Cleaning Glass Pool Fences – A Customers Firsthand Account  

Considering a glass swimming pool fence? I’ve taken out all of the guess work by testing some conventional and not so conventional theories – let me help save you time and money with some tips on how to keep glass pool fencing clean!

On the day of instillation, glass pool fencing look so amazing. It’s clean and sparkling in the sun and it disappears seamlessly into your swimming pool landscape – que the first ‘bomb’ into the pool by the kids and if you’re anything like me, that “great” idea of yours having a glass fence installed makes you quickly question your sanity – although I questioned my sanity for a whole different reason, the idea of needing to then clean the pool fence just added to it.

Firstly let me explain my swimming pool – not only was it literally part of the inside of my house (yep…I did say INSIDE, about 3 meters away from my kitchen to be exact) –  the sun would hit that water every afternoon throwing a beautiful amount of dancing light across my peaked ceiling – I was in awe of that sight, it was my favourite time of the day, until on day 3, when I looked down from the ceiling and realised just how dirty the glass pool fence looked in all of that sunlight. It was covered in salty water spray from the kids’ recent adventures in the pool and generally dull looking from being an older house and pool.

Cleaning Glass Pool Fencing

Here I found myself searching for the top tips on cleaning glass pool fencing. YIKES!!! So many answers and DIY ideas from everyone, plus a quick call to my Mumma and it quickly become overwhelming – so through trial and error (and a super large ‘I wish I’d known that earlier’ moment) I’ve gone ahead and put together some do’s and don’t bother tips for both your amusement and help cleaning your swimming pool glass.

The “Don’ts”

Since my glass was older, (and I was in a rental so I wasn’t going to be there forever), I didn’t want an expensive solution to cleaning my pool glass, I had to get a little more creative with DIY for cleaning the glass, and when I say creative, think shaving foam, glass cleaners, teeny tiny sponges and dish soap and vinegar (all those old wives tales my mum told me about growing up as well as )

I quickly found that shaving foam works better at repelling steam off bathroom mirrors than repelling salty water off glass pool fences – I’ll save you a couple of hours straight up and say don’t bother with the experiment!

Store brought glass cleaners – while they work to clean the surface dirt off, if not used correctly they can leave streaks that almost seem like double the work to get off, so save your money and skip this one too.

I watched tutorials from other social media links on how to clean bathroom shower glass – because glass is glass right – and saw an option to use a dish wand, you know that one with the little head that is a sponge and you fill the handle with dish soap – so off to the shops I went to buy a non-abrasive one, filled it with a small amount of dish soap and added in vinegar, walked over to the pool fence with that wand drawn like a gallant knight and his sword, thinking ‘this is genius’ only to stop dead in my tracks looking at the 6 panels of glass fence in front of me and this tiny little sponge head in my hand that was designed to clean dirty dishes. Before I struck it off the list, I did try half a panel to see if the solution and theory behind it worked. Jackpot!!!!

The “Do’s”

Back to the shops I went – in search of a window cleaner, this time on the larger end of the scale and with a squeegee on the other side.

Half fill a bucket with WARM water – not hot as it will leave streaks because it dries too quickly – a small amount of dish soap to break down the debris and a good splash of vinegar and I got to work on cleaning both sides of my glass fence. After the first fence I stood back to admire my **ah hem handy work and realised there was a reason I wasn’t a professional window cleaning!

I used a microfiber cloth to tidy up my poor squeegee efforts, but the results were amazing! I found the more often I cleaned the glass the quicker and better I got at it and the brighter the old glass seemed to look as well.

I also decided to use the garden hose on the glass at the end of each swimming day in the hotter months, I would hold the hose near the top and simply let the water run down to help dissolve any minerals or salts that were splashed onto the panels during the day, a quick squeegee to remove excess water and then once a week I would give it a proper wash with my newfound preferred method to keep them looking clean and sparkling.

Now for the ‘I wish I’d known that sooner option’

The biggest tip I can give you – Get your glass pool fence treated professionally prior to installation!

When choosing your landscape or fence installation company, ask them about professional treatment of your glass to help cut cleaning time and maintain the crystal clear ‘just installed’ look for years to come. When doing research on glass swimming pool fences, I found a company called Enduroshield, that use state of the art nanotechnology that will act as a shield by sealing the glass and allow pool water, dirt and other things like animal droppings to be an easy to clean process. Saving you hours on cleaning and protecting the surface of your glass pool fence for years to come, this product can also be applied after installation, however the best option is to have this done prior to install – check out their website for further information on their product and warranties; Enduroshield.

An absolute must is to avoid using abrasive cleaning items as they will put tiny scratches on your pool fence glass where dirt and minerals can build up and it will make cleaning that much harder.

Don’t forget to clean the spigots that hold the glass in place as well to avoid them looking discoloured and help prevent corrosion from the salt water. A simple microfiber cloth to dry them off after a hose off should be enough to keep these looking clean or you can opt for another cleaning product to add to your laundry cupboard if you like.

Or when all else fails – it could be a great time to invest in a cleaner 😉

Build Your Dream Backyard Pool

Here at Bali Pools on the Gold Coast, we design and build stunning pools for our clients, head to our website to view our Gallery  for some inspiration today.