Are you straight or do you swivel? By Simon Sherwood

Article from the pages of WCM Jan 2012 issue:

Gardiners carbon gooseneck. The product feels quality, the plastic seems tough, but only time will tell how it will last, although it does look promising.

The resi-neck is quick release in more than one way. Not only can it be swapped in seconds with Gardin- ers’ quick release neck system, you can also adjust the angle of the neck in moments with a clamp that looks not dissimilar to the pole clamps on the SLX CLX range of poles. The clamp is shaped so that when closed it hugs the angel adapter closely – very nice! It just makes the product look nicer and brings an air of quality that you wouldn’t normally associate with a window cleaning tool. Also, the angle of the neck is already preset to what most window cleaners would use. In other words, it looks as though there is a crook in the neck of the angle adapter. Surprising- ly, this works very well.

Example of a fixed gooseneck touching dirty brickwork

the old style angle adapters that used to pinch the hose and look unsightly due to being drilled out, the update is a very welcome sight indeed.

 

 

Pictures of the standard Resi-neck with no swivel and the old style swivel

As for the swivel itself, it’s made from two separate pieces of plastic, held together with a locking bolt nut set. This is a very good idea, as you can easily slacken or tighten the swivel to suit your taste, or even the weight of your brush. The swivels I’ve used in the past come in the form of ball and socket joints. These do get stiff over time and are eventually unus- able, but Gardiners’ design looks like it will last a lot longer. Again, time will be the true test.

There is also a neat hole incorporated into the resi- neck for the pole hose to feed down into the pole. This may not sound like a big deal, but compared to

The swivel on the resi-neck seems to be extreme as well. You get nearly 180 degrees of pivot, which is far more than the standard universal swivel joints. In use, the brush moves only in the directions that you need it to: left and right. It swivels but it doesn’t flex up and down.

Could Gardiners have made this product any better? Maybe if they had made it from some superlite space age material that cost a few thousand pounds per gram. No, in all seriousness, if you are into swiveling then you will most probably love this beauty; and if you’re not

then maybe if you spend a little time playing with this swivel, you might just …… turn.

Comments