Okay guys and gals - I have read the other posts regarding soap, soap wars, designer soaps, and plain dish washing detergent. I know that soap can be a touchy subject around here, but I would like to gather a more formal vote.
Does dish soap leave a film or residue? About a month ago I cleaned a friends windows…pro bono…and I have been using a squirt of dawn along with GG4. I went to go visit my friend again, and the windows were really dirty! I was in shock. I used the same mix on my windows at home, and they are still clean. I can’t figure it out. I want to keep the dawn for the sudsing factor, but not at the expense of leaving behind a film. Any ideas?
So I guess my question is directed towards all brands of dish soap, even though I have only used dawn. Thanks in advance…
The film of GG4 just smells better. I do the same thing GG4 and squirt of dawn.
I was doing a house a couple weeks ago and the homeowners were commenting on the how they liked the smell. The back of their house faces a golf course, so every time they went to the windows they could smell it, and at first they though the golfers were wearing cologne because after I finished a room, they would go over and open the windows, then they asked me about the soap.
OK back to the original subject now, I used to use straight dawn. This year I switched to GG4 and noticed that my regular commercial windows were staying cleaning. Just my observation.
Easiest way to tell and satisfy this question for yourself is to clean a window pane in your home using your choice of soap. Go back the next day with plain (soap free) water and a new scrubber/cloth and soak down the window. Any suds?
Now that’s just too scientific. Doing that leaves no room for opinion, speculation, or conjecture. Geez, what are you thinking?
Actually, that’s a really smart way to test for film. You’d have to make sure your brush was free of soap.
And, I agree with Tony. All soap leaves a film. I also use GG4 with a squirt of Dawn.
I believe the environment a window pane is in is the major factor in determining how quick the glass gets dirty. There are restaurants that I do every 2 weeks and they’re filmy every time I come back. I’ve tried every soap and soap combo you can think of, and the windows get filmy in 2 weeks no matter what I use.
I use the GG4 and dish soap mixture too. But I use more than a little drop. I probably put a nickel to quarter size spot in my bucket. I like it for the sudsing factor too. My guys don’t like it for the same reason. They say that the suds causes streaks when you miss a spot. I told them to learn how to squeegee better and quit leaving streaks.
I also like to add Dawn to my GG4 mixture. I have found that the more Dawn I add the faster the windows resoil. Therefore I try to use as little Dawn as possible, just enough to give me a little more glide, no suds. I put one oz. of Dawn in a GG3 squeeze bottle (smaller 8 oz. size) and dilute it with water. This way I am always adding exactly the same amount. It works out to 1/16th of an ounce per 2 gallons of water. I can not tell the difference in the resoiling rate with this small amount of Dawn.
Try adding 1/2 cup of yellow ammonia to 3 gal water and whatever soap/slip combo you are using. The ammonia will help cut down on the leftover film. This works great for restaurants, smoking sections and glass near busy intersections.
I normally use GG4 and add nowt - thats why I pay for GG4. However I have just tried the (new ) Wagtail solution which I really like, its a little more soapy than GG also smells nice.
Mix Ammonia and Muratic acid and it’ll definitely kill ya. It can get you like mustard gas. Oh by the way keep the chlorine away too. It like a gun and bullet. Keep them separate.
Bleach and Ammonia can kill ya too when mixing so don’t do it.
you can definitely feel the film that dawn leaves on the glass. I use it anyway with glisten or gg4. gg3 is the only soap that I will use without dawn. don’t ask me why
If you wfp a window and let it dry and then soap and squeegee half the window, then dry steel wool both sections, you will feel the drag on the wfp section and the soaped section will still glide well.
He is definitely right. You can’t go wrong with dawn or gg4 or some of the other solutions if you use the right amount of soap. Some may disagree with me because of their experience but its worked out
really well for us over the past 5 years.
I don’t know if its psychological or what, but it sure seems to have a lot more glide than gg4. Also a few more suds too. Overall, I prefer it to gg4 by alot.
