Is a squeegee better than a cloth on windows?

The published sources do not pick one tool for every pane. They split by surface, and the split follows NGA's two published methods for exterior glass and its separate paragraph for film.

The third row runs on NGA's own reasoning: because the rinse water is generally allowed to evaporate, the pure water used must have a total dissolved solids content of 20 parts per million or less to prevent spotting and streaking. The published method for exterior glass sets out the squeegee row in full, and what goes into the routine solution itself is answered at do window cleaners use soap.

NGA writes "window cleaning squeegee" and does not describe what the tool is made of. The rubber blade most people picture comes from the dictionary, as the squeegee entry sets out.

Scrim is a dictionary word too, a loosely woven cloth in Cambridge's entry, whose example sentence mentions windows and glassware. Neither scrim nor any cloth appears in NGA's routine method; NGA names the squeegee for routine glass and a soft cloth or clean synthetic sponge for film, and the dictionary's example is an illustration, not a trade recommendation.

Before either tool is used, something puts the solution on the glass. NGA's routine method names a brush, strip washer or other non-abrasive applicator, and in the makers' descriptions a strip washer is a T-bar handle carrying a fabric sleeve, a scrubber sleeve, that holds solution and goes on the glass before the squeegee. In the routine method the squeegee follows that step and removes what the applicator put on.

Whichever tool is in hand, NGA's concern is grit trapped between it and the glass, which is argued under whether window cleaning can scratch the glass. On film the choices narrow: NGA says not to use bristle brushes or abrasive cleaning materials, and the rest of the film list is at everything that can damage applied film.