The Best Window Cleaner ever.
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I’m happy to be sharing The Best Homemade Window Cleaner with you. It has won us over. After years of filmy residue, we can see clearly now. The film is gone.
For years and years, we battled trying to get the exterior of our windows clean. They just never looked crystal clear. A filmy residue and often chalky streaks would remain once the windows dried. We tried a variety of window cleaners from homemade to store bought concoctions, as well as using newspaper instead of paper towels with not much success.
That all changed when we learned about the best exterior window cleaner ever.
We had been working on updating a bathroom and ordered some new mirrors. While the glass guys were here installing the mirror, my husband, Randy, got to chatting with them, as he usually does, about how their business was going. During their conversation he happened to ask them what they use for cleaning glass. Did they have any professional tips or tricks? Yes, they did!
They shared a simple recipe for what they have found to work. They swore by it. We had already tried just using a simple combination of vinegar and water, but they learned a trick from a commercial window cleaner: add a little dish detergent to the vinegar/water mixture. Really? That simple? It was new to us, and it sounded much too easy.
So we tried it (or should I say Randy tried it) right away. Randy set out just to test a few windows and the next thing I knew he had worked all the way around the house, and was already working on some of the upstairs windows as well. There was an immediate difference, and so much easier than what we had tried in the past.
It was so bright inside we had to wear shades. I crack myself up.
The mixture below, is super simple and used with a soft bristle brush and hose. That’s it. No more piles of used paper towels, no ladders, just clarity. I’m planning on trying the same mixture on all kinds of things outside that need de-grungifying.
Keeping the shades on. The future is definitely gonna be brighter around here, y’all. Happy cleaning!
How to Make The Best Window Cleaner
The Best Window Cleaner
This simple mixture will help wash exterior windows to a sparkly clean.
Materials
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dish detergent
Tools
- bucket
- scrub brush
- optional extension pole
- water hose
- optional sprayer attachment
Instructions
- Combine water, white vinegar and dish detergent in a bucket. Increase amounts as needed.
- Using a soft bristle scrub brush on an extension pole handle thingy, dip the brush in a bucket of the solution, and scrub it on the window.
- Before it has a chance to dry, spray/rinse it off with clean water. Be sure to rinse thoroughly. A hose fitted with a sprayer attachment is helpful.
Notes
The solution could be made and used in a spray bottle, but we found working on lots of windows, the bucket and scrub brush worked great.
To avoid the need for a ladder (because ladders are the most dangerous tool in the box) Randy used an all-purpose extension pole with a threaded end that enables you to attach different brushes, rollers, etcetera. (Similar to this one.)
Use a soft bristle scrub brush. A sponge mop may also work.
This definitely works for outside windows, where you can safely rinse with water. I have yet to try it indoors, but if you do, make sure you can rinse with plenty of water. Perhaps one spray bottle of solution, and a separate spray bottle of clean water?
Again, be sure to rinse thoroughly, and before the solution has a chance to dry on window. It’s helpful to avoid windows directly in the sun, so they are not hot and don’t as quickly.
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Tried it today, followed directions but didn’t turn out. White/streaky film left behind.
Great article! Cleaning one’s home windows is not as simple a DIY task as some might believe it to be. I always believe that safety, effectiveness, time, and overall cost can be major factors in deciding between what to take on myself and what to leave to professionals. Thanks again for the great post 🙂
Amazing Post … I reall Want to Buy window cleaner for my sports shoes shop
https://www.buysportsshoes.com/
I was a professional window cleaner for 4 years. We used many different soaps when our main ran out just to try others. The best hands down is dawn. Just a few squirts in a full bucket of water with a professional cleaning squeegee and wand, (ettore is the brand we used for both). 5 gallon bucket we used 4 ounces. Only water and dawn. If it was below freezing we used a little alcohol with dawn and hot water. I remember cleaning in literal 0° weather with those 3 ingredients. It really is the best. No coffee, no windex, no vinegar, just dawn please. I could clean 8 or 9 restaurants with those alone.
