SteveO the Window Cleaner: How Content Creation Changed His Career

In this episode of Clean for Profit, we sit down with SteveO the Window Cleaner to talk about his journey from running a window cleaning business to becoming a sales representative at Window Cleaning Resource (WCR).

SteveO shares how creating social media content opened unexpected doors, the concept of skill stacking, and how building multiple abilities over time led to opportunities he never planned for.

We also dive deep into water-fed pole systems, gear setups, and the tools serious window cleaners are using today.

If you're building a window cleaning business, thinking about creating content, or trying to level up your gear and skills, this episode is packed with insight from someone who’s lived both sides of the industry.

Topics we cover:

• SteveO’s journey in the window cleaning industry
• How social media content created career opportunities
• Skill stacking and building valuable industry experience
• Transitioning from field work to working at WCR
• Water-fed pole systems and gear breakdowns

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Clean for Profit. My name is Colby. I am joined today by Dave Scrubani, as uh is typical these days. Dave, thanks for hopping on, buddy. Yeah, man. And uh we're both joined today by none other than Stevo the window cleaner. Steve O, we really appreciate you hopping on, brother.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Yes, no, thank you for having me. It's an honor, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

So this is our this is our first time all three of us getting to know each other personally. Um and uh you know we've talked for like five minutes before this, so we're this is all like really fresh. Steve O, if you've got a second to just tell us about like who you are, what your background is, how you got involved with WCR, etc. Like if you could just spit for a minute, we'd love to hear more about you.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Yeah, so um I'm actually based out of Colorado. I've always cleaned windows in Colorado, and I've been lucky enough in this industry to be an employee, to be a manager, to be a co-owner, and be an owner. So I've kind of seen just everything the whole entire um window cleaning has to offer. And I actually started cleaning windows in college back in 2008, and I worked for a company where we just went around uh neighborhoods and uh would look at a home, we'd say, Oh man, looks like 200 bucks. And we put a door hanger on their door and leave it there, and that's how we got started. I during that time, I don't think I ever changed a squeegee rubber in two years. I don't think I cleaned my towels in like two years. I mean, I was it was more college money just to like get by. And then uh after I graduated, I moved to California for a short bit, came back though in 2012, and I actually started working for a pretty good no, pretty well-known window cleaning franchise, which was fish window cleaning. And so I really got my introduction into route work, um, high commercial work, not anything high-rise, um, but that was a really good learning process because you only train there for a couple weeks and you get thrown right into it. And it was my first time of really being inside businesses and cleaning windows, and that was a very much of a different feel, and it was also something where had to learn kind of what was needed and what wasn't needed. Then from there, um about two years after that, I reached out to a smaller window cleaning company um out of Berthood, Colorado, and his name was Jim Ham, and started working with him and actually worked with him for about eight years, and that's where I became a co-owner. So after three to four years of being there, we just got along so well. I mean, we worked together for eight years and we never ever had a conflict. I mean, it was it was an amazing, amazing partnership and learned a ton from him as far as the business. He had started it in 1999, uh, ran it through all the way the end of 2024. But, anyways, after being with him for eight years, what started happening as I grew my YouTube channel during that time was that when I would be at like route jobs and I would have a little bit extra time, maybe they weren't open right away. I randomly started making little YouTube videos here and there. And what actually kind of introduced me to YouTube and got me into that was when I lived in California, I got to work at um YouTube for just a short amount of time. Nothing impressive, just got to be security guard, picked up a random job, didn't know where I was gonna be posted, and it wound up to be the um security company that got the account with Google. So they also had the YouTube headquarters. So it was just it was a really good experience being able to see that and being in front of that, and that kind of just got me thinking, like, ah, just we'll post here and there. And then in about 2018-2019, um, Luke the window cleaner actually started a group of guys for Window Clean Resource where we all got together and we were making content for them. And I think there was about like five of us, so we would regularly make videos, and then we had an editor putting that together. The editor was actually in Australia, so it was a really good big group of guys. Uh, we had a guy out in Ireland even doing videos. That's how we got the introduction to it. After that, that's when I really started pushing and doing