Glass cleaning

[Ls1transam]

So I am terrible at cleaning glass. It seems the more I clean, the more stuff shows up. I have the old style towels, the blue ones. I noticed one side is slick and the other has a rougher feel to it. Is one side meant for the cleaning, and the other for buffing away any streaks?

[Odds and Ends]

Yup, rough side for cleaning, soft side to buff away any remaining residue.

[Ls1transam]

Thanks!

[Rich]

All my blue towels went in the trash. Try the new green glass towels.  Much better results. 

[Ls1transam]

All my blue towels went in the trash. Try the new green glass towels. Much better results.

I'm wanting to try them for sure.

[pirahnah3]

All my blue towels went in the trash. Try the new green glass towels.  Much better results. 

 

Surprised Rich, I didnt think they were THAT bad, I would have happily put them to use. I really like the new ones, but found that for some quick cleaning I didnt mind the blues. Then again I clean windows about every other day due to the bugs. 

[Ls1transam]

My problem is on the inside. It seems I can never get all the glass cleaned.

[PHOKUS]

Glass is sort of my forte.

 

I use soap and water with a single soft to clean glass. Then I use Glass Cleaner and a glass towel to make them streak free. Once clean, I maintain with Glass Cleaner.

 

Airborne oils and chemicals adhere to glass. You need soap to get the oils off. Once these are gone, Glass Cleaner will be able to do its job.

[H20burycharger]

I just officially learned something! I now know what I'm doing in the morning

Edited August 17, 2016 by H20burycharger

[pirahnah3]

Glass is sort of my forte.

 

I use soap and water with a single soft to clean glass. Then I use Glass Cleaner and a glass towel to make them streak free. Once clean, I maintain with Glass Cleaner.

 

Airborne oils and chemicals adhere to glass. You need soap to get the oils off. Once these are gone, Glass Cleaner will be able to do its job.

 

Your right, the airborne oils as well as the stuff every other person kicks up off the roadway that sticks to your glass. In most cases I agree that soap will take care of the problem, provided its not baked on cooked on stuff. Sometimes you have to get a bit more aggressive with it. I regularly have to break out the steel wool to get the glass clean again primarily due to road construction and paving jobs. But boy its a nice piece of glass after! 

[Ricky Bobby]

Glass is sort of my forte.

 

I use soap and water with a single soft to clean glass. Then I use Glass Cleaner and a glass towel to make them streak free. Once clean, I maintain with Glass Cleaner.

 

Airborne oils and chemicals adhere to glass. You need soap to get the oils off. Once these are gone, Glass Cleaner will be able to do its job.

Are we talking Dawn dish soap?

[PHOKUS]

Any fatty-acid-based soap (what most soaps are made of) will do the job.

 

Soap does its job by using hydrocarbon chains to form micelles when exposed to water. The micelles attract and link on to the oils, which link onto the chemicals, which we can now remove from the glass with a towel. Without these micelles, it is VERY difficult to coax the oils, minerals, and chemicals off the glass surface. This is the most likely reason someone is having a difficult time getting their glass streak-free using only Adam's Glass Cleaner. Once these oils have been removed, getting streak-free glass is incredibly easy using Adam's Glass Towel and Glass Cleaner.

 

As some have pointed out, if you have other contaminants on your glass (usually on the outside) you may need to get more aggressive. My method is best applied to the interior side of the glass. Most of us use soap on the outside, so the oils are pretty much a non-issue there.

 

I use Adam's Car Shampoo diluted 20:1 in distilled water. The micelles I noted above are happiest in a mineral-free water suspension and, consequently, when the micelles are happy they are at their peak cleaning power.

 

Edited for clarity.

Edited August 18, 2016 by PHOKUS

[Ricky Bobby]

^i love this idea (super diluted Car Shampoo) and yes I agree with all dilutions being with distilled.

 

I sometimes have stubborn interior glass I am working on and this would work great! Awesome tip. And yes thank you to clarifying to others this is more like a "deep clean" for your glass but regular Glass Cleaner works for maintenance.

[Ls1transam]

I've never thought of that!

[avimore]

Very interesting idea, thanks!

[jeverton]

I use Adam's Car Shampoo diluted 20:1 in distilled water. The micelles I noted above are happiest in a mineral-free water suspension and, consequently, when the micelles are happy they are at their peak cleaning power.

 

Sounds like this will be my weekend project!  I'm still trying to get my new car windows clean enough to seal for the winter.