Choosing A Water Fed Pole

by Tim Settle

For a commercial window cleaner, high quality equipment is the key to delivering professional results. This is especially true when it comes to the selection of use of a water fed pole. Water fed poles are a commercial window cleaning tool that allow a person to reach windows several stories up, while remaining safely on the ground. The ability to reach heights safely cuts down on labor hours, insurance costs, as well as the need to carry around additional equipment that is often heavy and expensive.

Step 1: Choosing The Right Length Pole

Depending on your needs, you may only need one pole, or if you clean multiple types of buildings you may find that you require a set of varying lengths. The first step is to determine the correct length or height pole you need. To accomplish this, consider the maximum height of the tallest window you need to reach and multiply that height by 1.2x. By multiplying the height you need to reach by this amount, you add a small amount to your pole length to compensate for any bending or flexing in the pole created by scrubbing pressure and gravity. Once you decide on the length of the pole, it is time to choose what material you want.

Step 2: Choosing The Right Material

Aluminum

Aluminum water fed poles were the industry standard for many years. Aluminum is durable, long lasting, and inexpensive. The downside of an aluminum pole is that it is extremely heavy, and it flexes considerably from extension and use. The extra weight and flex of aluminum poles translate directly into harder work and extra fatigue. The fatigue encountered from using an aluminum pole slows work down considerably, ending up in longer on-site time.

Fiberglass

After the use and production of fiberglass became economical and accessible to a wide array of industries, it became more common to see water fed poles made from fiberglass. Fiberglass poles offer some benefits over aluminum that are hard to overlook. They are cheaper, lighter, and much easier to work with than their aluminum counterparts. However, due to the nature of the fiberglass, they still have major problems with flex and tilt. Often, depending on the thickness of the material, fiberglass poles flex more than aluminum!

Carbon Fiber

Today, the gold standard in water fed poles is undoubtedly carbon fiber. Carbon fiber offers the professional window cleaner an extremely rigid pole, while weighing a fraction of what comparable aluminum and fiberglass poles weigh. Carbon fiber minimizes the efforts required to scrub debris from windows, saving your body from wear and allowing you to finish jobs faster and easier than with poles made from other materials. Tucker® water fed poles come in two different grades of carbon fiber, the economy line standard modulus and a 3k high modulus. Our economy line of water fed poles are made from a standard count modulus of carbon fiber that blends an incredible value of cost, with the strength of a high quality, high fiber count of carbon fiber. Our  premium water fed pole; the 3K high modulus line is the ultimate investment in window cleaning equipment. The high modulus line is produced with three thousand fiber strength carbon fiber, giving the pole an incredible strength and rigidity, while maintaining an incredibly lite weight.

We hope you will choose Tucker® Water Fed Poles for your cleaning business. We produce carbon fiber poles that meet the needs and budget of any professional window cleaning business. We back all of our water fed poles with a guarantee that they will last.