Transcription
Some different ways you can save water, uh, when using pure water for window cleaning. Because if you've got a limited tank supply or you're working from barrels, something like that, preserving water is really, really important. Not just from an environmental point of view, but also to help you get through as much work as possible with the amount of water that you have throughout the day.
So, number one, probably the most popular device for helping you save water is one of these. This is a Uni valve from Exceed Innovations. Really popular. And as you can see, the way I've got it set up here, you fit this in your pole hose and it goes inside your waterfed pole. This will usually sit either inside the first section of your pole or just at the very bottom of the pole. So, it sits with the pole here and it will sit inside your pole. And all you need to do then is tug the very bottom of the hose and it just switches the Uni valve on and off. Switching your water flow on and off. Really simple but really effective device. Very, very popular indeed.
So, this end obviously goes to the top where the brush is. So you only need to have your water flowing when your brush is actually doing the cleaning work, when it's actually on the window. So those little bits of water that you maybe save between windows, it's surprising how it adds up. And it certainly adds up throughout the day, throughout the week even.
The only slight drawback you get with a Uni valve is when you have it fitted to the pole where your pole hose sits at the top, you'll have an O-ring here. So when you're tugging it all the time, you'll be tugging on the O-ring that's clipped at the top and not on these fittings at the top of the brush. So you won't be yanking on those fittings at the top of the brush all the time. So that's how it would be normally set up.
Now, the drawback is from that once you've got it set up on your pole, um, you you you can't really take it out easily without completely cutting through that O-ring, detaching it, taking the goose neck off. So, if you wanted to use your pole for multiple purposes, maybe you wanted to use it with a fitting at the top with traditional tools. Um, so you could put a traditional cone at the top, maybe you wanted to use the pole also as a scraper, uh, for roof cleaning, maybe something like that. It would make it very difficult to then use that pole for multiple purposes. Once it's set up in place like that with the Uni valve, you don't really want to be taking it apart all the time.
An alternative option could be to have a tap like this. Now, this is really dead simple, really dead easy. And this one here has those push fittings like so. So, it does just come apart and you can take it apart really easily because of those push fittings. Not quite as convenient as the Uni valve, of course. Obviously, you've got to turn it on before you then extend the pole to the top. So, there's a little kind of lag time there in the time it's taking you to extend and then collapse the pole again in order to turn it off. So, there is a bit of time there um where you'll be wasting a little bit of water. But, as a second best option, that's a really nice option to be able to do it that way. And of course, if you want to take all the the goose neck and apart and use the pole for a different purpose, you can do it quite easily because of the push fittings. So, that's a really nice option to have that option.
This is an alternative here. This type of tap fitting as well. I've got this one set up with a male and female um pole hose fittings. These are Rectus fittings or Gardena call them easy snap fittings, EZ snap fittings. So you can have these set at the bottom of the pole maybe uh at the bottom of the hose. The drawback of that is it will get dragged around on the floor and it will very soon get battered about. So you could even have this situated on a belt on your hip and be able to turn the water on and off on on your belt on a hip. Um so that might be another option to be able to do it that way.
Just wanted to show you these other options that are available. If you go on the Gardena website in particular, I find that's got so such a wide range of different hose fittings on there. So, have a look. You can get these with different connectors on either end. Doesn't have to be set up like this, but you can get a wide range of different connectors.
Another alternative I wanted to show you here to be able to switch the water on and off from the pole is this fitting which is also available from Gardena. This is the Gardena answer to the Uni valve. I suppose it's just a setup like this that is part of the goose neck which just sits in the pole in the usual way and you can have whatever goose neck fitting you want on there. Um you're able to switch them over and all you do in order to turn the water flow on and off, it just turns like that. So that's on and off again and off you go. Turns the water on, turns the water off.
Now, this is not my favorite. I don't get along very well with this one myself, especially since I quite often like to use um the swivel goose neck. And what happens is it becomes quite awkward to use, I find, and especially with the swivel goose neck. But if you're putting pressure on one side of the brush, you can be working with the brush and you can accidentally turn it on or off again. So yeah, for me, I don't get on very well with this. I find it a bit awkward, but it's another option that's out there.
Now, also when you're working with a waterfed pole, we often have different jobs to that we're doing with a waterfed pole, like conservatory roof cleaning or fascia cleaning. Now, I wanted to show you this fitting. This fitting here, I would say, is an absolute essential part of my waterfed pole window cleaning kit. And what this just allows me to do is connect my pole hose to a garden fitting. So let's say I'm cleaning something like a conservatory roof and I've applied a cleaning solution, a soapy solution maybe to the roof and I want to wash it down, but I don't want to waste my pure water. So first of all, I will wash it down with tap water. So I can use the fitting like this. Literally just connects to a garden style tap fitting like this one. And then I can easily connect my pole hose to this fitting here, like so. That allows me to wash down the conservatory roof with tap water. And then I'll just disconnect it. Connect it then to my pure water supply to give it a rinse down at the very end. Uh just to make sure it's going to be a nice finish with no spots left behind. I'll use my pure water just to give it the final wash and a rinse at the end. So, it's just that fitting there that allows me to do that. And that saves that saves a lot of water that I don't have to carry with me to do a job like that, which would usually use a much larger amount of water uh during a really dirty job like that. You can get these from Window Cleaning Warehouse or the Gardena website also should have these. I've got two or three of these in my van just to make sure I've always got one handy.