We want the truth but are we likely to get it?

FYI, a letter Ken posted a while back
An open letter to the carpet cleaning industry:

Lately there has been some uncertainty about glides and their availability to the industry and market in the USA. Most of these issues center around the face design of glides and whether or not they are in compliance with two existing patents.

Without getting too technical, the basic issue centers around whether glides with a multi-hole or multi-slotted face violate patents of which this feature plays a part in the basic design parameters under which the original patents were granted.

It was almost four years ago that I brought the modern Teflon glides to market (July 2003), and the market is changing in a big way once again. It has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses and lost sales since that time to find the way to settle this issue once and for all. I have finally done that, but before I cover the details of that, it might be useful to cover a bit of the background that led up to our current situation.

Four years ago, I began my quest to find a better way to improve the lives of the thousands of cleaners who pushed a wand every day. Having been in that role myself for more than 20 years, I was very aware for the need for improvement in this regard. The money was good, but there was a major problem. Pushing a wand back and forth up to 15,000 times a day was wearing people out, and causing very high turnover in our industry. Most cleaners could not last beyond five to 10 years in the job, as a result.

Wands then, as now, were produced to satisify one major consideration: Cost. They were hard to push because the thin metal lips they used dug into the carpet and caused the wand to "lock down" to the carpet's primary backing during extraction. This caused them to be very restrictive in terms of airflow and of course made them hard to push. I realized that if I solved the airflow (cfm) problem, the push problem would be solved at the same time. What airflow problem? The wands were only producing about 100 cfms of airflow at the WCI(Wand/ Carpet Interface) during cleaning operation because of the lock down occuring on most carpets. This dispite the fact they were connected to TM's capable of moving well over 300 cfms at the blowers on those units.

What was happening was that excess airflow that should have been going through the wand was being wasted going out the vacuum relief valve. So to solve that problem, it was necessary to design a glide that had a much larger radius to allow the wand's weight to be spread over a larger area to prevent lock down and resultant airflow reduction.To enhance the ability to move the wand on the carpet, a round shape was chosen over the then current flat bottom designs, which still had lock down problems. PTFE was chosen as the construction material because it is the most slippery material on earth.

The results were astonishing. Effort to move the wand of the carpet was reduced by more than 75%, in most testing. Airflow going into the wand almost doubled, going from an observed value of 109 cfm without the glide on, to 203 cfms with the glide in place. Drying times were radically reduced in some cases to an hour our less (dry to hand, not instrument), epecially when cleaning wool area rugs. The face design used to achieve these results were a series of holes, which caused airflow to accelerate as it entered the glide, picking up more water from the carpet during cleaning operation. I was so impressed that I named these glides Superglides.

Unfortunately, that initial design ran into patent infringement claims that have resulted in many setbacks in terms of market promotion and legal expenses over the last few years that have transpired since then, not only for myself, but for others that have copied my original glide designs. As a result, these issues have prevented the industry from adopting this technolodgy to the extent that would normally be expected. So today there are six glide manufacturers that have the same issues facing them as I originally faced back in 2003.

There have been some successful developments along the way as well, however.

In April 2005 I developed a different type of glide, called the SuperLip, that would not infringe on the patents at all. This was because they fit right onto the lips of the wands themselves, and used the single slot on the wand itself to extract the soil and water from the carpet. But because they were made from the same PTFE material the Superglides was using, they still reduced wand effort between 60 to 70% on most carpets.

I decided that finding an acceptable alternative for the Superglide in the USA would be the best approach to resolving these outstanding issues with glides. So I used the last year to refine a single slotted glide instead. A single slotted glide was the only logical alternative, because it is in full compliance with all existing patents, both passed and pending. It is the same basic design as the single slotted wands on which it mounts onto. By January 2007, I had accomplished my goal, and the SuperSlide Glide was born.

The SuperSlide glide is the only Teflon glide produced today that is in full complience with all patents, and has no legal issues attached to its sale. Distributors that carry it can rest assured that they will not be receiving letters from law firms telling them they must destroy their stock of glides when they carry it. Cleaners that buy it can benefit by the extreme value pricing I am introducing these glides for. Only $49 if you use the most popular wand style in the USA. Nearly a 1/3 of all wands sold today in the USA will fit our SS1210 glide. We offer you this low price so that those that buy our SuperSlide SG Wand will have inexpensive replacement glides available when they need them. Which will be a long time, since they average over a year in use. Other models are offered for the best selling premium wands as well, at higher cost.

What do these changes mean to a cleaner, in practical terms? Not a lot. You may no longer be able to buy holed and hybrid glides if you live in the USA, but our SuperSlide glide pushes easier than any of them if pushing ease is your main concern. If better agitation, with pushing ease is what you are looking for, the lip glides deliver that better than fullsize glides. A Superslide will probably take an hour longer to dry a carpet than a holed glide would, but will not force you to use a vacuum if you don't normally use one either. Compared to multi-sloted and Hybrid glides, drying with a Superslide will be pretty close. Two to three hours if other factors are right.

You still have choice. Your choice is between a set of lip glides for about $20 or a SuperSlide glide. Since the SuperSlide will last at least 4X longer than our Ultralip glides in use, that is a pretty good deal, too. Or you could go for the very best deal and order our best buy, the SuperSlide Glide Wand. Here we will sell you a SuperSlide Glide AND Wand for only $149. That is much less than most of you would normally pay for a wand alone. Offers don't get much better than that! Remember, you can compete with one, or against one. The choice is yours.

Wishing you happy gliding in 2007.

Best Regards,

Ken Harris

  just what did Jeff design ?? The roto molding ?? The multi vacs ??  Jeff has never had an original idea in his life , even running from the law has already been done .

Now they're contacting every guy who ever did business with Ken and telling them to come to the KK forum and talk smack.  How g.a.y. is that? meow meow meow!!!

Ummm, YAH you ARE a p.u.s.s.y. otherwise you would just call Ken and talk man to man and ask him where your stuff is!

Edited by Ken_Is_OK - 29/November/2009 at 7:54pm

Forfuxsake grow up. What difference does it make how I ask Ken a question?

As I've said before I did not get a response from my last two emails ordering a new glide. I cant seem to get a reponse on the forum either. I'm pretty sure that pHil knows the trial Slider that Kenny said he was going to send out wont ever come. I dont give a fat rats arse about Kens reputation. That's his problem.

If anyone is carrying on like a 12 year old girl it's YOU having to resort to childish name calling. Whatever pal, I've got better things to do than waste my time on you. It sounds like you are surrounded by your mentality in any case. I hope you can be trusted to take care of them.