesting chat with Ionics! They told me their gutter keeper is around the 3k mark +vat!, weighs about 60kgs?,when i questioned the weight for 1 man to load / off load from van, it was suggested that it shouldn't be a problem to load with a bit a manouvering! not sure about h+s there? i thought most businesses are restricted to 25kg limits?? maybe i'm wrong there. There is a new model coming, which is foldable, current length of model, was given around the 6 foot mark, which i politely stated would be a squeeze when a tank is already fitted in the van! Suction? well they reckon it is loads more powerful than the Omnivac? my reply was, well for treble the price it should be! Height / reach was 25 foot, which apparently is a handful with current pipe material that they use, they may be developing a higher reach, as i did mention how much 25 foot would reduce the market place for the equipment, and this measurement is no doubt "from the hip" !!! and as i've got short legs that gives me 27 foot reach! There was no model actually on site to look at, and when asked about a demo,..... well only if there were other demos in the area,wfp or gutter vac! so not much good there if your shelling out over 3k!
Of course i'm sure there is a good market for work up to 40 foot, but is the Omnivac any good? Surely it wouldn't be to hard to make one yourself out of an old carpet cleaning machine with a wider diameter waste pipe? Even a new carpet cleaning machine would only set u back about 1.5k for a decent porty, so 3k+ seems a bit steep. There are other models on sale from usa that ship to uk for about £500.
So those that already are using a up keeper or Omnivac which one is best and why? I already do a fair bit of gutter clearance work with a extendable lance and hook etc (p washer) and now cheesed of getting covered in water / crud, even though it is good £££, how long does it take you guys to a do a straight forward front and back house (3 bed) with one of these systems, i'm normally about 1.5 hrs to clean and clear not pushing it.
I like the camera idea, but would only do an after shot to confirm to custy that they were clear, i would think about sending out the marketing disc with a vid of it working, looks impressive as mentioned b4.

How long until there are fleets of operators in this field then?? I reckon if your going to get into this, now is the time, another 3 yrs and it'll be getting saturated, look at the amount of wfp users there are now! i'm going to have a go though, breaks up the bordom doing the windows! and again in the scheme of things who can set up a business for less than 5k these days!!

Any one got any photos in action? or marketing material, would appreciate any extra info that i may have not picked up on!


Newpy

[G & M]

Have you any links to these other American sites Newpy?