more content. I also enjoyed doing editing and everything like that. And then um, as that progressed and grew, you start to get reached out to by a lot of different companies and by window cleaners looking to get into the business. And I really took a liking to the equipment side. So a lot of people reached out to me as far as, hey, I'm new into window cleaning, what equipment should I get? Hey, we've had a business for 10 years, we need water fed for this building. What do we get? So I spent my evenings starting to put together packages for people. And at the time I was just referring them to uh window cleaning resource. Then at the beginning of 2020, so this is like a month before all the craziness started as far as COVID and everything. I had reached out to Chris Lamarini, he's already had a great relationship with the two owners, and uh from there just requested, I said, Hey, you like and I'm already doing this. Would it be possible I could just be a representative and actually sell products? And got approved right there. And then all the craziness happened. Throughout 2020, I was still partnered up with um Jim Hamm at 2020 window cleaning, and then at the end of that year, I started to get so busy with both that I could no longer do both, and I decided to branch out and open my own window cleaning company, which was called Peer Professional Window Cleaning at the time. Ran that for six months, but then got a larger position inside WCR six months into that, which once I took that, it took up Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays. And at the time I was just owner operator, didn't have any employees. And so I did that for about two years, where I was doing both Monday, Tuesdays. I would go out, do my route work, do my residential, or spend the weekends taking care of extra work. And but during that time, I had two kids. We also moved beginning of 2024. I had burnout. And so I finally decided, hey, you know what? I'm gonna cut back. I'm just gonna get into just doing um the product sales, went full time with that. And then now that's what I've been doing um five days a week, and we do a lot of stuff on the weekends, um, evening hours as far as helping out uh different window cleaners. Um, so it's been really good. David and I have worked together for now, I think, quite a few years, and uh you just make such good relationships with window cleaners, and it's not even just about selling product. I think that's like five percent of it. The other 95% is sometimes just being a sounding board for people just to bounce ideas off you, whether or not you can provide a good answer or not. Uh, it's just being able to have someone there as an outlet to talk to, and then you know, being able to provide uh assistance with quotes, um, you know, really anything, employees, training. And so, really, what's happened is I've taken my YouTube channel and really turned that into most of the questions that I receive now from customers, I make videos about. They may not be the most popular topics, but I find that really helps as far as the small community of window cleaners and helps them, you know, thrive a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, totally, man. That's awesome. Yeah, I think uh to your point about like making videos about extremely niche, kind of obscure topics. I mean, Dave and I have gotten on pretty much weekly for the last handful of months and have talked for an hour about running a window cleaning business. It's like one of the most niche things you could probably talk about. And yet, um, you know, I've been doing this for I've been running a window cleaning business for about eight to nine years now, and you know, it's the most invested that I've ever been into doing it because we're talking about this thing that's so so specific, uh, and yet we're so passionate about it. And so um the same goes for talking about or consulting people on window cleaning gear, it's even more niche. Um so it's I think the coolest like takeaway from your background here, uh, which is the reason why I started this podcast in the first place, is that YouTube or making content in general leads to opportunities that you not only that you don't have access to, but that don't even actually really exist until after you make that content. Um it's just been a couple of months, and you know, we've we've made an introduction uh between the three of us. Dave and I have come to know each other through this podcast. Um and that's like two of a ton of a ton of opportunities and relationships that I could kind of rattle off that have been built just in a matter of a couple of months. Um and so yeah, I think there's huge value in just kind of taking that step and and starting with whatever you're into, whether it's you know, owning a window cleaning business or or something completely different, of just like getting the word out there and being uh a face for that particular interest uh or or occupation that you have.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So yeah, definitely. And I I never even planned on every single thing that's kind of happened has just happened. I never planned on uh selling products, even though my dad, uh, he was a you know salesman for Hillard Packer for 25 years. I never had any interest of ever doing anything like that. It's a very different, you know, thing that we're selling, of course, but um it's just funny how it does progress as far as you know, for our like generation, posting on YouTube has turned into a lot of jobs where you never would have thought that like 15 years ago. Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Right on. So right now, are you uh what's the so you're doing full-time with WCR? Do you have any association with uh window cleaning business at this point, or is it just WCR?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Nope, yeah, no associations with any window cleaning business um as far as that goes. I just, you know, beginning of 2024, I was actually at a route work job. I had cleaned this liquor store for well over a decade. And what I was finding, I was, you know, it was kind of looking at the two and saying, okay, what provides for my family right now the best? And that's what was providing for my family the best, as far as just go ahead and going full-time as far as with um with sales. And I actually called up the old guy, used to own a company with Jim, and I said, Hey, I I think I'm done. Like I just can't do it. I'm too, I have too many things going on. You know, while I'd be cleaning windows at jobs, I'd be taking phone calls for sales or doing troubleshooting. I mean, so many times I was on top of ladders at homes or inside somebody's bedroom taking calls because the day just piled up so quickly. And I knew that just was not a good thing to keep going with. And so I called him up and I said, Hey, I got all my route work. If you want to take it on today, it is yours. And he said, Great, took it on right away. I finished out my residential customers over the spring, and um, I was very happy with the move. I mean, after doing it for gosh, since 2008, I was fine with not cleaning windows anymore at that point. I think in some, you know, weird scenario, I might go back to it someday because I I love it. I love cleaning windows, I love the work, I love driving home after a long day of work, especially in the summer, and just feeling like you did everything that day you possibly could to make it great. And um, I really truly enjoyed that. But now, you know, with all of this, you also learn like a whole e-commerce side, which I was never really in. And that's been huge. I've also gotten involved in um reselling as far as for I also work with like Pure Water Power, that's another brand we have, and I've gotten to be part of the distribution like internationally. So, like everything that I've learned being a part of this has been so much more. So being able to combine being in the field and get to learn about the products, I've learned so much more that it's it's been a it's been a very good situation.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Right on. Yeah, and combining a new like a new job with a set of skills, like this was something that was done gradually. Like you were in window cleaning for a long time before you got involved at WCR, but it's so cool that you were able to go from something that you already knew a lot about. It was just so organic, like transitioning from being a window cleaner to being in the position that you are now. Um I I assume that like obviously there were some transitions throughout your throughout your career, and like you said, you were taking phone calls, sales calls on top of ladders. So like those moments can feel a little rough, but in terms of like on-the-job training and adjusting from one mode of up like operating to to your current job, uh sounds about as organic as it could have could have been. I agree. Yeah, right on, man. Go ahead, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Um yeah, Steve, I what I like the most about your story, and this is something that I've tried to be really intentional about with in my just working life since after high school, is you did a such a good job at working for someone else cleaning windows, then being a partner and owning a bit uh window cleaning business, and then owning your own thing, and then getting into the e-commerce thing and selling equipment. I c always I go I call that like skill stacking. And there's so there's so much value in uh in learning all of these different things because you can take that when that when that pile of skills starts to stack up, you can take that literally anywhere. Um and uh what the the skills that I think you have stacked up are really, really valuable, even if you for some reason decide to say, I don't want to do anything in the window cleaning space one time, and you go do something completely different, you just you have a very unique set of skills all stacked up that you could do anything, really, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah, and those those skills combined are like way more valuable than just having one of each. Um, like you know, having insight into the window cleaning business and window cleaning equipment and sales and e-commerce, like that's four skills. It it's it's not actually four skills though. Like you mentioned, Dave, like when you stack them together, they're so much more valuable. Also, I just wanted to note I'm not gonna like ask this this personal question, Seco, but you mentioned that at the time you had two kids. Assuming you still just have two kids, between the three of us, we have nine children. So we've got a small army of uh window cleaning parallel uh yeah, yeah. So um, so okay. Are you uh what's the deal with the technopad? Is that your are you accredited with the design of the technopad, or like how did that come about?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

