How do I keep windows clean between professional cleanings?

PGT, CGI and WinDoor open their homeowner glass procedure with a rinse: “Begin by rinsing your glass with clean water to remove dirt and dust particles that can cause scratches during the cleaning process.” Grit left on the surface is what a cloth drags across the pane next, so the maker moves it off first.

Every step below is that maker's instruction to owners of its own windows and doors; another maker's care guide governs another maker's product.

Once the loose grit is rinsed away, the maker's instruction is to “apply a soft, water-saturated cloth or a pre-mixed glass cleaner to the surface.” How hard to press is settled earlier in the guide, where the first of its essential best practices is “Wash your products with light pressure” and the risk it names for heavy scrubbing is “damage, like scratches.”

A cloth is the tool in the maker's homeowner routine. Whether a squeegee does the job better is its own question, taken up under squeegee versus cloth on windows.

The maker's third step is written for owners who prefer a pre-mixed glass cleaner: follow its printed instructions carefully, and “Rinse and dry any run-down quickly to prevent the cleaning solution from leaving a residue on your glass.” The word doing the work is quickly, and the reason the maker gives is residue: cleaning solution drying on the pane before it is rinsed away.

The last homeowner step is a full rinse: “Rinse your glass thoroughly with clean water to prevent the cleaning solution from leaving a film on your glass.” NGA's quick-reference list states a related rule as a prohibition: “DO NOT allow water or cleaning residue to remain on the glass or adjacent materials.”

NGA's own wash method ends differently, removing all of the cleaning solution with a window cleaning squeegee immediately after application. The homeowner's rinse and the squeegee are two published ways to keep cleaning solution from drying on a pane. The maker names residue and film as what dried solution leaves, and streaking and spotting are the glossary words for the marks drying liquid leaves on glass.

Under a heading of important precautions, the maker names three things to keep off its windows, screens, doors and hardware. The first is “a power washer or garden hose.” The second is metal tools or sharp objects such as razor blades, putty knives and abrasive pads, and the third is petroleum-based products, abrasive or caustic cleaners and solvents, and hydrochloric or phosphoric acid. Any of the three, the guide says, “may void your warranty and/or damage your products.”

Whether windows can be cleaned with a garden hose takes up that one item on its own; on these products, the maker's list rules it out.

No source read addresses sprinkler water reaching a window. What is published is NGA's rule, written for cleaning, not to allow water or cleaning residue to remain on the glass, and the reasoning that follows from it: water that lands on a clean pane and dries leaves what it carried behind. Why sprinklers spot windows works through that on its own; whether and how to adjust a sprinkler head is the homeowner's or an irrigation contractor's decision.

This routine is a homeowner's own upkeep between professional cleanings. How often the glass needs a professional cleaning is a separate question, with the published intervals quoted under how often coastal glass needs cleaning, and glass on a shop front has its own page, whether window cleaning helps a storefront.