We did use Unger brand if we ran out of Ettore supplies. And that is the basic blue dawn. Not the other types. If you over pour the dawn it will get too thick and streak the windows just like the others. So just start out ligh and add more if needed. We cleaned McDonald’s, Panera Bread, Starbucks, Sephora, Ulta, Borders Bookstore, Helzberg Diamonds, Target, and many more. I can only advise water and basic blue Dawn, and alcohol in winter. Use what you can in rags, but get micro fiber rags if you can and don’t over use them. When they start feeling wet or smudging get another. Pro tips.
Came out pretty clear with no drying. We used…
1. Siding brush with telescoping pole. 20$ at Lowes
2. Bucket with 2 gallon hot water, 4 cups white vinegar, 1/3 cup Dawn dish soap.
3. Electric pressure washer
Really quick task with 2 people 👍
Hi! This website is so amazing!Very good webpage.thanks alot god blessed…
At first, you must understand the difference between a soap and a detergent. While all the soaps are detergents, not a single detergent is a soap. Simply putting, soap is the hard form of detergents.
It’s amazing that with some simple home-ingredients you can make a great cleaner. My partner and I have noticed that our windows are really gross outside. I’ll use this cleaner when I can, but we need professionals to get the higher up windows.
Wow to think of all the years I’ve spent on a ladder squeegeeing windows hoping not to die from a fall! I’m hoping this will end the squeegee part of it anyway. I do know that water quality is key to not getting spots and streaks. That will definitely be a problem for some of us.
thanks for posting!
Hi! Thanks so much for your wonderful “cleaning windows” instructions!
Re: inside windows……after spraying with solution & then plain water…….do you wipe them????
I usually use this for outdoor window cleaning only. Since there is soap in the mixture the windows have to be rinsed.
I was skeptical. Washed all of the exterior windows using a microfiber mop. Only had to use a step ladder once to reach upper panes of two windows. I followed the directions exactly (except the mop). The most exhausting part was lugging the water hose (I can live with that, as I only had to move hose once to change spigots). From start to finish (including set up and clean up) took at most an hour and a half. Windows appeared really clean, but I had yet to clean the inside. I thought, that was much easier and quicker than bottled window spray and paper towels, and no lint. So the following morning I mixed a 2 cup batch in a small bucket, gathered 2 microfiber wash cloths and a cotton dish cloth. Using the mixed solution in the bucket and one of the microfiber cloths, I began washing the inside windows. I was sure that the washing cloth was thoroughly soaked (wrong out enough to NOT drip) and washed from top to bottom. Used the second microfiber cloth to rinse (warm clear water and wrong out more than washing cloth). I chose to rinse twice to be sure all of cleaning solution was removed. The windows I chose NOT to dry, may have a few water spots, but nothing I can’t live with. Also, as I finished the windows in each room, I went back using what solution was remaining to wipe off the sills/sashes. To say the least, this is the best most economical way to clean windows inside and out! Because it’s so easy and less time consuming, my windows have no reason NOT to be sparkling clean all the time!
Should you use this on car windows? The windows are clean but the black material around the windows (probably a rubber) is what I’m worried about. Will it cause it to deteriorate?
I do not know for sure, but my guess is that if you rinse it very well it should be okay.
Just curious…..did anyone add a “spot free dishwashing liquid”? Seems like that might eliminate any spots or streaks. Please advise..I’m going to use the solution tomorrow..
Like other folks, I followed the directions explicitly including avoiding sun. Used a lot of water on ” jet” setting of hose attachment. Dirt and grime gone, no streaks, HOWEVER, terrible spotting. There’s a reason professionals use squeegees, and a squeegee did help a lot on the next window. Would recommend doing one small window before moving on to others to see if the described method really works for you.
OMG….this is the BEST window cleaner ever!!! Thank you for the post!
This works so great! Washed all of my filthy windows in just a short time and they all dried to perfection. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this! We have so many windows in our house and I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to clean them. This was super helpful and will be happening in the very near future here.
If I wanted to try this but using one of the hose-end sprayer bottle attachments that are widely out there, just the bottle for purpose of shooting it 30 feet in air, any idea how you would suggest blending it? If mixed in the water and then mounted the hose it would be injecting even more water into the solution – maybe just try without the water added directly in and give it a go attached to the hose with the other ingredients.
This is the BEST!! I used outside AND in. Used the rough side of a kitchen sponge to apply the mixture then squeegeed it off. No need to rinse with water. You do get drips on the floor but just wipe those up when done. Easiest solution with amazing results!