fantabulous window washing recipe

Parent Cafe
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<p>I referred to this formula in a posting a month or two ago. A few posters asked for the recipe, but it was at the lakehouse and sadly, I was not. But now I am and can share our secret (garnered from CC) for sparkly clean windows!
(If you recognize this as your verbage, please pardon the plagarism. I cut and paste to email to my husband without giving proper credit.)</p>

<p>Tip#1 Use a squeegee; it does a faster, better job. It should be about a foot wide and have a stiff rubber blade. (Better ones will have a replaceable blade.)</p>

<p>Tip #2 I use this solution from Consumer Reports when my window are really dirty-- Mix .5 cup of sudsy ammonia, 1 pint rubbing alcohol and 1 T of hand dishwashing liquid, then top off with enough water to make a gallon.</p>

<p>Tip #3 Use towels at the bottom of the windows to soak up any solution that runs down. And an old dish towel to wipe down squeegee between swipes.</p>

<p>This really gave us outstanding results.</p>

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<p>Thankyou for sharing…The blue stuff just doesn’t produce sparkling results.</p>

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<p>laketime, </p>

<p>Your post almost makes me want to wash the windows. ;)</p>

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<p>That is the same recipe I use; I got it from Consumer Reports.</p>

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<p>Have made notes; thank you! But what about windows with divided lights? It would be difficult to use a squeegee on mine.</p>

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<p>I hope the dishwashing detergent is PHOSPHATE FREE. Otherwise lake time will turn into lake weeds time!</p>

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<p>Am I the only one who just uses a bit of detergent in soapy water and a linen towel to polish the window dry? I hate using ammonia or bleach.</p>

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<p>Some window mfgs tell you not to use ammonia. Pella recommends vinegar based cleaners. You ignore this at your own considerable peril. </p>

<p>In this vein, I recently replaced two bathroom mirrors made by a high end mfg. They had “de-silvered” at some points on the edges… apparently because of using ordinary windex. If you had read their literature, you would not have guessed that this would happen. They have the typical admonition to simply use water. I think that telling people that windex was going to ruin the mirror might have cut into sales a bit.</p>

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<p>So happy to find this “recipe” and surely wish I had seen the warning about ammonia years ago. I have tried every conceivable concoction on my windows and mirrors with the same sad results. Thought I had struck gold with Heloise’s mixture but the results were short lived. Can’t wait to give this a try, but have the same concerns about divided light windows. They’re a royal pain when it comes to cleaning.</p>

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<p>Mirrors can be re-silvered if they are valuable enough to warrant the effort. I believe it can even be a DIY project if one is really ambitious.</p>

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<p>My grandmother used to use a combination of palmolive dish washing soap and vinegar with warm water…and after she was done washing the windows she would dry them with newspaper… i know it sounds odd but her windows always sparkled</p>

<p>btw-This thread it reminded of such a nice memory of my grandmother helping me wash windows like this in my first apartment. She passed away 3 years this December but i’m hoping her little tricks of the trade keep getting passed along!</p>

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<p>Substitute the a cup of vinegar for the half cup of ammonia and you have an effective cleaner that is safe for all glass including automotive glass. Do not use the blue stuff or the ammonia mix on mirrors or windshields.</p>

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<p>Weed growth will be proportional to the quantity of phosphate - such a tiny amount won’t have any noticeable effect.</p>

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<p>Thanks laketime (and edad for mentioning the vinegar). Made a batch and tried it out last weekend. Wow! Great results.</p>