By far, the most common frustration for anyone doing detailing work or cleaning in general is leaving a glass or mirror surface streak free. It is almost like magic of some sort! I have seen people have complete mental breakdowns because they just cannot take it anymore. They have tried 15 different cleaners, newspapers, and even black magic! That last one is a line of detail products,but still made it funnier! Cleaning windows is fairly simple when you have the right tools. So, I will be reviewing each of those tools and how to set yourself up for success. How you maintain those tools is crucial to getting the desired result every time. I will be going over the two towel method, the principles as to why it works, proper tool care and proper chemicals needed.
The two towel or two piece method is absolutely crucial to getting the desired result. The problem with one towel is it gets dirty. The debris and even cleaner in that first towel is what leaves behind the streaks. These streaks are caused by both the cleaner and the debris. In fact, you can streak a totally clean window with a wet towel. The idea of the two towel method is to use the first one for the cleaning and the second one to polish the clean surface. I prefer low pile towels or waffle towels when cleaning windows. These tend to leave a lint free surface and true result to perfection. You can also use a newspaper as your second towel. The reason why this works is pretty simple. The first towel contains all of the chemicals and debris that causes the streaks. By eliminating that from the equation we eliminate the possibility of streaking. Check out the two towel method here in this video.
Now proper tool care is the second thing that gets everyone hung up. They use this method and it works excellent and then they wash their micros. This leads them right back to throwing things and having adult temper tantrums because they cannot duplicate the results from last time. It can also lead to a feeling that the world has changed forever. I assure you, it is just a contaminated towel. You see, when you wash the towels in a detergent it gets all caught up in the towels. No matter how long your rinse cycle is , the towel has detergents in it that will cause streaking. So, it is incredibly important to use a detergent free soap like All Free & Clear or other detergent free soaps. This will leave the towel as free as possible from contaminants and you will be able to duplicate the best results over and over again. Plus, all will be well in the world again.
Now, those pesky windows in the front and rear of the car can very swiftly remind you that you are not as young as you used to be. Serious, I’ve hurt my back trying to get some of these windows cleaned. That is exactly why I purchased one of these window back saving window tools. You can get these at any local parts store or order them from Amazon. They work off of the same two towel principles and you care for those towels the same way as described above. Check the tool out and how to use it in this video below.
Now let’s talk about chemicals. I’ve seen it all: diet coke, alcohol, spit and even the spirit of our ancestors. These are all incorrect and a waste of time. You can literally leave windows streak free by using distilled water. At this point I hope you have realized that it’s debris and contaminants that cause streaks. Distilled water contains minimal to no minerals to leave deposits behind AND has cleaning ability. I dare you to try it. I assure you that you will be astounded. Now, distilled water won’t work every time when you actually have to clean that dog drool that is crusted on your window because Pepper just cannot sit still in the car. In those scenarios I use Isopropyl alcohol. No need for a powerful solution. You can mix it 50/50 or even buy it that way from your local dollar store.
The key to streak free windows is pretty simple. Do not overcomplicate it with multiple cleaners and tools, have dedicated window micros and follow proper care of those micros. Another solid tip for finding the streaks is to always finish up and down on the outside and side to side on the inside. This allows you to know which side the streaks are on should they occur. At Dirty2Dreamy Detail Services we are all about efficiency. So, here is a link to the towels we use. They are actually one towel with two sides. Treat them like two towels and boom you’re efficient as you could ever be! Thanks to Autofiber
I sure hope this was helpful as I know a lot of people get stressed about streak free windows. If you are still having trouble feel free to message us at Dirty2Dreamy Detail Services anytime on any platform. We are happy to help no matter where you are in the world! Happy window cleaning!
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan Monson
Dirty2Dreamy@gmail.com
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