The best way to clean a Jalousie window.
I have a lot of jalousie panes to clean.They are popular in Hawai'i as they allow the trade winds to keep the house cool.
Over the last few years, I have tried many different ways to make cleaning multiple panes of glass less difficult.
If you don't want to read the whole article, I will start with the conclusion.
Denatured alcohol, also known as methylated spirits, is a very cheap alcohol that is poisonous to drink and can be purchased at hardware stores.
Don't worry if you see a metal can or plastic jug that says clean burning fuel as opposed to clean glass.It is the same thing.
It is a mixture of 70% alcohol, mostly ethyl alcohol and carbonol, with a few additions that make it taste terrible, including the very poisonous propylene glycol, and around 30% water.
The formula varies from brand to brand, but we can call it a can of 70% ethyl alcohol.
In order to make it 35% alcohol, you mix it in equal parts with water.The water slows the evaporation from your towel so it can work on the glass.
It dries out without any cloudy or streaking.No other method does this as well as it does.
After spraying your 1:1 onto a microfiber towel, wipe the jalousie panes clean.The result is the same even if they are clean or filthy.
I don't like the smell of vinegar, but this works.There is a home recipe called Dawnegar, a blend of white vinegar and Dawn dish soap.It is normally used to cut through calcium deposits on shower doors, so if your jalousies have whitish dirt that never completely rubs off, a fine mist spray with Dawnegar, wiped away with a damp microfiber towel, might be what you need to do.
If calcium is your foe, it works because it does not dry as streak-free as alcohol and it smells like fish and chips.
The method is to open the jalousies and use a melamine pad.Wet the pad under the tap, wring it out, and then wipe the top of the pane with circular motions.The dirtier side is the outside side.Quickly wipe the bottom with a brief left and right motion with the same eraser, and then dry both sides using a dry and clean microfiber towel.
Every time, repeat.After a few panes, you will need to rinse, squeeze and re-wet the eraser pad.The result is no haze or excess water.It is easy and quick.Just a light touch is all you need during both stages.
If you have ever seen jalousies in a storm, you will know that the water will come right inside the house.There needs to be a second person inside with a towel.The only good thing about this method is that you can wash the screens in place, but it is a lot of work and you won't have enough towels to dry the mess.
Windex brand or similar window cleaning product, car windshield wash, wet application, followed by a squeegee and towel, or just towels.
If the glass is cold to the touch, these window cleaners may or may not work better than plain water or soapy water.The windshield fluid is better and less expensive than the window cleaner, but the squeegee is not suited to multiple tiny panes held at each end with a clip, and in practice, this method always results in hazy glass.The bigger mess is created by using newspaper instead of towels.
This still results in haze, and unlike melamine pads, stubborn dirt doesn't always get removed.After a few panes, the towel will leave a mess and the glass will be hazy.
The ethyl spray and microfiber towel are the best combination for this job, even though I have tried other methods.
Jeffrey the Barak wasted a thousand hours failing to clean jalousies before ethyl alcohol arrived to save the day.
I think we all have a chance to do this now.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.I struggle to clean my jalousies in Hawaii, so I use a microfiber towel wet with water and a few drops of dish soap.Next was a dry microfiber towel.I will try your method and see if it works for me.Mahalo!There is a person named Connie.
I live in a mid century house in Michigan with Jalousie windows.Cleaning them is the worst chore of the year.I tried your method today and it was amazing.They were dirty and smelly.Cut my cleaning time in half.I have thought about replacing my windows because they are so hard to clean.Beautifully sparkling windows in an hour.
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