Does your window cleaner dry your windows?

[sparklins]

Apologies if this is a silly question.
Never had a window cleaner before until now, my DM used to have one 20+ years ago when I still lived at home and back then they climbed up on ladders and used squeegees and cloths to dry and buff the windows after using copious amounts of soapy water to clean them.

Just had our new window cleaner arrive we went with him as he does a lot of houses on our street.
He used a telescopic pole with a brush on it for them all which sprays out water to clean then went back towards his van, I thought to perhaps get something to dry with but he packed up and drove off. I now have water droplets on all of my windows which I'm guessing will leave marks when they evaporate?
AIBU to think they should have been squeegeed off/dried somehow or is this the standard practice now and I'm being a PITA?

Mine doesn't

That's not how it works. Wash and leave is normal.

Mine doesn't.
There's no way he'd be able to reach most of them anyway without specialist ladders!

They use distilled water so it shouldn't leave marks

Good to know - thanks for asking, OP! Ours doesn't either, but I had wondered.

I was lucky if my window cleaner actually cleaned any of my windows. He was very good at posting a note to say he had been though !

Nope, never seen a window cleaner dry windows!

ex-window cleaner here. As PP pointed out, the pole system uses de-ionised water, and if correctly applied (and monitored) will dry without any residual. We would pole the upper floors, and use the traditional mop, blade and scrims on the ground floor windows which will be left dry.

Most cleaners use the pole system because it is slightly quicker (but you need to carry lots of water about) and far more safer then using a ladder. There have been cases where insurance companies have not paid out after accidents for reasons such as 'lack of risk assessment', 'failure to secure ladder correctly', 'failure to have someone foot a ladder', the message to the window cleaning fraternity is to not use a ladder if you can use a pole.

If its the pole system then thats what happens..I prefer the traditional window cleaner we have

husband runs a window cleaning firm. The pole system uses a filter that removes the minerals from the water so any water will dry clear. If any residue does remain, it means the levels in the filtration system aren’t balanced.

we live in a hard water area. I literally cannot fathom people who prefer a traditional method because it WILL leave residue in our area.

Mine washes and dries the windows and also cleans all the window frames and fascias too. He's brilliant! 😀

Your new window cleaner is using the pure water-fed pole system, which is a modern window cleaning technique as opposed to the original mop and squeegee traditional window cleaning method. Provided that the window cleaner purifies the water used with a reverse osmosis/deionizing filtration system (and changes the filters regularly), the water droplets won't leave marks on the windows as they evaporate because it's free of minerals. I wrote a blog on this subject after my mom asked me the very same question (my husband has been in the window cleaning industry for over 30 years): https://www.midwaycleaning.co.uk/post/why-don-t-window-cleaners-dry-windows-anymore

I used to work in a retirement complex where the pole wash and go system was used. One miserable old git used to hang out of the window and wipe the water off...then complained it was a mess. The manager was very weak and complained every time to the window cleaner. The third time, he told her to fuck it, got back in the van and left. She was in tears...I explained that the window cleaner was right and these days you don't have to wipe the window over.

But she wouldn't stand up to the old bloke and they went through 2 more window cleaners in 9 months. She left. Decent manager came in and she explained to the miserable bugger that times had changed.

As an aside he tried to tell me to prune roses in March. I said yes that was a traditional approach, but with climate change it was my professional view that you have had 2 months growth often by then and you are setting flowering back to prune then.

what I am saying is why employ a professional and question what they are doing without looking at the results

My mum's window cleaner uses distilled (I think) water and this dries perfectly. She asked him about this exact thing.

Bit of an old thread of mine but thank you for the replies 😁
New question has actually arisen since between me and SIL we'd love someone to weigh in on - does your window cleaner clean the glass only or also the frames?

if they are a good window cleaner they should do the frames and sills as standard.

if they aren’t including them and do the glass only, they should make that clear from the outset

i had this conversation with my husband last week actually. He says when using the poles it’s almost impossible not to include them as standard. It’s the ones who do it by hand who tend to ignore or charge extra. Our next door neighbour used to have a traditional window cleaner (not my husband) and she asked my DH to do the gutters - he said you could literally see the handprint in the corner of the windows where it hadn’t been cleaned as the window cleaner clearly had been reaching across.

Yep.should be sills and frames...harder not too surely

Professional window cleaners should indeed be including the frames and sills as standard. This is quite easy for them to do with the water-fed pole system. It also keeps the windows cleaner for longer as rain won't be dripping the dirt from the frames onto the windows as much. It would be harder to keep this up for window cleaners using the more traditional mop and squeegee method. It may well cost a bit more to get a window cleaner who provides this quality service but who really wants clean windows with dirty frames anyway!😉

I've written a blog on this subject too: Why Window Cleaners Should Also Clean Frames