Advice on Glass Cleaning Products Needed

Spit · Post by **Spit** » Sat 28 Jul, 2007 10:09 am

Cheers for that! In my mind, I was calling you all sorts.....

I have enough trouble pronouncing Welsh place names

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Sat 28 Jul, 2007 11:38 am

Moglet wrote: Very close, Spit! Rough pronunciation would be 'Ahnyeh.'

Áine,

Don't tell me.......you're that famous singer............I thought your name was spelled 'Enya'.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Wed 01 Aug, 2007 8:53 pm

Dermot, you were right on point with Lion's aerosol glass cleaner (cat. ref. 548). They confirmed that it's made by Ebor, and I have a can on order! I've also ordered some microfibre cloths from them (cat. ref. 4632). Thanks to MarkW for that tip.

Thanks again to all for the recommendations. Hopefully glass cleaning will be a bit easier on the ol' joints now...

Bill Henry · Post by **Bill Henry** » Wed 01 Aug, 2007 9:46 pm

Àine,

If you have a shoulder problem, the best cleaning chemicals won’t prevent you from having to engage in the repetitive motion needed to clean the glass.

All of the eight or so varieties of TruVue are pre-washed so they don’t (or shouldn’t) need to be cleaned again.

Of course, you pay a premium for that service. Only you can determine whether the risk of irritating your joint is worth the extra cost.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Wed 01 Aug, 2007 9:51 pm

NilGlass is very good.
been using it for about 15 years. the motor trade use it too, in spray bottles one litre and 2.5 littre top up containers.
highly recommended, easy to use, contains glycol.
great on your car windscreen and house windows too

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Wed 01 Aug, 2007 10:49 pm

Bill Henry wrote:Àine,

If you have a shoulder problem, the best cleaning chemicals won’t prevent you from having to engage in the repetitive motion needed to clean the glass.

Thankyou for your concern, Bill.

Any improvement will be great: at the moment, it can take 3 or 4 attempts sometimes to get my glass clean. It's really good to know that the TV products will be coming in ready-washed. For float glass, it's rare to find a local supplier that interleaves the glass. It certainly ain't washed. I would happily pay for my float to come in washed: I'd far prefer not to do anything to exacerbate the joint problem, and any uplift in cost would be offset against my current - exaggerated - labour time for cleaning. I just wish that they offered such a service....

kev@frames wrote:NilGlass is very good.

That's gone on file, too. Thanks, Kev!

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Wed 01 Aug, 2007 10:52 pm

(Sorry for double-post, but can't edit previous.)

Actually, Bill, you've given me some food for thought. If the shoulder problem persists, it might be well worth my considering a switch to Con Clear as my default glazing option. I must check the numbers....

Crescent Cardboard · Post by **Crescent Cardboard** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 9:34 am

Hi Áine,

Britannia Mounts carry the Tru Vue glass cleaner and you should be able to buy that locally through your local distributor of Con Clear, or they can ship direct.

The cleaner is ammonia based and it is recommended that you spray a small amount onto a micro-fibre cloth or clean cotton rag. For best results, do not spray the cleaner directly on the glass as this will cause streaking. Press the cloth against the glass and clean in round, circular motions to reduce streaking or leaving spots.

Tru Vue products are pre-washed and should need little cleaning compared to other glass products. I would always recommend cleaning though. The effort on your shoulder should be less tiresome with TV.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 10:11 am

Peter (Crescent Cardboard) wrote:The effort on your shoulder should be less tiresome with TV.

That's very sweet music to my ears, Peter!

Thanks for the supplemental info, too.

markw · Post by **markw** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 10:33 am

I seem to remember reading somewhere that some of the optically coated glasses shouldn't be cleaned with ammonia based cleaners?

Crescent Cardboard · Post by **Crescent Cardboard** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 10:53 am

Hi Mark,

Ammonia doesn't damage glass or the coatings on Tru Vue products. The coatings supplied by different manufacturer's varies. Most are "dipped" and the coating can be easily removed by cleaning regularly or by scratching. Tru Vue UV coatings are "cured" onto the surface and the AR coatings are produced using a process called Magnetron Sputtering (sorry for the technicality - the coating effectively hits the glass faster than a formula 1 car).

