We love Surrey, and it’s one of the reasons Toughgaard Window Cleaners expanded here – it’s such a great place to live and spend time outside. We knew it was going to be tough, there is an abundance of Window Cleaners in Surrey, but we’ve been lucky, incredibly lucky. We’ve had a steady stream of new customers each week since we launched, and we always love meeting them. Aside from the usual welcome of cups of tea and the occasional biscuit, something we’ll almost always hear too – “You can hook up to our water tap over there!” Most are a little surprised to find out that we won’t be using their water, like most window cleaning companies, but it’s not for the reasons you might guess.
Why Hard Water Doesn’t Cut it.
Most tap water in Surrey is officially rated as ‘hard’, meaning that it contains higher levels of minerals, specifically:
- Calcium: 115 mg/l
- Sodium : 23.8 mgNa/l
- Total Hardness: 287.5 ppm (part per million)
- pH: 9.62
It’s nothing to be worried about in terms of drinking, it’s just because of the chalk and limestone in the area. England surrenders more minerals to water as it passes through. For professional window cleaners, that’s just not good enough to do a great job.
Why we only use Purified Water
One of the reasons behind our crystal clear and streak-free windows is because of the water we always use. That’s where purified water comes into the frame. Many window cleaning companies have struggled to harvest and produce a steady supply of water they can get access to on a daily basis. Most used a make-shift DIY set-up, usually a large water container in their back garden – and to some extent, this can work quite well, but it requires a lot of upkeep to maintain and keep the PH levels below 20 ppm, any higher just isn’t good enough to do a great job. Modern methods and improved design tell a different story nowadays. The water we use each day has been carefully managed and would be considered “ultra-purified” with a stunning ZERO ppm PH value, making it perfect for your window cleaning – crystal clear and streak-free, every time. Not just that, it’s completely harmless to plants or wildlife in your garden, a perfect alternative to the traditional window cleaning water which uses solubles.
How much purified water do you use per house?
It varies significantly on a house-to-house basis, with a lot of factors at play. These include: how often the windows are cleaned; how much glass there is; if there have been any bird droppings since our last visit or simply the weather (Hint Hint.. notorious Saharan Sandstorm).
What would happen if you used tap water to clean windows?
Smears, spots, streaks, unsatisfied customers and a horrified window cleaner!
To summarise, this new environmentally-friendly method of harvesting purified water has revolutionised the window cleaning industry, and it is super exciting (to us at least) to see how far this will come along in the next 10 years – perhaps by then, we might be able to hook up to your water tap to access purified water… wishful thinking!
Water facts source – https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/docs/water-quality/AF067.pdf