Production Materials

I was out looking at upgrading some equipment today and maybe it is just me, but why is everything getting made out of plastic? I get that it is lighter and they seem to hold up for the most part, but is it really what everyone wants or is it just what everyone has to get?

I replaced the swivel on my pressure reel today and it was a very high quality unit that Butler sent me. It just screamed high quality, made in Switzerland and rated up to 4,000 psi! Then I studied my cleaning tools with all the poly-plastics and generally cheap look to them and wondered how did we get here? Ever try and clean an Airpath body after it gets beat up for a few months? Still ends up looking like a beat up piece of equipment.

I don't mean to rant, but we spend our lives restoring people's property (tile, stone, textiles, etc.) to near new condition, but we can't do the same with our tools because they are made of textured plastics of one type or another. Did we drive the industry into supplying us with these tools or did the industry drive us into accepting this reality?

Partly we are to blame. We wanted to save money, so we bought what was cheaper. The company that charged more, went out of business.

Mfger's are partly to blame, as in the name of profits.

I personally won't use cleaning tools made from plastic ie: Hydramaster and Sapphire Uph. tools. Had a Hydra master that disintegrated over time. My stainless PMF tool in service for 10 years. Blowers and fans are made from plastic for weight saving needs. As long as they are roto molded out of quality materials I have no qualms. Imagine if they were made of metal.

Crazy thing is the price of these products tripled.