I've been using my newly installed electic reel for over a week now and I can report that it is a fantastic advance in our working method. I will never willingly wind in manually again.
The hardest part of our job for me is the physical bit. It's the hardest biggest brake on my earnings and after about five hours i'm very much the worse for wear.At six hours i'm clock watching and want to stop.I'm probably programmed this way because I can only work six hours most days because I have commitments to another business. I do a hour and a half of the other thing either side of the window cleaning, but window cleaning is by the far the hardest job I have ever done.The hour and a half after window cleaning which involves some van driving and loading is very much a welcome rest.
So right from the start I have targeted anything that makes life easier for me. I got a van mount when I had hardly any customers for this very reason figuring that the money would follow and from the start my reel was fixed over the tank feeding out of either side door. Next came the hot system which not only mean't that I could work faster with less scrubbing but I had the confidence to work faster because of the perfect every time results and zero complaints.
Even so I would still lay awake some nights the mucsles in my back killing and my biceps like pop eyes cutting the blood off in my arms. I worked it out that some days I was winding in 800m of hose (half a mile).
Anyway now I've got an electic reel that winds in in seconds. I can run as much hose out as I want (i pinched Ian Giles idea of throwing a harness over my head attached to the hose for the outward leg), and the winding in is a matter of moments with no effort involved at all.
So the benefits are;
1. I am less tired
2. I can do more
3. Planning hose outage is less of an issue
4. It's faster and saves time
5. I dread that 'just one extra job before I go home' a little bit less (helps motivation)
6. I earn more money (despite what you all think it isn't money that drives me)
7. It's so obvious, it's so simple, and it works so well, that there is a satisfaction every time i use it.
Surely I must have best system on the forum now? Don't I?
