Cleaning Windows! How do you do them?

PeppermintPatty

PeppermintPatty

🐢. 🐳. 🐢
Location
Canada
I’m doing some spring cleaning and starting with the windows. How to you clean yours?
What products do you use?

I spend a lot of time trying to clean my windows and while they look cleaner, they look a complete mess.

What’s your secret?
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I clean my windows with water and vinegar or Windex. Then I wipe them dry using newspaper. I have done it this way for decades. Drying the windows with newspaper makes windows so clear and clean, it's like looking through no window at all. I have done my car windows the same way. Sparkling clean windows!
 
OMG. Best thread ever. :D

I have windows on to a balcony, and I have cleaned them a dozen times. What a nightmare. I can never get rid of the streaks.

I have a great, and deep knowledge, of the things I'm good at. But cleaning windows? Not an idea. And it drives me nuts.

I have decided windows are evil. Sunlight encourages them.
 
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There's a reason all professional window cleaners wash windows the exact same way, using a scrubber mop to wash them & a squeegee to get rid of the water left on the window. You can get a basic kit at most hardware stores or Wal-Mart.
It's super fast and easy and always streak free. No chemicals or paper towels required. Any time you wipe a window with a cloth or paper towel, you're creating streaks. You may not see the streaks until the sun shines directly on them at just the right angle, but they're there!
Wash water should be luke warm with just a little dish soap in it. You'll need a cloth to wipe the squegee dry after using it each time and you may need an extension pole for the places you can't reach from where you're standing.
I was skeptical until I tried it. I was sold immediately!
 
I’m fortunate that my little apartment has windows that tilt in for washing.

I normally use a few drops of DAWN or vinegar in warm water and paper towels.

Streaks are a problem, I try to wash the windows on a sunny day so I can see them and minimize them.

I may give the squeegee method a try. 🤔

I used to have an old apartment overlooking a very busy city street and the grime on the windows was so bad it almost baked onto glass and frames.

I window washer told me to use spray on oven cleaner!

It worked but I’m not sure if constant use would damage the glass or metal frames.

Like any other household chore, the more often we do it the easier it becomes.
 
I use automotive glass cleaner that is guaranteed streak-free.
Nothing says you can't use automotive glass cleaner in the home.

My windows are all double pane, so there aren't a bunch of individual panes.
SOooo ... I spray on Invisible Glass and use a bath towel to wipe down the window.
Easy peasy.

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fuzzybuddy said:
It's Windex or whatever and newspapers. Yeah , plain old water and a squeegee works, but there is just something about a window cleaned with newspaper. It just sparkles. Newpaper has some kind of magic stuff.
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We used to use newspapers, brown paper grocery sacks, and pages from old phone books for all sorts of things, because we had them.

I’m not sure where I could find such things today.
 
As a landscape photographer, a couple decades ago went through a brief period framing prints for sales. Framing with metal framing kits, matting, and clear glass. That was when I really found out how difficult it was to clean glass without leaving residues. Almost all glass cleaners will leave a residue that requires a second stage of buffing with say a clean microfiber cloth to remove residues.

All glass cleaners have a mix of cleaning agents, most of which don't fully evaporate after drying. Some are worse than others. Pure ammonia will evaporate but alone won't clean as well as a mix with detergents. Windex is the leading brand so many competitive products have produced solutions that have the same blue color. A color that will also add to residues decreasing clarity.

The paper or cloth one uses with liquid cleaners to clean glass surfaces will also leave residues as the fluid dissolves ingredients like paper towel print colors.

For truly optically clear glass surfaces one needs to use what expensive camera manufacturers use on their sensor filters.

On my Sony a6000 ILC used this Eclipse brand sensor filter cleaner for about a decade. Their kit also includes special extra clean cotton swabs. The fluid contains methanol not isopropyl alcohol. Read information on the below product page to really understand glass cleaning issues.

Eclipse – Sensor Cleaning for DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras | Sensor Swab®, Cinema Sensor Cleaning
 

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