No, so the technopad had been around, I would guess, maybe a decade before it ever became popular. So the technopad handle comes from Pulex. Pulex is a huge brand, not a huge brand in window cleaning, but they're a multi-billion dollar company, especially in janitorial. So they make a lot of the time when you go to a commercial building, you see the large like floor sweepers and stuff like that, that's what they're the manufacturer of. So they also um make a lot of pure water systems, they make some water-fed poles anymore. But, anyways, so it was a very, very simple tool. And when me and my wife went to, I believe it was the 2018 huge convention, um, and that's like a service convention, Poolex was there and they had these handles out, and I just grabbed one. I was like, man, this would be great for like putting on a pole and just put our bronze wool pads on and be able to, you know, just get that agitation without how he's having to ladder everything or with the big panes of glass, not having to hand scrub everything. You just have this pad that's like four by nine inches covering so much surface space. Started using it. This is the time that my uh my wife was even working working with me at the same time, and it was just a huge time saver. Gave one to all the other guys I worked with, they loved it. And then I was making tons of content at the time. I made a video about it because that's what I just love to do is about about products, and did the video, it popped off, and the next day WCR sold out of all the technopad handles. They used to keep, but like this wasn't a very big number, it was like 20 because it wasn't popular at the time, but all 20 sold overnight. Now, what we regularly stock in is at least a thousand of each color at a time, and so it comes in like three different accent colors, it doesn't really mean anything. But then when I made the video and I made it with bronze wool pads, bronze wool pads were a thing at the time, and so they were kind of a one-stop shop. I mean, you could mop your window scrub with bronze wool, you pretty much didn't have to use a scraper, a white pad, a walnut pad, or quad zero steel wool, and that lasted you so long because it didn't rust. And it got, you know, people just loved it for that. And then bronze wool pads went away, so walnut pads started being used with it. It just became extremely popular for everyone to like have on their belt. Um, and it's just so great because you can cover so much surface area. You know, one of the things that comes up in window cleaning is you know, when you're constantly scrubbing all day long, you do want to find ways to be more efficient with that for like your joints. Like sometimes people don't think about that. And I see it a lot in older window cleaners getting knee replacements and you know, crazy things like that, but it helped with that, and um, it's just turned into a very, very popular tool, and we have other attachments for it, like microfiber pads that can go onto it. Now, the main thing that it's actually made for is to put on Pool X has a bunch of different microfiber pads that you could actually put like spray away on, or you can use pure water with rubbing alcohol and mist the pad, and you could use that for like high commercial windows to remove like a haze. They even have, yeah, and so they even make a it's called a clean oll, and a cleanau pole is basically like a glorified spray bottle with an extension pole made into it. So they make those from two feet all the way up to 35 feet, and it uses the same exact idea, but you have this bottle at the bottom that you put like pure water and rubbing alcohol in, goes up the pole um through a hose, and you have a trigger at the bottom, it misses the window, and you buff it out. It's not gonna clean like very dirty glass, um, but it's definitely good for like commercial settings, especially you don't like you know a bunch of dirty drifts on the drywall or something like that. So all that stuff kind of starts at the technopad and then works into like the pole and everything that they have there. Um, but that's kind of the history of it, and uh no, I get no kickback on it as far as that goes. It's just uh just turned into a popular tool for window cleaners. So you need to change that. You need a kickback.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, I've tried. They put your name on it, bro. They put your name on it. Your name is licensable, good sir. Um, yeah, it's been good. I've I've had a couple, um, and uh I've really liked them. The efficiency on especially like high-end residential, like floor to ceiling windows. We don't do a whole lot of commercial like route work. It's it's mainly high-end residential for us, um, has been huge. I will say I it's more uh it's like a supplement to your toolkit and not a replacement for something like steel wool, in my opinion. Um, like anytime we come across like tiny paint spots or something like that, especially on teppered glass, there is still totally a use case for something that's like more that you can do this with. Um but uh especially if we've been there in the last six or twelve months, uh it's a no-brainer. And as far as efficiency goes, I mean it it it takes less than half the amount of time to like apply an abrasive to the entire the entire window. So yeah, that's been that's been an invaluable upgrade for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Yeah, I do there's a hospital uh we do a hospital that uh twice a year, and the interior windows on that hospital are I don't know, twenty-five feet high, and they're huge pains. I mean they're like probably eight feet by five feet, just huge pains, and they go across the whole building and they collect this just because they're not dirty, they get hazy. And I'm thinking that this would probably be an amazing tool for that.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Oh yeah, definitely. And like I I used to clean a ton of dealerships, and I wish I knew about some of this stuff because I would do um a lot of offices where you were going over desks with tons of paper and having like the Kleino, they have like a five-foot, a two-foot version, and I wish I'd have been able to do that because the efficiency too of not mopping and then squeegee, and we were in there, you know, every three months in all these offices, and it was just a haze with like minor fingerprints. And if I would have known about it then, I would have used it all the time and it would have been huge on efficiency, you know. And like I mentioned though, if it has like, you know, bug spots or different stuff like that, it's not gonna remove that. And I have, I think it's probably 60-40 as far as the people that love it and the people that hate it, because some try to get it for like inside residential and they want to clean, you know, a window that hasn't been cleaned for three years with it, and it's not gonna work for that, right? Because it it once again it has that Windex feature that you're not really removing it from the glass, you're more like polishing the glass. So, but you know, if you ever have a high window and you just want to put the techno pad with one of their green microfiber pads on it, put some spray away on it on a skyline, works perfect. It's great. