Glass Cleaners - with or without Ammonia?

[warmsecondrinse]

Three glass cleaning tricks picked up in HS when learning to take care of a car:

Newspaper: Crumpled up (important, no idea why, release ink?) and dipped into warm water. Removes film build-up caused vinyl and cigarettes. Also streak-free.

Cigarette ash: Moisten paper towel and dip into an ashtray. Scrub well and wipe with paper towel moistened with water.

Tinker Glass cleaner: Sold by a blind(lol) door-to-door salesman, this product cleaned anything and everything off any glass surface. I googled but couldn't find anything. :-(

Lastly, IIRC, the book linked below describes several cleaning methods for the interiors of aquariums. It was my bible when I started getting serious about tropical fish. I say IIRC because I haven't had access to the book in years.

Hope this helps,

Happy Thanksgiving,

Jim

http://https//encrypted-tbn1.gstati...78XyajX-TDPj8n3UbAMFd4mBfC7qEP65B6aKkxegTM27A

 

[panthera]

Cigarette ash really works.

We use the crumpled newspaper and ash from the fireplace trick to clean the quartz glass.

 

[ea56]

WhenI was a hairdresser, believe it or not one of my instructors in Beauty College told us to use cigerette ashes to take dye stains off of the hairline. This was something that was in plentiful supply in the 60's and 70's, and this really worked because the ashes are slightly abrasive.
Eddie

 

[petek]

Pretty much I've used Windex all my life until recently I tried Invisible Glass (aerosol) can and it's markedly superior imho. 

 

As for the rain repellants.. When we bought the Subaru it came with Aquapel on the windshield and I have to say it was wonderful and lasted about 6 months. You could drive without the wipers on even at high speed. I need to get some and re-do it.  I've never tried Rain-X because in my Mazda with rain sensing wipers it said not to use those type of products as they could interfere somehow with the sensor. How I dunno.. 

 

[countryguy]

Petek,

I've had 2 cars with rain sensing wipers. I have used Rain-X on both without a problem.

 

[petek]

This car doesn't have them so I'm going to try something....  googling Aquapel it's hard to find but I found out GM dealers sell it under the AC Delco brand name and I think Toyota does as well..  

 

 

http://acdelco-dct-pp.gmgssm.com/pdf/ACDelco-Windshield-Water-Repellent.pdf

 

[kb0nes]

I used to use Rain-X on all my cars. The biggest advantage I saw with it was that ice and bugs were easier to remove, especially so after a fresh application. Sure it helped the water bead up but I still used the wipers.

At some point I started becoming aware of glare during rain events, especially sun showers. I decided that it was due to the beading effect of the Rain-X treatment. When a wiper sweeps the window it leaves behind a thin film of water, normally this is optically clear since it just wets out on the surface. With the Rain-X it seemed to form millions of tiny beads somewhat like when you have interior fogging of a window. I remembered that the cure for fogging SCUBA masks is to polish them with soap so as to make the beading water wet the surface and become optically non-distorting (the opposite of Rain-X). Once the Rain-X faded I never saw this issue again. I saw this effect on several cars and my motorcycle helmet visor too.

Ultimately I have come to the conclusion that I don't want ANYTHING on the glass to guck up the wipers. Some of the automatic car washes spray stuff on the car during the final rinse too so I try to avoid them too. I do miss having the ice slide off the windows though here in MN!

 

[askolover]

Believe it or not, my first new car when I was 16, a 1987 Chevrolet Nova (aka Toyota Corolla) said in the owner's manual to clean the windshield with BonAmi. It said that water should not bead on the glass but should flatten out smoothly. I did this for a few years until I found Rain-X. The RainX works great until it starts to degrade at which point the wipers begin to skip around and it leaves weird lines that must be removed...I use alcohol pads to remove them. My new wiper blades had RainX on them already. They applied it to the windshield when the wipers were used.

 

[stan]

Non ammonia glass cleaner

This may work

 

[mattl]

I LIKE Bon Ami -- But I can no longer FIND Bon Ami in any of my local stores.  Been using it in my kitchen for decades, now all I can find is Bar Keeper's Friend.  I always keep that on hand too with some Comet.

 

[stan]

If you find it..

here's some directions for use on glass..
The composition of modern glass may be different now than then? So I'd test first.
And I'm guessing that the 1886 version is what you'd want. I've seen it sold at OSH

 

[ea56]

You can get Bon Ami powder on ebay. I have seen both the powder and cake forms at Orchard Supply Hardware and True Value Hardware.
Eddie