This blog is for Glass Smart Window Cleaners.
It is focused on the development and discovery of custom products for the Surface Maintenance, Restoration, and Protection of different window surfaces. Join me. henrygroverjr@gmail.com
The Super Soaper was created with much help from Wiljer Specialty Cleaning Products who provided this beautiful white sleeve. It has just the right amount of pile to hold onto just the right amount of water. They truly do make the very best sleeves for the window cleaning industry. More importantly however is that the owner is willing to work with us in developing different technologies. I developed the Super Soaper as an ultra niche product. Hoping it would get attention. Wiljer Specialty Cleaning Products 34 Front Street - Box266 Indian Orchard MA 01151 Phone 413-543-5333 EMail wiljer@yahoo.com www.wiljer.com
The other part of this invention of course is the Super Soaper Siphon. It fits on the bottom of a two inch PVC pipe. The water can come in but can't get out. So it becomes displaced by the wand on the downward motion and wets the sleeve. The upward motion of the wand draws water up from the bucket into the tube. With this tube I can easily soap up a 55 inch wand from a one gallon bucket. I will be doing a video showing how I built my Super Soaper System. There will be continual updates and improvements. This invention is NOT practical for just a few large windows. Definitely NOT for smaller windows. A "small" 22 inch is much easier to use. It becomes practical ONLY when doing about twenty or more very large windows. Such as at a dealership. Certain commercial jobs have many very large plates that take a great deal of time to wet. Soren created the Sorbo line of squeegees to deal with these large windows. For decades now this design has proven itself. I see the Super Soaper wand as an addition to the very large squeegee. It will likely not be picked up by any manufacturer as they will see it as too much of a niche product. Ultra niche products are usually passed over by large manufacturers. There simply is not enough money in them Wiljer would be willing to make sleeves as big as 55 inches. I am thinking that there are more people out there that would want a 36, 42, or a 48 inch wand. Any of these sizes are easy to make. I bought a very small swivel wetter handle from Sorbo and unscrewed the handle which is held on by two screws. Then I took a long metal handle from a broom. Removed the broom and plastic ends. Then screwed on the Sorbo swivel handle. I did have to drill a couple holes in the handle with a drillpress. That was the most difficult part. Once done I just slipped on the sleeve and snapped it secure. Improvements will be shortening the wetting time to five seconds, and learning what the percentage of time reduction is over a 22 inch wand on the same large window. I need to demonstrate this improvement in a video. As we all know time is king. Commercial window cleaning is all about time. Which is why I am very surprised there are not more videos out there demonstrating the super channel squeegees. Instead we see many very small squeegees with wetting pads that flip over. These are great for small or average size windows. But when you have fifty windows that are twelve feet high and six feet wide give me a super channel any day of the week. That is all I have to say right now! Written By Henry Grover Jr. henrygroverjr@gmail.com To receive these posts directly in your inbox just type your address in the box at the top right, "Follow By Email".
In pure water chemistry one out of every 10,000,000 water molecules is dissociated into a hydroxide 'and' a hydronium ion. Hence the water maintains a neutral pH. It is neither acidic or alkaline. If there are more hydronium ions (H3O) than hydroxide ions the pH is below 7 and the "pure water" is acid. If there are more hydroxide ions then hydronium ions the pH will be above 7 and the water will be alkaline or a base. Cleaning solutions use alkaline chemistries because most films and dirt on glass are hydrocarbon in nature. Which are acidic. Hence the two chemistries neutralize and cleaning happens. However it is the hydronium ions that swap places with the sodium atoms in the near surface of soda lime/window glass. The hydronium ions and sodium atoms inter-diffuse. Which is the reason why Dr Paul Duffer says that glass is "alive". It is very easy to change the chemistry of a glass surface with pure water if it is acidic. And especially if the ambient temperature is raised. An other way of saying this is that glass surfaces are very reactive. This is demonstrated in our work every day. Any window cleaner that has been working for ten years or more knows that not all surfaces are the same. If you doubt this just start checking clean dry surfaces with a penny. Then feel and listen. They can pop and fizz as in the video here. Or just be very rough. They can also be perfectly smooth. Not rough with no sound.
