House Mate Foaming Glass & Mirror Cleaner, 400ml

Product Information

You don’t want glass surfaces to just look clean, you want them to be disinfected and completely free of germs. Each one of our top seven products have ingredients that specifically disinfect surfaces. Seventh Generation Surface Cleaner and our DIY cleaner had more difficulty eliminating signs of the mess — especially the oily handprints. While the prints themselves were removed, residue from the oil remained on the window and left visible streaks. Even after prolonged buffing, the windows weren’t as clean as they were when we tested Windex and Zep. Mirrors Corn starch is an important ingredient because it eliminates streaking. Streaking happens because glass is not entirely smooth. The surface of glass contains microscopic pits and divots that collect water molecules, which bond to other water molecules as a cleaner is being wiped off. The great thing about making your own cleaner is you can select your favorite fragrance. Essential oils come in dozens of scents, including rosemary, lavender, tea tree, and lemongrass.

While all the products we tested are liquids, they are delivered by two different methods: spray bottle and aerosol can. The offerings from Stoner and Weiman are both aerosols, though neither contains CFSs, which have been proven to slowly deplete the ozone layer. A substantial amount of information is available about many of these ingredients. It can sometimes be complex, contradictory, alarmist and hard to interpret. For those who are interested, we encourage you to look into it for yourselves. What follows is an introductory discussion about some of the most featured ingredients in glass cleaners. Ammonia Our homemade cleaner, Glass Plus, and Seventh Generation were all disappointing in the chili test. Glass Plus and Seventh Generation couldn’t break up the caked mess. The DIY solution did eventually get the job done but required quite a lot of scrubbing and several sprays over the same spots. The products from Weiman Glass Cleaner and Zep Streak-Free Glass Cleaner left behind faint streaks that were detectable depending on our angle and distance from the glass.While window cleaners are great products for many jobs around the house, they need to be kept away from certain tasks. For the most part, window/glass cleaners are not intended for use on automobile surfaces and tinted glass because common ingredients will damage them.

Finally, we wanted to add essential oil to our homemade glass cleaner. We love essential oils because they leave a clean, long-lasting smell. (Read our post on essential oil diffusers for more information.) We also discovered that, similar to cornstarch, essential oil helps combat streaking by preventing the bonding of hydrogen atoms in water molecules. While paper towels are useful to keep around the house, we found through our research that they’re not ideal for cleaning glass. First, they are made with dyes and adhesives that actually bind sheets together to make rolls of two-ply. These substances will leave streaks of their own, separate from those left by any residual cleaning liquid. Paper towels also leave behind lint, and they’re not the best choice for the environment or your wallet. With the best window cleaners, there are few household tasks more satisfying – transforming windows from grubby panes into clear sheets of glass. But for so many of us, DIY window cleaning is rife with frustration and failure, with stubborn streaks and dribbles destroying all best efforts. We looked at subreddits, like /r/homemaking, /r/diy, and even /r/autodetailing to find out what consumers think about the best glass cleaners on the market. With this information, we whittled our field down to six brands that represented the different methods of cleaning glass.Using a microfiber towel, slowly swipe left to right once over each row, applying a gentle to slightly-moderate amount of pressure. We put a glass bowl of chili in the microwave and cooked it for six minutes on high, which eventually produced a mess that we’ve all seen before. After each explosive event, we let the chili dry for 30 minutes and then used each glass cleaner to attempt to make our microwave sparkle again.

Window-cleaning products became popular because they don’t leave behind the streaks that soap and other common cleaners often leave. A window or mirror looks clean when the oils and dirt are removed to reveal a crystal-clear view or reflection. But when glass is obstructed by streaky residue, it can be an eyesore. Particularly indoors, you want to use a fabric that collects the liquid that’s sprayed on the glass — but which fabric? Almost all the products we tested (with the exception of Seventh Generation Free & Clear Glass & Surface Cleaner and our DIY solution) contain some type of fragrance agent. In an effort to protect proprietary information, manufacturers do not break down exactly what creates these scents. Often, fragrances are made with phthalates, which have been linked to several adverse medical conditions, including damage to the liver, kidneys, and lungs.Our homemade solution easily removed the blemishes but left the mirror looking cloudy and a bit dull. It was a noticeable difference compared to the commercially available options. We found that microfiber towels were the easiest to use and the most reliable for cleaning dirt, absorbing liquid, and leaving no trace of streaks or residue. Microfiber towels are constructed with a synthetic blend of polyester and polyamide. The fibers are extremely small, measuring about ⅕ the diameter of human hair. This means they’re soft, durable, and absorbent — perfect for cleaning not just windows but almost anything. Professional window washers tend to use soapy water and a squeegee for commercial jobs. While this is an effective technique for large outdoor projects, it’s not a practical solution for most indoor home cleaning.