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah, yeah, sweet. Um you know, you mentioned um, I'm forgetting what the convention was called, but this is something that I've been trying to figure out for a minute here. What uh what in person conventions are worth attending? I don't know if you have your pulse on that, uh like your finger on that pulse, but I'd love to hear any any insight you have into that.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Yeah. So, like you were sharing earlier, you know, window cleaning still being a pretty small niche. Right. We don't have a lot of that stuff for us, like pressure washing being so much bigger, you'll find a lot of pressure washing conventions. So uh the huge convention was actually created by the one of the founders of Window Cleaning Resource, which is Chris Lambernini's. So they ran it up till 2020. Um, and that one was really, really good. And so we still go to that. It has turned into more of just a home service show. So, right, one of the most popular things that's really come about in the last three years is Christmas lights. And so you'll go there, and that will be mainly what the booths are. Um, but there are a lot of good classes as far as motivational classes, right? Like everyone there is kind of there to like sell you a course when you go to those classes. Um, but at least like the keynote speakers can be really good. Not saying that the the speakers that are trying to sell you something aren't, but there is a lot of those hoo-rah classes. I'm not a big hoo-rah type of class person. Um, I never have been, but huge convention, that's always kind of the biggest one of the year. That's where you'll find the most people speaking to get you motivated or to uh learn about all the different um, you know, things that are coming about with apps. So like AI was the huge topic of this last convention. There was a bunch of stuff of how, yeah, of how to train an AI assistant that, you know, once an employee comes in, you don't even need, you know, a real person to teach. You're just gonna create a whole program that's taught by AI. So we would always ask people when they come to our booth, hey, what are you know, are the classes doing well? And everybody would say, Man, I went to this AI class and it was one of the scariest things as far as learning how how smart it's getting and what it can do for your business, and yada yada yada. So that's a really good convention if you just overall service business. The other convention that's smaller, but it's all window cleaners, would be the IWCA convention. Um, huge convention is always going to be in August. Uh, typically an IWCA is usually gonna be in February, and that one is just really nice because you're meeting with all these people that do the same thing that you do every day. So the ice is already broken, you know, everybody's talking, and it's the networking with those that is amazing. Um, my first ever convention was I I think it was in 2016 or 2017, and that was the best thing was even being by the bar at night and just talking to all the other companies. That motivated me the most because I I met companies that were in 15, 20 mile radius of me that I never knew about that were huge. And so it really opened my eye to or opened my eyes to just how big the actually industry could be. And I just thought of like this limited growth. So it helped me understand how big it could really get. And then I've met some of my best friends um, you know, at conventions and like uh Jersey, you probably know Jersey, he has like a podcast and stuff. Yeah, him and I are best buddies, and that's the way we met. I mean, we were sales reps when we went, but I mean, you know, getting to see him every year, and then you know, we'll see each other at IWCA, and then you just get to know this whole entire group that you know, we know we're gonna see each other like two times a year, and it's just good to be able to, you know, meet up with like-minded people. Uh, but definitely huge convention, so hugeconvention.com and then IWCA. Um, that's the one that's always in the winter. Typically, more people like that one just because August is such a hard time to like, you know, get up and go to a convention for a week.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Is that also is huge the one that there's one that happens in Nashville every year where I am, and I haven't been to it. Is it is that what it is? Is it huge? Well, so it has been a Nashville for the last four years, but in August it's gonna be in Orlando. Dang it, man. This is this is literally the one that I was like, I'm going. I'm going. That's a short drive for you. Yeah, I'm going to Orlando. It's fine. Yeah, yeah. Will you be at that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be there.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Colby, we're all going, bro. All right. Yep. Sounds good. Sounds good. It'll be a good that's an August. That's one in August.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Yep, August. It's always it's always like usually, I think, the last week of August. And the really great thing though about I have found every time a convention is in Florida, you get a ton of pressure washing companies too, because there's so much pressure washing going on in Florida. So it's a really, really good group of people to learn from. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Cool. You got an in for like a uh uh booth vendor setup. We can do a little mobile mobile podcast setup.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Oh, yeah. They they they do actually one year they did a whole podcast row of a bunch of different podcasts, and they were going the whole entire time. So there's always a bunch of stuff going on like that. Alright, cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

