Hi,

I'm a street level window washer with decades of window washing experience who washes restaurant and retail windows in a large coastal city in the Northeast US.

More than ten years ago I subscribed to a window washer magazine that introduced me to the Wagtail and then when I was visiting the city named after a temperate climate tree fruit, I visited the offices of one of window washings largest tool distributors who showed me a 16" wagtail squeegee and a 18" wagtail applicator that the Aussie salesman had left with them and they were going to toss out because they couldn't figure out how to use them.

And then I offered to take them off their hand and they were given to me and though at the time, I was using a green plastic with strip washer and brass channel squeegee tool that was at least twice as fast to use than the separate squeegee and strip washers tools on all windows...

The two wagtail tools beat even that fabulous green tool on speed and ease of use!

Later on I got the 18" tool and I never looked back.

I've tried and used every product that company based in Oz ever produced and have even bought tools off their ever evolving website and I must say that I use their tools almost exclusively, I am a very loyal customer!

Though I love the Flipper and use it often and if used correctly, many of the problems you are experiencing can easily be alleviated.

Dont use the hard red rubbers that come with this tool during cold months or subfreezing window but instead get the soft replacement rubbers that at least two manufacturers make!

During the warm to hot months you can use the Wagtail red or others' black hard replacement rubbers!

With a hacksaw trim off a quarter inch (or more) from each side of the channel!

Fiddle with attaching the soft yellow pad (on the newest Flipper) until it stands up to all the constant usage and movement without coming apart!

Have any of you used your Flippers on telescoping poles?

It's a wonderful tool and works well on poles or in our outstretched hands!

About the solution...get ready to be turned upside down...

I stopped using buckets of water more that 10 years ago!

In that same magazine but a different issue I learned about about a guy in the northern midwest of the US that carried around a quart sized bottle with a push-pull sports cap and squited or poured the window washing liquid (made by using his own biodegradible, eco-friendly concentrate that you add to a quart of ordinary tap water already in the bottle) onto your applicator and apply that solution directly to the window and I bought that bottle, waistband bottle holder and floater bottle of concentrate from one of the many distributors and when I used this stuff, I was truly amazed!

When I started washing windows in 1979, I was using a lemon scented ammonia all purpose cleaner that would give me a vegan-leaning macrobiotic, headaches and starting in the late 1980s I started trying all different kinds of window washing solutions (everything all the window washing companies were selling) and the last stuff that I was using before this wonderful concentrated solution was simple liquid dishwashing detergent, always added to the water after the bucket was filled with tap water to avoid suds!

after applying this window cleaning liquid made from a quart of my tap water and an ounce (or less) of this concentrated solution and  then squeegeeing it off, the windows sparkeled like I had never seen windows look!

If you have been washing windows a while, you know that you want no matrix of open space (matrix causes unwanted friction and wears rubbers even faster) and no suds from the solution on the window when applying the liquid to it and with this stuff the application was perfect, a beautiful sheet of water and no suds.

After using the round white bottles that started degrading and leaking after a year of use and flimsy bottle caps that broke, I started using those square water bottles that come with the volcanic spring water from the south mid Pacific, and bottle caps that came from a mid-US spring water bottle, and instead of using a waistband bottle holder, I found a water bottle clip that one could attach to one's waist but I just side into one of my front side trouser pockets with the bottle hanging on the outside.

I can walk around quickly carrying my bottle of solution and apply it quickly wherever I am standing, and I worry about minimal spillage,

I use my buckets to carry my flippers, other squeegees, two of more bottles with clips ready to use, a couple of telescoping short poles, concentrate in a floater bottle, replacement rubbers, drink water and a few other odds and ends.

As the weather gets near freezing to freezing and subfreezing I start using the blue methanol liquid that goes on car windows and poured out of a bottle to applicator and then applicator to window means that I breathe a minimum of that noxious liquid, instead of what I might breathe carrying it around in a large bucket!

Any questions or comments?

Thanks!

Tree

Hi Treebeard, I agree with much of what u said. Been using pull bottle for a long time now, no bucket.
Also use Wagtail on telescopic pole. It's phenomenal on that. Done a few modifications though.
Iv'e got so good with it that I don't use ladders much any more.
If you look back through this forum (conventional section) you will see a lot about Wagtial and bottle-on-a-belt systems.
Chris