Everything I have been describing is what happens naturally. We also change glass surfaces by polishing with microcrystalline super-abrasives such as cerium oxide. Certain acids such as hydrofluoric, sulfuric, and ammoniumbifluoride do the same thing in a matter of thirty seconds. Whenever hard water spots are removed with polishing slurries the glass becomes rough, very easy to scratch, and a stain sponge. For all intents and purposes the surface is now DEFECTIVE! This is an issue that no one in the window cleaning industry has recognized. I remember a building that Marc Tanner told me about that he restored. It was four stories. The first three stories released the stain with ease. But the fourth floor was a total bear. Come to find out an etchant/acid had been used before to remove the stains from just the fourth floor. Then the stain reformed. It is also true that stains come off reflective metallic surfaces much easier than clear transparent glass. Which releases stains much easier than dark tinted glass. Dark glass can be an absolute bear. Especially if it has been polished or "restored" with an acid such as HF. Usually etchants will destroy dark glass. They will leave an orange peal effect, or discolor. The days of simply cleaning windows with a buck, mop, and a squeegee are long gone. When we take on a store front we take on the maintenance and protection of the windows we clean. This is true for window cleaners and auto detailers who work on vehicular glass. Vision glass that has been restored by having water stains removed should absolutely be sealed with a hydrophobic sealant. This protects the window surface from scratches and more stains. Here is a demonstration by Marc Tanner showing off Nanovations NG1010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=-9-QQPwqW9Q
Written by Henry Grover Jr. henrygroverjr@gmail.com If you would like to receive these posts in your inbox just type your address in the box at the top right, "Follow by Email".
Water spots come from water. The spots are mineral deposits left on glass by evaporation. Water drops always form on top of old spots. There they continue the process of mineral deposition. But water does something more than deposit minerals. The atoms within the water molecules react with the atoms in glass surfaces. This is an exchange reaction which results in a breakdown of what is called the moderator matrix. In particular the leaching of the sodium atom. In enough time and at a high enough temperature time there is a breakdown of the silicon oxygen network which is the builder matrix. When both the moderator and builder matrix has been broken down the near glass surface has gone through total dissolution. Water marks are very similar to water spots. The greatest difference being dynamics. Water spots are caused by static water drops. Water marks are created by water drops that run down vertical glass surfaces. Without "doing the science" as my friend Paul West says, it isn't possible to know exactly and to what extent the glass has undergone total dissolution or exactly how many minerals have been deposited on the water "tract". Just as water drops tend to form on top of water spots, so do water drops tend to run down the same water tract. After years of this activity visible curvy lines form. They are much easier to see in direct sunlight. And appear as dark diffuse lines. Sometimes they run the full length of the window. Sometimes they just run halfway down. Enough water creates an interesting pattern of water marks. When they form on the inside of a window they can be more easily seen from the outside looking in. But are easily revealed with your breath in fog. Water marks can be very difficult to remove just like spots. I am guessing this is true because they are the result of etched glass. I do know of one case of water marks that I was not able to remove them using cerium oxide. It was necessary to use a diamond compound by hand. The compound was based on artificial diamonds of about 3 microns particle size. The diamond compound completely removed the marks. Such that when fogged by my breath a film developed that was completely smooth and showed no marks at all. I was able to locate a hard water spot remover today from Envirosafe called Waterspot Pro that was able to completely remove these water marks. It is also much less expensive than diamond compound! Here below is the purchasing and contact info. WATERSPOT PRO Sold By Envirosafe Inc. 61535 S Hwy 97 suite# 5-415 Bend, OR 97702 www.envirosafeinc.com 800-856-7233 Written by Henry Grover Jr. henrygroverjr@gmail.com To receive these posts in your inbox just type your address in the box at the top right, "Follow by Email".
