Pin Busters! D-I-Y Streak-free Window Cleaner

Who hates to wash windows? Me! Me! Me!

I found this recipe for a streak-free, no-dry window cleaner on Pinterest, pinned by Jillee, but it was originally created by Jill over at the creativity, musings & such blog.

According to them, this stuff will clean your windows and once you rinse it off, you just let them air-dry to a streak-free finish. No wiping/drying. It sounded to good to be true, so I had to give it a try. The original recipe made 2 gallons, but I didn't want to make that much, so I cut everything in half.


Here's what I used:

1/4 bottle of Jet Dry dishwasher additive
2 TBSP. isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
1/8 c. ammonia
1/8 c. powdered dishwasher soap (I used Cascade)
1 gallon of hot water


The directions said to rinse the windows with water, wash with the "miracle" solution, then rinse with water. That's it. No wiping, no squeegeeing - just rinse and walk away.

I attempted to get a good picture of the sliding glass doors in my living room, but it was really difficult to do. Mostly they had some dusty splatters from a recent rain.


I rinsed them with water, then used my handy-dandy window cleaning tool (you fill it with solution, spray it on, then clean with the microfiber pad that is attached) to clean the glass. (There is also a squeegee, but I'm not supposed to need that, right?) Right away, I noticed that there were little white granules all over the window. The Cascade didn't dissolve!!! Ugh. What a mess.

So I rinsed, rinsed, rinsed to get all of the granules off, then let the glass air-dry.

What did it look like once it dried? Well, there were water spots. Not a lot, but more than I want to see on a door that I look through all day long. A few squirts of Windex looks much better than this!


I tried it on the sliding glass doors in the basement and it was even worse. Finally, I just used the solution to clean the glass, rinsed with water, and squeegeed it. That worked much better.

The verdict: Not Pin-worthy IMO. Maybe it would be okay on the windows that are difficult to reach, because glass that's a little cleaner is better than nothing and any water spots would be more difficult to see. But on windows that you can reach easily, I would stick to regular cleaning products or use this one with a squeegee.