The biggest costs in a Window Cleaning business are often one of three things. Your vehicle, your staff (not a problem if you're solo!) and your resin.
I'm sure at some point you've experienced the frustration of DI resin running out quicker than you expected it to, and at anywhere from £90-£100 a bag, it's a cost that can quickly add up.
First things first, what is DI resin? If you're unsure then head over to our complete guide to pure water window cleaning. However in simple terms, it's a key component in a window cleaning system that gives you pure water that dries completely spotlessly. DI stands for deionising, and it's purchased in bags, usually 25 litres (see our most popular option here).
There are a few things you can do to prolong the lifespan of your resin, though it's hard to predict exactly how many litres of pure water you can get from a bag of resin, as there are too many factors that affect it.
Here are the tried and true methods:
1. Protect Your Resin with Pre-Filters
Pre-filters will be used as a standard if you're running a 4 stage RO-D purification system. However if you just use DI resin, as is often the case in soft water area, it may be worth adding these to your system.
sediment & carbon pre-filters will catch sand, dirt, debris and remove chlorine before the water reaches the resin. You can add pre-filters easily with this double housing. You'll need one of each sediment & carbon filters (10'').
2. Double DI
This is a technique that we're surprised isn't more widely adopted by Window Cleaners.
The moment your resin stops producing pure water it becomes useless and gets binned for a fresh bag, but that isn't quite true - resin that isn't purifying completely to 0 may still be doing 95% of the work, it just needs a little assistance to go that last few steps.
Instead of binning your old resin, you can run a double DI system (a double DI system is exactly what it says on the tin, two DI Vessels). By running a double DI system, you can use your old resin to do 95% of the purification and then connect to a fresh vessel to just finish off the job. This means that your new resin is doing a fraction of the work and will therefore last significantly longer!
Over time the old resin will get worse and even the fresh vessel will stop purifying all the way down to 0. At that point you put the fresh resin into the old vessel and switch them around.
3. Stop Wasting Water!
Using a water control valve & running your system at a slower speed can make a significant difference over time.Running water at an appropriate speed sounds as though it doesn't need saying, but it's easy to think more water = faster cleaning. If you're seeing a lot of water splashing off the window as you clean, maybe it's time to turn your flow controller down. Some Window Cleaners swear by Rinse Bars as a way to speed up rinse time, which can also help save water.
4. Give It a Shake
This only really applies with standard DI Vessels, ignoring specialty systems that sometimes account for 'channeling'. The design of a standard vessel means that over time the water can form channels and so the contact time between the resin and the water will not be sufficient. By giving your vessel a good shake you can mix it up and ensure to get the most from every drop.
So there you have it, 4 tried and tested ways to get more from your DI resin.
Check out these other useful tips:
- Types of filtration explained