So to answer your question, Ammonia Free glass cleaner is good for all uncoated glass and all Tru Vue glass. For other coated glass I would get recommendations from the manufacturer, but if ammonia glass cannot be used it probably means that the coating won't last too long !!

markw · Post by **markw** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 11:35 am

Peter - you just had to make me dig out the relevant sticker with the information on it.

I quote:
"we always recommend using an ammonia free cleaner"

Hope this doesnt mean that the coatings going to wear off???

Im hoping the magnetron was sputtering well that day - because its the label from a box of Truevue truguard..

Crescent Cardboard · Post by **Crescent Cardboard** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 11:55 am

Hi Mark,

Wondered how long it would take you to spot my deliberate mistake!

My wording should have read "Ammonia Free" as obviously, as you point out, ammonia does the damage. The glass cleaner from Tru Vue is ammonia-free NOT ammonia based as I stated.

I'm glad somebody's awake today. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 11:55 am

Ammonia free cleaners are recommended down here too for CC AR & Museum glass and I am quite sure that the purple TV glass cleaner is ammonia free! I will check the label tomorrow morning at work!

markw · Post by **markw** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 12:10 pm

To spot your mistake - seconds - to make you spot your mistake quite a bit longer. In the light of your error you may well wish to clarify the comments made about competitors glass??

Crescent Cardboard · Post by **Crescent Cardboard** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 12:26 pm

Hi Mark,

My error was typing Ammonia based instead of ammonia free. The quote at the end of the post to yourself was correct. Ammonia free cleaner should be used with TV glass and is indeed perfect for float glass.

My point with the competitors glass is valid. Some competitors use coatings (for AR glass, as an example) that will wear off with cleaning. However, each manufacturer may recommend specific cleaning products that limit this.

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markw · Post by **markw** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 12:52 pm

Crescent Cardboard wrote:

So to answer your question, Ammonia Free glass cleaner is good for all uncoated glass and all Tru Vue glass. For other coated glass I would get recommendations from the manufacturer, but if ammonia glass cannot be used it probably means that the coating won't last too long !!

Right - Peter just to unknit the obvious confusion here, what exactly does your last sentence in this quote mean? I presume that you have some doubts about the quality of some rival products?

You are being viewed as an expert in the field and should be very careful about the way you post information. As I have used a number of rivals products over the years should I now be concerned that customers will be coming back to have a very expensive element of their picture replaced?

realhotglass · Post by **realhotglass** » Thu 02 Aug, 2007 1:21 pm

As far as I can tell, all optically coated glasses are very similar in manufacturing techniques.
They all use multiple coatings of certain elements to cancel out different wavelengths of light (reflecting).

Dip coated is great, like the DenglasUV products available until recently.
No wrong side, very scratch resistant, UV block in the dip.
I used to supply that . . . actually, I can still get a swag of it if I want to, and just last week did some cut to size for a framer.

We tested the offcuts for scratch resistance by seaming the edges, then quite deliberately cleaning it like normal glass, with the ammonia free aerosol cleaner and plain cotton rag.

No problems even rubbing very hard with rag removing the fine shards / dust from seaming.

This would scratch heck out of Museum coating, at the very least the UV coating, so avoid seaming (or use soft horsehair brush to remove shards first before final clean).

On the other thread somewhere, Robo mentioned no cleaning.
This is a great idea.
Use white fine cotton gloves, nice clean pair, and you can just give it a once over with the glove palm while you are wearing them, this is all you generally need to do.

There are very few manufacturers of optically coated low refection glasses now. Pity. Competition and more research would be great for the future of these glasses.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Fri 24 Aug, 2007 2:05 am

A huge and heartfelt "thankyou!" to all for your recommendations, hints and tips.

I just wanted to let you know that, as a result of your help and advice I'm now able to clean glass at a reasonable speed again, with far less effort, and with much less strain/pain on the oul' back and shoulders. Ye're stars!