New Carbon Gooseneck Adapter

We’ve just made our new Carbon Gooseneck Adapter available for Pre-Order. During the Pre-Order period there is a reduced price on the store.

The Carbon Gooseneck Adapter enables you to use a Gardiner Super-Lite® Carbon Fibre Quick-Release Gooseneck with your Aqua-dapter, and was developed “by popular demand” as we had a few requests from users about making it suitable for these goosenecks.

New Hose

There was a division of opinion over the hose we supplied.  Although the feedback we received on the hose was 84% Good or Excellent we didn’t like that some users got frustrated with it

So, we are now supplying new hose.  We did our own tests, and a few customers agreed to test the hose for us too, their comments (and one video review) are below.

the new hose has definitely improved compared to the first hose we received.  We have a Gardiner CLX22 pole that this is on and feel that the on/off action is more precise with the pole at full stretch … If this was my decision to make, the new hose would be supplied with every aquadaptor that was ordered.

I think for hot water users red hose may be more suitable than yellow … Have noticed less bits of grit/muck sticking to red hose.
Bottom line I prefer the red hose to the yellow.
[Cleaning] with the aqua-daptor is so much easier!

Harder pipe, compared to older yellow pipe, so more durable. Has a coil memory but i find it does not tangle as much as the yellow.

I liked the previous yellow hose but it never really settled down – ie. never laid flat, it always seemed to curl up into a birds nest and tangle … the new hose is very well behaved as after 2 jobs it lays flat while in use and follows faithfully like a puppy, yet when placing back into the van coils into a nice shape without any tangles … very impressed so far!

the hose has virtually no coil, unlike the original yellow hose. Also not once did I fail to turn the Aqua-dapter on or off, whereas before with the yellow hose, I had a few times the hose failed to respond.
Working at height over 25ft, is when you notice how the new hose works better. There was no stretching like the yellow hose at height, which caused a delayed response turning the A-d on or off, the new red hose was instantanious every time.
Overall simply brilliant, much easier to work with.
I would definitely recommend this hose.

You can read all the comments that mention the old and new hose using this link http://aquadapter.wordpress.com/tag/hose/.

Survey Results

A few weeks back we sent out a survey to all our customers to ask for some feedback on the Aqua-dapter.

We sent the results to our customers in a recent Newsletter, but we’d like to share them with everyone, and release some exciting news too…

We asked for feedback on:

Overall Service
Please rate the overall service you received from Aqua-dapter

Good: 42% / Excellent: 58%
100% Good or Excellent

Product Rating
Aqua-dapter

Poor: 5% / Good: 42% / Excellent:   53%
95% Good or Excellent

Hose (Yellow)

Poor: 16% / Good: 63% / Excellent:  21%
84% Good or Excellent

Screw Thread Adapter

Poor: 14% / Good: 71% / Excellent: 14%
86% Good or Excellent

We also received these comments…

Extremely pleased with my Aqua-dapter , it has been a revelation to use and a brilliant product for saving water in a very easy manner.

very happy with product

Think Aqua-dapter is a cracking product and have said so on a forum, saves me a great amount of water

… excellent and works well.

All in all … 10/10 for product & service.

Aqua-dapter product is great and a very handy and water, money and time saving device and i am glad i purchased it

smashing bit of gear… works efficiently, and looks good

so far working pretty good.

We were quite happy with the results, but we saw room for improvement, and we already had some ideas.

Since the survey we now have new hose that we are supplying with the Aqua-dapter.  The new hose stretches even less than the yellow, making it better for controlling the Aqua-dapter, particularly when on a long pole.

The hose also has a higher working pressure rating at increased temperatures, making it a better solution for hot water systems, but it’s still suitable for use in cold weather.

We’ve had it on test and found that it tangles less and doesn’t grip the inside of the pole (sometimes happens if there’s a twist in the hose).

We’ll be posting more information about it soon, and some comments from our testers.  Check out the new hose here: http://www.aqua-dapter.co.uk/categories/Extra-Hose/

Aqua-dapter “sticking”?

We’ve heard one or two people mention that their Aqua-dapter “sticks” occasionally.

There are a few things that can cause this, and in this cold weather we’ve been experiencing it could be parts icing up and so not moving freely.

However, if you’ve been having any problems in the warmer weather too, these tips might help…

Sometimes the hose twisting inside the pole (and so ‘gripping’ the inside) has caused an issue for some, particularly at longer lengths.  Rotating the pole a few times to undo the twist helps it operate better.

The Aqua-dapter benefits from being regularly washed with warm running water and washing-up liquid.  If it isn’t washed, a build up of dirt or grit inside the body can cause resistance when pulling the hose (or the carriage being returned to place by the spring).

Also make sure that the hose between the Aqua-dapter and the brush is long enough, or it will prevent the carriage travelling far enough to operate the tap.

If none of these seem to be the cause, feel free to contact us, and we’ll try to help you sort out the issue.

Getting your hose in a twist?

There have been a wide range of opinions on the yellow hose that we supply with the Aqua-dapter from rave reviews (http://bit.ly/einVH0 or http://bit.ly/gbeUKS) to downright hatred! (http://bit.ly/hq2fU5).