That'd be cool actually, like to have us a booth set up and just like random people saying, Hey, you want to come in and have a quick conversation?

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Cool. Sweet. All right, sounds good. We'll pick that one back up for sure. Sounds sounds like a plan. Cool. Dave, you got anything else? I've got some selfish like gear questions, um, but I don't know, like if you've got anything rattling around in your head, Dave, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

I mean, I I to be honest, I I really just wanted to publicly thank you too, Stevo, because um I mean I've only been I started glass therapy in in May of 2024, and uh you have been so pivotal in helping me figure out what to buy. And um one of my uh one of my favorite things just about having you in my corner is uh I never have to wonder, like, is this guy just trying to get me to buy the most expensive thing? Because nine times out of ten, you're usually pointing me almost in like the opposite direction. Like, I don't think you need this. Like this would be overkill. And um yet your your partnership and even really friendship has been so pivotable, pivotal to uh me and my business and the growth of it, and um just the education that you've given me on the tools that we use every day now. And uh it it seriously has been um a game changer for us. So I just wanted to publicly thank you for that.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Thank you, man. No, I I appreciate that. It's it's been great working with you, and uh and that's the great thing is like like yourself, we get to see people grow businesses and we get to see it kind of from like the ground up. And um, it's always really impressive when you do see someone do like what you've done. And so I I thank you for allowing me to to to be that, you know, as far as that goes. Like, you know, as reps, it's it's you know, yes, we get you know our commission for doing this, you know, we're we're 100% commissioned, so we work off of that, but it's it's about being real, right? If I sell you something that is is junk or is not needed, that's coming back around. We're gonna have that conversation, you know, and I know from being in the field what's really needed and what's not. And I made a video a long time ago about wants versus needs, you know, and sometimes I get calls where I'm like, you're just you're wanting this, but you're not needing it for the business, and you'd be so much better, you know. Don't buy water fed right away. Go spend$500 on traditional equipment and go spend money on marketing to like grow that part of it. And you know, those are the conversations come up. But I greatly appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah, yeah, of course. Now I'm afraid that you're gonna talk me out of buying an overkill ROT. I've been running off of a single tower zero, like single stage for the longest time, and it is not good for my area, so I know I need to upgrade, and I think I've been looking at stuff that's way overkill.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Um, and now I'm afraid just tell him he needs it. Yeah, you need it.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

I just picked up I just picked up a uh uh transit like 250 low roof, and um it was only after picking that up that um I for the first time noticed the uh zero wall mount system, and uh I haven't been able to keep my eyes off of it since. Um I don't know how you usually go about consulting people on these kinds of things. I I I've I've kind of gone into it previously a while ago, and I was recommended the um the zero pure max plus, I think it was. Um and so I think the wall mount and the triple pure or the triple pure are I mean by that standard maybe a little bit more than what I would need. But is it like if you get something that's like more robust, like like the wall mount system or the triple pure versus like a pure max plus, um, is it just longevity that you're getting, or is there actually is it really easy to do overkill in that in that regard? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Yeah, yeah, definitely. First thing I'd always ask is like what's your goal with the system as far as are you looking to run multiple polls? Are you looking to go two to three stories? Are you looking to go four to five stories? He wants to look cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

