Steel wool on vinyl

Residential
1

Hey guys n gals,

I used #0000 steel wool the other day for tracks and frames. It was all vinyl. I had spectacular results, getting rust, dirt and stains off.

Does any one else use it for this purpose and should I be concerned about any of it?

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2

Yes sure do! Works like a charm on frames, haven’t run into any issues myself.

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3

A little late isn’t it?

4

Better late than never

P.s., I tried it on the tracks first before using it on the sides and fronts.

5

That’s awesome to hear! I hope to hear all good comments but any negative ones about using it, will potentially help me spot a problem prior to use(the next time @Trenchfeet lol).

6

So you just used it to clean them as part of a standard cleaning process? Or only on areas that were exceptionally dirty? Never heard of this…

7

I used it for places my damp, microfiber cloth or my magic eraser didn’t excell. @WindowRescue

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8

In general ( not too aggressively) it has worked AND I have scratched vinyl frames with it.

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9

I use an old one on nasty aluminum commercial framework all the time.

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10

Just make sure you dont leave any little bits of steel wool in there. They’ll rust like crazy.

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11

Do you remember any specifics? If it was paint colour or anything?

12

Huge advice. Thank you

13

No paint and the scratches were faint. Most noticeable when the track gets dirty.
I don’t use it anymore. These days I just use a track brush and flush with squirt bottle.
If heavy debris I vac first.

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14

Thanks man. @Matthew

15

That is the best way to do them in my opinion too.

Steel wool on vinyl

Those two bolded words don’t play well together.

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16

I think that I’ll use it as a last resort. No need to risk anything.

Vacuum - flush - brush - flush - corners again with tooth brush - flush - magic eraser/microfiber - flush - dry should be enough :slight_smile:

17

…No need to over do it :slight_smile: I don’t think I have ever dried tracks. Sometimes they don’t drain and I have to sop up most of water, but dry them? Nah.

18

I may have to try that out! The time saved would be nice. I’ve been using paper towel for the drying part instead of towels(for tracks). It doesn’t take too long to do it but having with out it would be that much better.

19

@GlassMD Toss the steel wool and get bronze wool
https://shopwindowcleaningresource.com/bronze-steel-wool-grade-fine.html

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20

Coming from someone who tends to overdo things, definitely take Matt’s advice. Honestly, I think the majority of people don’t really care about the tracks at all, or very little. Think about it: how close do people generally get to their windows? We don’t live in the 1800’s anymore where people just stare out the window (ok, admittedly, I have no proof that people even did that in the 1800’s lol); people stare at TV screens and phones nowadays. Maybe it’s just my area, but most people just wanna be able to not see a film or bird poop as they happen to glance at their windows from 10 feet away as they walk through their house…if they even have the blinds up, that is. They are getting 80% of the benefit of your work from the glass, maybe 19.5% from the screens, and like 0.5% from the tracks.

I reserve flushing the tracks or really cleaning the corners for my “Supreme” package, and more and more I’m realizing that that’s still overkill. But if you’re going to go through a crazy, rigorous procedure, I say make sure they even care about ultra-clean tracks, or at the very least that they are paying you generously for that time. Cause in the time you could clean a track to that level, you could have already done the glass and moved on to the next window.

$0.02

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