I’ve just answered a couple of comments about the hose, and thought it would be a good subject for a blog post for those struggling to get to grips with it.

The reason we supply hose with the Aqua-dapter is because it’s important for the correct operation of the device.  If the hose stretches (or compresses) too much it can make it harder to use the Aqua-dapter, particularly with longer poles.

One customer who started off disliking the hose got in touch.  He decided to do a thorough analysis of his methods and allowed us to share his email in case it helps others…

I did a self analysis into when the pole hose gets tangled up …

I usually drop [my old] coiled pole hose onto the floor where I am to start working, couple it up to the supply hose and the extend the pole to the length I require. The [old] hose usually uncoils itself automatically as it isn’t so stiff. But I find ‘your’ hose sometimes twists on itself and the becomes ‘platted’ which is where the tangle comes from. It usually happens toward the end of the action of extending the pole, as most of the pole is in the pole and the twist of the remaining hose has nowhere to go.  I think that this issue is also exacerbated by pressure already being at the coupling and into the pole hose which prevents the coupling from rotating to undo the twist, which it could do without that water pressure locking it in – (hope that makes sense). …

So I tried to untwist the pole hose to as straight as possible before coupling the hoses, and this works much better. I also find that the coil doesn’t hook up on my mini-bore hose as much as it did before. Rather than pick up the coupling and walk with a bunch of pole hose trailing behind me as I move from one window to another, I found it works better to grab the pole hose near the pole end (no pressure on the aqua adaptor doing this) and use that to drag the coupling and mini-bore hose back. (I mostly start at the furthest point and work back to the van).

[It's also been suggested] that I cut the pole hose to exactly the length I need, as it will help with it being a little shorter.

…

Thanks again for a great product and I hope that this will help others who may have the same self inflicted issues as I have had.

I followed up a month later and he said:

I have since got into the habit of uncurling the hose each time I take the pole out of the van and haven’t had any issues with the hose getting tangled up since doing this. So I put this as operator problems on my part rather than equipment problems. As I mentioned before, there are probably others like me who have experienced similar issues, so I would be very happy for you to use my feedback to help them.

So, if you’re finding that the hose gets tangled up easily, it may be that following this customer’s suggestions will help you.

We are constantly reviewing the feedback we receive on our products, so watch this space for developments!

We want your feedback!

In an effort to give our customers exactly what they want, we have created a feedback community site on Get Satisfaction.

Pop on over to our Get Satisfaction page or use the “Feedback” tab on our website to share ideas, ask questions or get support on our products.

We hope to hear from you soon!

The Concept Behind Aqua-dapter

Aqua-dapter has been in development for almost two years now. It started in the mind of Steve Jones, a window cleaner of nearly ten years, and a user of water fed pole systems for the majority of those. Steve was unsatisfied with the lack of flow control options available for WFP, which subsequently led to designing and developing the device we are now producing.

So, we thought we would give you a little overview of the thinking behind the design. We will expand on various avenues of the development process over the coming weeks, showing you some of the concepts behind Aqua-dapter.

In this article, we’re going to concentrate on the existing solutions for controlling the flow of water through your WFP system.

Perhaps the most common, and certainly the cheapest method, is that of kinking the hose. This certainly stops the water flow. But with it comes some issues; for instance, over time, it’s not going to do your hose any good. Also, when you need to move around, it means you have to keep one hand on the hose. The same goes for when you collapse your pole, you need both hands to do that, in which case, the water starts to flow again.

Another common method uses a trigger set-up. We have a couple of niggles with this. First of all, you need to have a large loop of hose between the trigger and the base of your pole. This causes a bit of a safety issue at the very least, creating a potential trip hazard for yourself, your customers and perhaps members of the public. Secondly, we are back to constantly having one hand off the pole. Depending of the model of the trigger, you need to hold it on to either make the water run, or to stop the flow. This method is an adaptation of a system used mainly for pressure washers; it is not a native creation for the WFP market.

A third method that we considered was remote control systems. While these offer a reliable way of controlling your water flow, they have their own share of set backs. Think about a big concern, an electrical system controlling water flow. So, what happens if they get wet? Another problem is that they rely on range, and line of sight. If you end up behind a building which puts you out of signal, you lose control of your flow, but how do you know? Shout to someone standing by the van? Wait to see if the water comes through (which can take a while depending on the distance)? Not to mention what happens when the batteries run out…

And so you are beginning to get the picture, the current solutions produce a few glitches that make them, on a whole, unproductive to work with. Think briefly about other flow control methods; taps on belts – again a loop of hose, not to mention wet trousers, and you end up being attached to the pole. How about another device you may have seen, a switch mounted on the brush? There are a couple of home made solutions being marketed on the internet, but they only work if conditions are ideal. For instance, you need to tap your brush on an overhang to turn your water off; if windows are recessed, fine, but what happens when they are not? Or when you are cleaning a recessed window, what about when you accidentally knock the switch?

Out of all the methods, solutions and workarounds we considered, we came to a definite conclusion: there wasn’t a product designed specifically for water fed poles. And so the concept of Aqua-dapter was created…

Follow our blog over the next few weeks to see how we went about designing and developing the Aqua-dapter tap.