Sonax Glass Cleaner - Also great for...

Oneheadlite

Oneheadlite

New member
This weekend I had a job to do and decided to try Sonax Glass cleaner.


The job: Getting the insides and outsides of all the house windows reset to crystal clear.


Turns out, the Sonax pairs really well with your traditional window washer scrubber/squeegee approach! I know folks in the industry usually just use dish soap and water, but I wanted to try and set up for my best chance for success - more than a couple of our windows are not super easy to redo if needed, so I didn`t want to revisit any if possible.


Pressure washed the outside of the house/windows first. Then while they were still wet I sprayed them with 5-6 sprays of Sonax. Used the scrubber side (think almost like a mild scotchbrite strip) first to cut through the winter funk. Flipped and used the microfiber shag side for a final scrub. Worked all day to perfect my zen single-stroke window squeegee pass. Quick wipe of the perimeter with an old-fashioned Griot`s tight weave glass towel, and finished with a quick buff with a Rag Company Dry Me a River.


Sounds like a lot of steps, but it was actually quite fast. Most importantly, it was easily repeatable with streak free results! Got compliments from the Mrs, plus we were both glad to have not had to pay someone a couple hundred bucks to do them all.


The Sonax glass cleaner seems to "foam" a bit more when scrubbed than any I`ve used, which really seemed to work well to help the squeegee slide effort free.




Didn`t grab any before/after pictures - the after shot would just have been a clear shot of my neighbor`s house which woulda just been a little weird. :laughing:
 
Oneheadlite:
While your method sounds labor intensive (it is), you`ve got the results you wanted and saved yourself some money in the process.

Window cleaning is a real chore and getting done "right" (IE; without streaks or smears) is a real challenge. Finding a good window cleaner and microfibers to clean-and-wipe with are key components to this process and what you`ve found works very well, so "Thank You" for sharing.

We had our aluminum siding power-washed by someone after a recommendation that this person was good and cheap. It was for the siding, but not for the windows. He did not touch those in anyway, but left his water and proprietary soap solution (I asked for his MSDS sheets on his soap, which he had none for because it was his "own homemade" mix of cleaners) dry on our windows. WHAT A MESS! I ended up using Optimum`s Mineral Deposit Remover on them as the ONLY way to clean them, and that is a process all in it own (I do not "like" OPT-MDR because it is not a one-step wipe-on-wipe-off, but requires the use of OPT Power Clean and No-Rinse mix in a diluted solution to clean-and-rinse as the next step). It worked very well when followed with Sprayway Foaming Window Cleaner for the final step.
There is a reason WHY he was hundreds of dollars cheaper than anyone else,; he did not follow-up cleaning the windows. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
 
Yeah, the first year I pressure washed the siding I made the mistake of letting the (unsoftened) water dry on the front windows while I finished pressure washing. Only did that once...

What is the Power Clean/ONR mix you follow the MDR with? It`s been a while since I used it, but I just followed the label and don`t remember mention of following it with OPC. PH wise that does make sense now that I`m typing out loud...
 
Lonnie, it has been said on the Optimum forum that undiluted OPC will etch glass, so that has kind of soured me on even using diluted OPC anywhere near glass.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Lonnie, it has been said on the Optimum forum that undiluted OPC will etch glass, so that has kind of soured me on even using diluted OPC anywhere near glass.
Click to expand...

If that is true, then OPT contains hydrofluoric acid, as that is one of the few chemicals that will etch glass. I do not think it`s listed as an ingredient/component on the MSDS info, which leads to ask if the above statement is true or not.
As far as using the Mineral Deposit Remover (MDR) the label does say to "wash" the surface after wiping it off to clean a surface of mineral deposits, and I assume "wash" means soap and water, hence my use of ONR and OPT mix as "the soap". Maybe I am wrong. Maybe distilled water by itself COULD of been used as "the wash" OR just diluted ONR (one ounce per 1/2 gallon of water) as "the soap".
 
If you want to clean glass perfect what I learned from a detailer was to spray on glass cleaner, any glass cleaner, wipe with a Water Sprite Chamois, and then wipe with a paper towel made for glass cleaning, never ever any streaks.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
No, OPC doesn`t have HF in it, it`s one of the other ingredients, I think it`s the Sodium Metasilicate (CAS No. 6834-92-0).
Click to expand...
Thanks for finding this out from the MSDS and listing this chemical. You and Loach are our resident chemists!

Off topic, but my opinion is that many detailers simply do not know what chemicals they are exposed to when they use many of their detailing products. It is one of the reasons that the federal government`s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces this legislation for the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and requires these chemical product manufacturers to publish such information and let the end-user KNOW what is in a product (within reason, without divulging "trade secret" ingredients). Ignorance is not always bliss.

More chemical off topic: One of the biggest mistakes that some individuals make in using chemical products for cleaning is mixing a bleach-based product with an ammonium-based product, just so it cleans better. This errant mixing of cleaning products produces a very toxic chloramine gas that if inhaled can burn the lungs or in extreme cases, cause coma or death. It is THE NUMBER ONE chemical "accident" in the USA that sends ignorant individuals to the hospital emergency room. Most bleach and ammonia products have a warning on them NOT to mix them together, but as stated, some individuals do not read labels or follow directions. Or as the saying in mechanical engineering goes, "Just when you think you`ve made something idiot-proof, they make a better idiot!" Funny, but not funny. "Safety is no accident" (Pun intended!!)

My worst chemical accident happened in high school in a junior chemistry class. I poured water into a test-tube of hydrochloric acid and the exothermic (heat-producing)reaction instantly "boiled" the acid and it shot out of the test tube onto me. These were the days before Personal Protective Equipment was required, other than a lab apron, which I had on. No goggles, no gloves, no face shield. It did burn through a brand-new school Track-and-Field Team T-shirt not covered by the lab apron I was wearing and some spots on my neck and shoulders, but none got on my face or hair, fortunately. Some baking soda and water were quickly administered as first aid. What did I learn? Acid into water, not water into acid, IE; put the water in any container FIRST and then SLOWLY add the acid, as it will be very dilute first and then get stronger as more acid is added, but it will not produce a violent exothermic reaction (unless you add more acid than is required!).
I can almost guarantee that most detailers when mixing up detailing chemicals from bulk containers (gallon jugs) into spray bottles will add the chemical product FIRST and then add the water to dilute it to the desired water-to-product ratio, which is how most ratio value/numbers are listed. This is the "wrong" procedure. The water should go in first, then the chemical for the very acid-into-water reason mentioned above. Fortunately, 99% of the detailing chemicals used do not produce an exothermic reaction when water is added, so it is not really a safety issue. The only detailing chemical product that this mixing procedure applies to is acid-based wheel (rim!) brake-dust cleaners or iron decontaminates.
(More-than-we-really-wanted-to-know, Captain Obvious. You sound like an OSHA-inspector/auditor...)
 
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