It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon, a perfect day for cleaning all that grime off your car. You gather a bucket, sponges, towels and household cleaners without giving it much thought. Have you stopped to consider that these things might work well in the house, yet can do harm to your windshield by scratching or even breaking the glass? Below are some bad habits you need to avoid to prevent damaging the glass on your car.

Using sponges and towels to clean glass

You might think sponges and towels are safe and soft things for cleaning auto glass, but those in the auto glass field would tend to disagree. In fact, they are probably the worst things you could use to clean auto glass. While a sponge does a great job scrubbing grimy dishes and utensils, it’s not meant to be used on auto glass. Regular household towels work well for wiping your hands, but the material they’re made of can scratch the surface of glass. The solution is to replace these items with microfiber cloths ideal for use on auto glass.

Removing decals with keys

Peeling decals from glass surfaces with your car keys is a terrible idea. You may try peeling it by hand and part of the decal breaks apart and ends up stuck to the window, causing frustration. An alternate solution is to spray WD-40 on the sticker, let it sit for a minute, and then loosen a corner using a fingernail and it will peel away easily.

Keeping old wiper blades

Something we’ve all done at least once is neglecting to replace worn out wiper blades. Even when you notice they’ve seen better days you continue to use them. Do yourself a favour and toss them! Install replacement wiper blades before you do any damage to your windshield.

Tinting your auto glass at home

Only an expert with the right tools should apply tint to auto glass. You could wind up damaging the glass surface or even applying a tint that’s illegal. This is a job best left to the professionals.

Turn to the professionals here at First Response Auto Glass when you need glass repair or replacement.