Window Cleaning Recipes

I’ve been professionally cleaning windows for about 7+ years in St George, UT. For all of that time I have just used two recipes to clean my clients windows. 

I thought it would be interesting to try new cleaning solutions from window cleaning recipes I found online.

So, what are the best homemade glass cleaning recipes that you can use in your home?

I tested 4 different recipes and have published my results here

Most window cleaning recipes rely on only 3 key ingredients; water, soap and sometimes rubbing alcohol. The water and the rubbing alcohol are “solvents”. They dissolve the dirt and grime, and grease on the windows so that the squeegee or cloth can remove them. The soap performs two tasks in the cleaning process. First it dissolves any oils that are on the window so that the oils can be removed (think fingerprints).  In addition, if you are using a squeegee the soap acts as a wetting and gliding agent allowing the squeegee to glide across the window without sticking and causing streaks.

Window cleaning recipes fall into two categories:

The first category is the scrub on, squeegee off category. It is rare for these not to work because the scrubbing and the squeegee do all of the work.

The second category is the spray on, wipe off category. In reality the cleaning is mostly done by the rubbing with a little help from the soap and water.

 

Window Cleaning Recipe #1.  

The first recipe is my personal “spray bottle” window cleaning recipe (It is highly recommended)

This solution is a window polishing compound. After I have scrubbed and squeegeed a window, I spray it with this polishing spray and then wipe the window down with a clean, dry towel. I do this polishing for two reasons: 1. To remove streaks and smears. 2. To remove sticky residue from the window. I don’t know what this residue is that builds up on windows over time, but if I don’t remove it, the windows won’t shine like they should. 

To make one gallon of this spray add the following to a one gallon jug: 

• About ¾ teaspoon of Dawn liquid dishwashing detergent
• ½ pint of 91% solution of rubbing alcohol (Rubbing alcohol at the store comes in 70% solutions and 91% solutions)
• Purified water – slightly less than one gallon. 

Shake that up and then add pure water (distilled or reverse osmosis) to fill the one gallon container. Mix that up a bit and then fill your spray bottle with this solution. 

The water and rubbing alcohol are solvents which help remove the sticky film from window panes. The soap helps to remove oils and grease.

Because I’ve used this solution successfully for years I will give this a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. 

 

Window Cleaning Recipe #2.  

The next recipe is my “squeegee” window cleaning recipe 

I use this  every time I clean windows on a home inside and outside windows.This has always worked well for me and it is used by probably at least 95% of window cleaners in the U.S. 

The simple recipe:

In a bucket add one gallon of tap water to one tablespoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid. Mix thoroughly. You want a good suds in the bucket but not too much.

Use a “scrubber” dipped in this solution to clean the window, then use a squeegee to remove the sudsy cleaning water. Use a towel to dry the edges and frame of the window. After that use a small squirt of my spray bottle cleaner on the window and then polish the entire window paying special attention to the edges. This last step will remove streaks and smears that might still be on the window.

I would give this solution a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

Window Cleaning Recipe #3.  

The next window cleaning recipe is from the website Mormonmomma.com.  

She calls this her “No Squeegee, no wipe, self sheeting, streak free window cleaner”. 

She scrubs the window with a window scrubber (you can see one here) soaked in her cleaning solution. She does squeegee off the inside windows when she uses this recipe but on the outside windows she just rinses off the solution with a garden hose after she’s scrubbed the window.

Mormon Momma’s window cleaning recipe: 

• 3 to 4 oz of dishwasher rinse aid
• 4 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol
• ¼ cup of ammonia
• ¼ cup of powdered dishwasher soap
• 2 gallons of hot tap water

Instructions for outside windows: 

1. Add the ingredients to a bucket and mix. 
2. Next, spray off your window with a strong jet of water to remove the visible dirt.
3. Use the window scrubber dunked in the cleaning solution to clean the window.
4. Spray off the window with the jet of water again. 

My test:

I used this cleaner on an outside window as directed. Unfortunately, after rinsing the window with the plain water from the hose as directed, there were spots left on the window after the water dried. I’m sure this is because we have very hard water where I live. Had I lived back east where there is soft water from the tap, no spots would have shown up. Unfortunately I can’t really say if this cleaner works well or not. I’ll say that if I didn’t have hard water, this solution probably would have worked, so I would give this recipe a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

Window Cleaning Recipe #4.  

Homemade Window Cleaner from a “Natural Health” site

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vinegar 

1/4 cup isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol

1 Tbsp cornstarch 

2 cups water

8-10 drops of an essential oil of choice

1. Combine everything in a spray bottle
2. Shake well to mix.
3. Spray onto the glass surface and wipe clean.

Unfortunately this recipe adds unnecessary ingredients to the actual cleaning items (water and rubbing alcohol). 

My Test on recipe #4:

Because it is a spray on, wipe off solution, it worked well. This is because of the water, rubbing alcohol and elbow grease. I didn’t notice any difference in adding the other ingredients except adding the essential oils made the solutions smell really good (my cat loved this smell and was rubbing his fur on the overspray that landed near him). 

This recipe did what it was supposed to do (clean windows), it smelled good and it was cheap. I would give this recipe an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. 

 

Finishing up about the recipes: 

Really, using liquid dishwashing soap, rubbing alcohol, purified water and elbow grease is all that is needed for a good window cleaning recipe. Adding anything else is just adding something you will need to clean off later. 

 

Questions people ask about window cleaning:

Question: How do I remove hard water stains from my windows? 

Answer: If your staining is less than 24 months old and not too heavy you can use straight vinegar to rub away the stain. For harder stains you might try rubbing original Lysol toilet bowl cleaner on the stain. You can also try using a razor blade on the stain at the same time you use the vinegar or Lysol. If the staining has been going on for more than 24 months it is possible that the hard water has etched into the glass and the only solution is replacement of the window pane.Cost to replace an average sized window pane is about $300. 

 

Question: Should I add vinegar to my window cleaning solution?  

Answer: No, don’t add vinegar. Vinegar doesn’t do anything except maybe softening hard water a little. Adding vinegar to any cleaning solution just adds something unhelpful to a window that you will have to clean off. I’m not sure where the idea of using vinegar to clean windows came from, but I think it is an “old wives tale”. 

 

Question: Can I use newspaper to clean and dry my windows? 

Answer: I’ll say this: just don’t. It doesn’t do a good job and it will leave a film of ink on the windows. Using newspapers to clean windows is another “old wives tale”.

 

Question: Should I add ammonia to my window cleaning solution?   

Answer: No, don’t add ammonia. Adding this ingredient to your homemade window cleaning recipes does only one thing: It creates sudsy water. It allows the squeegee to glide across the window easier. Adding ammonia is unnecessary. It doesn’t smell good either. Just add more dishwashing soap. This will do the same thing.