I do, I do want to. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

I'm just kidding. It is really cool looking. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

This darn van has a sliding door and it's got an empty wall on it, and so it's just like I gotta fill the wall and I don't want to put a poster up there. So definitely no, I up to two poles, uh up to th four stories in very rare cases, um, but like two to three. Like most of what we do is residential. We do up to four-story commercial. Um, but I mean, if we're doing four-story commercial, we're probably just getting a lift for that. Um, because if they're calling us, it's probably been long enough that they they need some hand washing done, anyways. Um, so that's kind of the answer there.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Uh for your setup, are you looking when you're looking at a Walmart? Typically, people are also uh thinking about having like a buffer tank in their vehicle. Is that one of the things you've thought about, or do you like to typically run from like the water source to your system?

SPEAKER_00 31:41

I usually run from like the water source to the system. Um, I'm not opposed to having a buffer tank. Um, but yeah, I'd love some insight on that.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Yeah. So if you buy a Walmount, you're going to be doing a buffer tank, and that's kind of the first thing that always comes up with a lot of pressure washing companies is typically they want a mounded system because they want to be able to push their water from a buffer tank into a pure water system. Now, one of the issues with that though is that there's only certain pumps that can do that, and 12 volt pumps do not work great for um basically pulling from a tank and pushing through a pure water system that's a multi-stage. And that is due to the RO membranes that are reverse osmosis that are usually in those large stainless steel uh housings, they filter through resistance. So when you're pushing against resistance, you're pushing back towards the pump and you're overheating the pump and you're turning it off very quickly, usually within 30 minutes. So the only pump that does this efficiently is a plug-in pump that basically uses a rotary vein on it, which that you can regulate the pressure and you can adjust that. And so that's really the only thing that works for that. So if you're doing it always from the customer's water spigot, a wall mount would work great. Um, and that you would basically have on there too a 5.590 psi 12 volt pump that's before your ROs and it's plumbed in perfectly for that. Sometimes when you run an external pump, you're running that before your pre-filters. If you can plumb up a pump where it runs straight into the ROs, you're getting the most out of that pump because an RO membrane is actually going to filter better under higher PSI and get you a higher flow rate. So when you run that 100 PSI through a wall mount, you're getting like three gallons per minute. You only need about 0.7, 0.5 gallons per minute for a single pole to run at four stories. So you could run three poles if you want to off of a splitter. Um, so that would be a great system. The only thing I would bring up is that if you could ever think in your mind, if you've ever had a job where there's no way that your vehicle would be close enough with as much hose as you have to get to there, buy a portable unit, such as I would actually suggest to you a zero peer max plus. I want to suggest to you a zero triple peer, um, a zero triple peer and a zero peer max power are both on a double reinforced frame, so they're a lot heavier. You don't really want to wheel that through a customer's lawn. Um, and so a max plus is going to be about 74 pounds. And then if you ever need that extra PSI, you literally just have either a plug-in 110-volt pump that you could have be portable, or you have it set up in your vehicle and you have the same 12 volt pump that I mentioned with um the triple, and you have that where you do a hose reel out of your truck to the water source, bring that back, run it through the 12-volt booster, that's gonna route it up to 90 psi, that's gonna give you your two and a half gallons per minute out of a max plus, route that to a hose reel and take that out to um to the home. And that's a great way of doing it. I helped a um a company in Florida last April set up five trucks, and we did five triple systems, we did five booster pumps, and we did hose reels, and we did high flow hose, and we got it to where they could run three poles on every single job. Uh, and but you could do that same with anything with a max plus. I pretty much feel like when you have two double ROs, you really don't need that triple. That triple is basically taking wastewater from your ROs and pushing it through another RO to eliminate a lot of wastewater, but then again, you're pushing high TDS water through that third RO, so that is gonna go quicker. Um, and so that's where I'd say slim it down to either a max plus or a wall mount, but Walmart you're just limited on that. If you ever need that to be portable, you know, you won't be able to do that. So I have so many softwash companies that what they decide to do is they ratchet strap that portable system to their rig so that if they need it to be portable, they can have it be portable, and then if not, they can just you know have it in the vehicle ready to go. That's a little breakdown. Sorry if I went off a little bit on too crazy there, but yeah, it's a good breakdown.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Oh, that's great. Um, in terms of like, so if I have this thing wall-mounted and I can run a lot, like I'm I can run a hose to the client's spigot. Um with that, like I can just you know, pretty much keep adding hose. Well, like what I'm what I the only concern that I have is like how far on this with the booster pump could I run, how much line could I go from the from the filter itself to the end of the pole?

