Just as with any other part of your home, your windows can become dirty as well. If you have a pressure washer, then you will know that they can be used to make quick work out of dirty stains. So why not take the pressure washer to the window?
Table of Contents
Can you clean windows with a Pressure Washer?
Windows are generally fragile, especially compared to the pressure of a pressure washer, this doesn’t mean that you have to resort to elbow grease and hours of work. If you are careful and a bit cautious with your window, you can easily use your pressure washer to wash your windows.
In fact, doing this is recommended if you want to get rid of stains on the window that you don’t want to spend hours trying to scrub off on your own.
The Potential Problem
With that being said, it is important to note that if you are not careful with the way that you pressure wash your windows, you will end up causing permanent and irreversible damage to your windows, often resulting in very costly repairs. You cannot take a pressure washer to your windows the same way that you take it to your driveway. There are precautions that you have to take and there are some methods that you have to follow to try to minimize some of the pressure that you are putting onto the glass of the window.
If you have to dilute some of the pressure that the pressure washer is offering, then is there even a point to pressure washing a window? There absolutely is, as even weaker jets from a pressure washer are going to be more effective at scrubbing away layers of surface grime than a rag and window solution. Cleaning a window with a pressure washer will only take a few minutes at a time for each window of your house, allowing you to be done with cleaning your windows in a matter of less than an hour.
[adinserter name=”Best electric pressure washer”]
How Does it Work?
In order to effectively clean your windows using a pressure washer and to ensure that you do not damage your windows in the process, you are going to have to do a few things differently. First things first; you will want to make sure that the windows can stand up to a mild pressure washing.
Areas of windows where you plan on re-caulking, re-glazing, or refinishing should be handled by hand as pressure washing these kinds of windows can only exacerbate problems in the structure. Otherwise, you can pressure wash your windows.
Once you are certain that your windows can take a pressure washing, you will want to prepare the soap, add it to your pressure washer, and then get into place. If you have a soap tip that you can add to your pressure washer, you should add it as long as it has an angle spray of 60 degrees or more for a low-pressure method of cleaning.
If it is equipped with a low-pressure soap dispenser, you will want to keep the tip of the pressure washer itself at a 45-degree angle from the rest of the window. This is done for two reasons.
For one, it will help to dull the overall impact of the pressure from the pressure washer, ensuring that the glass of the window is in no danger or risk of cracking underneath the pressure, thanks to the numerous precautions you took.
Additionally, this angle has been shown to help the stream of water get underneath stains and layers of grime, allowing you to clean your windows more effectively in the process.
In the end, as long as you are careful when you are pressure washing your windows, you can rest assured knowing not only that your windows will be just fine but that your windows will soon be cleaner than you have seen them in a long, long time.
More about washing windows with a pressure washer
What If You Don’t Have a Low-Pressure Tip?
If you do not have a low-pressure tip to clean off your windows with, then you should not risk trying to clean your windows at all in the first place. It will always be better for you to use a lower-pressure tip and have to go over an area of tough grime than for you to damage your window permanently with a high-pressure tip for your pressure washer.
Do You Need a Specific Kind of Soap?
You do not necessarily have to invest in a type of soap that is special or is anything different than what you would normally use. Most standard window soaps are going to be a bit milder than what would be used on a concrete or wooden deck, simply because those soaps tend to have bleach in them to get rid of long-lasting stains and mildew.
Most pressure washer soaps will indicate whether or not they can be used on glass.
Are There Any Other Precautions to Take?
There are two things that you should remember when you are cleaning your windows with a pressure washer. You should make sure to rinse the soil beneath the windows that you are washing, especially if you have plants.
This will allow the soap runoff to be more easily dealt with by the soil. And second, you should always make sure to rinse the window down after using the soap on the window so that you can get the best results.
