WHY HAS PURE WATER WINDOW CLEANING NOT ALWAYS BEEN POPULAR?

This form of window cleaning has been around the UK since before the millennium, and grown more and more so as a popular method of cleaning windows for various reasons; but like anything new there has to be a few bumps along the way before they settle in. The main reason I feel there have been issues with this system previously; is due to a lack of training, such as no one to explain to each other how to get that perfect finish. This wouldn’t matter so much with traditional window cleaning, because you walk away when the window is dry and so you know if it is a GOOD or BAD job. With pure water window cleaning the window dries after you have left, and therefore if there are to be mistakes you won’t visibly see this at the time.

FIRST CLEANS WITH THIS NEW AGE SYSTEM

This is really what cuts the professional cleaner from the cowboy, and for good reasons. As we discussed in our other blog, the purified water helps remove impurities from the glass while we clean. But, on these first cleans there are a lot more impurities than normal to remove; the frames may have not been cleaned for a long time either and so thorough sterilization is essential. If someone done this initial clean and did not spend adequate time scrubbing the glass and frames; and then rinsing the glass a lot more than on subsequent cleans, there is a high likelihood that white spotting marks will remain on the glass when it dries. This is the residue of dirty water essentially, the salts that have not been thoroughly rinsed off the glass.

Secondly, more homes now have vents above the windows; and these cannot and should not be ignored. If you have had a window cleaner use this system and there are streak marks on the glass, then I can guarantee one of two things. 1) they have either not flushed out the vents or 2) the rubber seals are perished and the water has dripped down from them. We always flush the vents right out on first cleans, by turning our hoses upside down and jetting water directly into the vents and cleaning them right out. We only need to do this the first time, but it ensures everything is now sterile. If the seals are leaking, this is always only the case on older windows that have perished rubber partly due to soap residue; and is something we experience in one of every so many hundred properties that we clean.  In this last type of instance, we would then traditionally clean those windows.

PURIFYING WATER ISNT OPTIONAL

We have mentioned on other blogs the ways in which water is purified, we use a double DI system in the van to purify water on the move ie supported from customers tap supplies, and we also have a reverse osmosis system that purifies water at our base. If we did not check the purity of the water this would cause issue, and is another reason that this systems reputation has been let down previously by poor workmanship. The van digitally tells us when the parts per million (PPM) ie purity level of the water begins to diminish, and we change the resin to bring it back down to 100% pure water. Those that let their water purity level decrease will start to notice white spotting on the glass at around 10 PPM on first cleans and perhaps 20 PPM on windows that have been previously been cleaned by the water fed pole system.  The reason for this is that first cleans have much more dirt to remove and so the water purity really comes into play even more so.

SCRUB, SCRUB, SCRUB

Those that have not spent the adequate time scrubbing bird mess and such like off the windows will soon hear from the customer, and experience has taught me to identify these marks on glass by the way the water runs around such marks on the glass when we are rinsing off. We pre wet the glass and only then start to vertically scrub the glass clean, the purified water helps in the softening of marks and also we can come back to windows that have very stubborn marks after we have cleaned a few more windows on the house. The fact that we use a hot water system also helps in removal of stubborn marks because similarly to cleaning dishes, hot water simply cleans them better than cold water.

THAT FINAL RINSE

Those that use backpacks and carry small amounts of purified water clearly have to be mindful of not using too much water per house. They just don’t have the water supply with them, but we carry a 500 liter tank in the van and can top up our purified water supply at any outdoor tap. When we have cleaned the windows with this system, if we do not adequately rinse off all the windows then there is a good chance that dirty runs will be visible when the glass dries. We rinse off in a zigzag formation and always do so twice, double rinsing the glass essentially and in an effort to get a sheet finish on the final rinse.

THE MENTALITY OF PURE WATER WINDOW CLEANING

Most of the time when we clean windows no one is home, and they come home to nice clean and dry windows all the time. Occasionally though customer have asked why their windows are still wet when we leave, and this is due to the fact we have sterilized the windows clean by way of cleaning with purified water. This can take some explaining, and is a mindset shift for some. We appreciate this, but i promise that the level of clean is second to none. When cleaning windows traditionally there is always a fine layer of soap still left on the glass, and this is invisible to the human eye but remains enough to attract a fast buildup of dust and dirt over the following month. When we clean the windows with purified water they will stay cleaner for longer, there is nothing in the water to attract dust to the glass. Like many other windows cleaners https://saxonwindowcleaners.co.uk/ in Andover and throughout the UK, we also made the change from traditional cleaners to water fed pole cleaners and we can honestly say we do not know one person who has reverted back to traditional cleaning.

For a list of all our services please visit https://fifewindowcleaningservices.co.uk/

Blog written by Chris Fotheringham