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MISCONCEPTIONS
Have you ever thought that window cleaning in the rain was a waste of time? Maybe even thought badly of a local window cleaner for cleaning windows before a rainstorm? Shaking your head saying to yourself, "What is he thinking!" I can't remember how many times clients, friends, and strangers have questioned me at the idea of cleaning a window with rain on the horizon. Please rest assured that those thoughts however common they might be are not based on facts. Personal experience, logic, and science are on the window cleaner's side.
RAINWATER IS A POWERFUL CLEANSER!
As explained on Wikipedia, "A TDS Meter indicates the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of a solution, i.e. the concentration of dissolved solids in it." If you measure the number of contaminants in rainwater using a TDS meter, the reading ranges from very low to zero. Tap water normally has between 30 – 200 times more solids dissolved into it. Many window cleaners buy very expensive equipment to deionize water to remove contaminates to get pure H2O and clean windows with that quality water. Rain is similar to high-quality water which is a powerful cleanser. Rain is not the glass-dirtying culprit people claim it to be. It is quite the opposite.
OUR EXPERIENCE
Our 30 years of experience cleaning windows in many different locations have proven that rain is a window cleaner's friend. Well, our misunderstood friend. Just a short time ago Window Cleaning Services of San Diego (http://www.sdcleanwindows.com) in Poway CA cleaned windows at a residence in La Jolla, CA. That very same day a heavy downpour of rain came. The homeowner called in a panic, believing that the money spent on cleaning was all a loss. I encouraged them to wait until the rain passes to check the windows. A short time later I received a text saying all was ok. The next day another unexpected downpour came followed by another panic-stricken homeowner... the same homeowner... about the rain and her windows. I once again asked them to wait and see. They once again texted me to say all was ok. So goes the reaction of many to rain on clean windows.
As I mentioned earlier there are some exceptions. I once cleaned windows for a regular customer who called after a rain because of spots. The reason? There was a highly unusual atmospheric event that brought sand from several states to the west away and then mixed in with a local rainstorm. Another situation that can occur at times is related to high pollen. Something else I have noticed since we have lived here in Daly City is that the thick and constant fog which keeps the windows wet for long periods of time will naturally become dirty sooner since they are constantly damp and when you add the blowing sea breezes the windows do pick up sand, salt, etc which will dirty the glass. This is not due to rain of course, but the special circumstances of constant fog areas.
In unusual situations where rain leaves spots, it generally is only on one side of the home, with limited spotting. I do return and offer to clean the affected windows again at no charge. However, in more than 30 years of window cleaning, this has only been requested on 2 or 3 occasions.