Windows in sun

Depending on the size of the pane and where the divider bar is located, if any, is what determines the amount of glass I soap before running the squeegee. I run into excessively hot glass in Florida and what I have found to work is using a very wet Fliq pad on an 18" channel mounted on a swivel handle and using a pole except for when it is below 5 ft. I will soap about 24" vertical area the entire width of the pane. I then start with the channel in the full vertical alignment as if I were to do a horizontal straight pull. If I am starting in the middle of the pane, I will give about a 2" overlap along the top edge of soaped area. As I am moving across the glass to the opposite frame, I will drop the top corner of the channel to be in the flat horizontal alignment as I come to the edge and do about a 16" straight pull down. I will then move the squeegee back across the glass while maintaining the horizontal alignment with a slight raise in the leading edge corner. This will deposit some of the collected water back onto the window to provide a slip surface for the second, lower pass. As I am moving the channel back to the originating point, I am going to raise the leading corner to be roughly 2" above the mid-glass starting point to collect the initial streaks of water from the set off pull. Keeping the channel oriented mostly horizontal from this point on, I will sweep the leading corner down along the frame edge to collect the water and begin my second pass by while again raising the leading edge about 1-2" above the deposited water trail from the first pass and collecting the remaining “fresh” soap. I will then continue this process, down the height of the pane with each subsequent soaping having a slight overlap of the surface I just cleaned to ensure I do not leave an evaporated line of soap in the middle of the pane. Continue this process until you are within arms reach with your mop and squeegee, remove the pole and continue the pattern until you are able to close out on either the bottom or lower side rail.

Each pass of 24" should be able to be completed within 20 seconds from soaping to squeegee as long as you have a Fliq pad. Keep it super wet between passes which will help cool down the surface of the lower section of the pane as well as provide more water to evaporate off before it dries completely. The really nice thing about the Fliq pads is if you have a skip in the squeegee rubber or miss a trail as you are fanning, you can just flip the mop surface back over and re-wet, flip it again and keep going and it takes less than 3 seconds.

Here is a link to another @SteveO video from back in 2019 of him using the Fliq pad on high window cleanings. The squeegeeing technique is different than what I am describing, but you can see the use of the Fliq to re-wet the surface without having to drop the pole and switch tools.

Trad hot glass cleaning is all about repetition to develop consistent efficient movement which will lead to speed while maintaining quality results. Another option is to develop the two handed technique for when it is within arms reach, which you can also extend by using much wider mops and channels. @SteveO did a video on using the Sorbo Eliminator back in August. These things come in widths all the way up to 72"! Talk about single pass straight pulls!

Eventually, if your route allows for it, you can invest in a WFP system which will eliminate the stress of rushing to get all the water off before it dries, but it is not the answer for every location as water may not be available or running a hose line may pose a tripping liability issue for foot traffic.

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