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Uh-huh. So what you always want to do with that is that off of this system, you want to run a hose that has a 3-8-inch inner diameter. And so a lot of the hose reels that are sold for pure water are always gonna have a 3-8-inch inner diameter. When you buy a water-fed pole, that hose that comes with the pole is a 316th inner diameter, but it's made as a polyurethane hose to be super light. So when you have that pole up at you know, high distances, it's not heavy for you. You want to limit that type of hose to about 50 feet, and then what you would want to do is run 150, you could run all the way to 300 feet of a rubber hose that's three-hit inner diameter. Me and Dave um were just talking about uh he got a couple 250-foot hose reels. That would be a type of reel that you could put in the back of your vehicle, and you could either have 150 feet on there, and then you could have another 100 foot to 150 foot that you could just connect to that to go further. Run as much of that as possible and limit your regular pole hose to like 50 to 100 feet. The only other thing that can really help with an upgrade when you're running multi-stage is also we came out with a high flow pole hose, which is a quarter inch in our diameter, not that much larger than uh 316th, but I tested it for a year before we ever released it, and it brings double the volume of water to the brush. Um, it's amazing. I had a lot of cleaners work with me during that time, and I never would tell them like what was on the setup, and they would have a very similar setup, but regular pole hose, and they always were like, What's the difference here? I was like, it's just a little bit larger of inner diameter, and it makes the biggest difference as far as the volume that gets to the brush. So it's always obtainable whenever you run a pump. If you're ever thinking running a pump at the multi-stage, that makes everything easy.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Yeah. And dude, the the zero portable hose reel, I just bought two of them, two of the 250-foot ones, and they're fantastic. My my guy started using them uh uh literally today, and they're so durable too. When I first started, I bought the 150-foot hose reel, and that thing is we have beat the crap out of that thing, and that ho that hose still works fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, but you there's you know, depending on if you want it to be portal, if you want it to be mounted, there are other brands of reels that you can always hook up hose to. Summit is a great brand. Um, our zero HD reels, a summit base with a um with a rubber hose on it. But if you're looking for mounted, there's better reels for that. There's even wider reels that if you just wanted a whole 300-foot, you know, rubber hose on there, you could do that. So there's a lot of configurations you can do based on kind of your needs.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Sweet man. Awesome. Thank you for the rundown. Uh I think we'll probably have to have to hop on another quick call where you tell me what buttons to click. Uh sounds good. It sounds like you haven't, you know, you passed the vibe check. I'm still, you know, breaking out breaking out the checkbook. So good. Thanks for not talking me, talking me down too much there. Definitely. Sounds good. Sweet. Right on. Dave, you got anything else, brother?

SPEAKER_01 39:34

You know, uh, I don't I don't think I do. I mean, this has just been fun to talk with you in person and uh and hopefully this is uh you know valuable for a lot of other other window cleaners that tune in and listen to this. And uh if they don't have someone that they're working with at WCR, now they should.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Yeah. How can people get in touch with you, Steve O if they're looking to also not get talked down of buying a bunch of equipment?

unknown 39:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Uh best ways to reach out to me by uh text or call. So my phone number is 970-214-9522. You can always find me on Instagram, Facebook, but that's gonna be the quickest way to contact me. Wait.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Right on. Well, Steve O, it was awesome getting to know you, ma'am. Thanks for the the rundown on the gear. Appreciate it. And uh yeah, man. Uh we'll have to do it again sometime, maybe in person at uh at at the convention.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yeah, definitely. Thank you for having me. This was this was super chill. Uh I really, really enjoyed it and uh just nice to talk to you both.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Right on, guys. Thanks for listening. Uh this has been Clea for Profit, and we'll catch you next week.