How to Maintain Tinted Windows

Living in the Las Vegas Valley means dealing with bright sunshine most days of the year, and many homeowners choose to shield their home to some extent with tinted windows. While a sound investment for many reasons, maintaining tinted windows is different than maintaining standard windows with no tint or other coatings. Maintaining tinted windows requires particular care with tools and chemicals to prevent damaging the coating and creating eyesores as well as ineffective tinting. When first installed, tinted windows cannot be treated with chemicals or cleaning agents until they have cured completely, at which point, most general window-cleaning solutions will work fine.

No Sharp Tools Allowed

While one of the best tools with which to clean normal windows is a sharp scraper and a razor blade, using those tools on tint will damage the coating by cutting, tearing and lifting it out of place. Obviously, such damage is highly undesirable and would create bright spots where unfiltered sunlight is getting through while also drawing the eyes to the damaged spot. Stubborn spots are best dealt with using a wet cloth or basic window washing fluid and repeated use of a cloth to clean the offending spot. Scraping likely would damage the tint, but saturating the stain or other substance with water or cleaning solution will loosen it and enable homeowners to wipe them off.

Be Careful With Strong Cleaners

Because windows themselves are highly durable and are very hard despite the fragile nature of glass, many people make the mistake of thinking their tinted windows are as durable as their clear windows. Even though it is right in front of their eyes, it is easy to forget a window is tinted and treat it like an untinted window and apply strong cleaning agents, such as bleach or other caustic substance that can and usually will damage the tint. At most, only mild detergents and other cleaning agents, such as ammonia, should come into contact with the tinted surfaces of windows.

If your windows are tinted, what is your preferred cleaning solution when doing your windows?