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We went on the hunt for the best glass cleaner for your shower, and we found it! Let’s compare four different glass cleaners for the shower to see which one beats out the rest.
Are you cleaning your glass shower surfaces with the same product you use to clean your home’s windows? If you aren’t getting the shiny, sparkling results you are after with your regular window cleaner, there is a reason why. Compared to your exterior windows, shower glass gets put through different stresses. When it comes to our windows, we are cleaning dust, pollen, and maybe pet nose smears (or “nose art” as I like to call my basset hound’s nose marks) from the glass. Check out our post for cleaning windows with one simple trick. With shower glass surfaces, we are fighting more stubborn stains – soap scum, mineral deposits from hard water, and mold.
Here are the products we are comparing today:
- A homemade mixture of 1 cup white vinegar, one teaspoon of blue Dawn dish soap (what can’t this stuff do? You know I love it!), and hot water
- Kaboom with OxiClean Foam-Tastic
- Rejuvenate
- Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foamer
I’ve got a pretty grimy, soap scum filmed glass shower door. I’m going to divide it into four sections, and I’ll use one cleaner per section to see which one does the best work. Only shiny, clear, streak-free glass will do!
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Glass Cleaner #1: Our homemade glass cleaner
We love a good homemade cleaner around here because most of the time, making your own cleaning products is the most economical and eco-friendly option you can find. Store bought cleaners usually come in small containers that will run out constantly. Homemade cleaners can last you forever because you only need small amounts of each ingredient you use.
You probably already have the main ingredients in your home right now – dish soap (preferably blue Dawn dish soap) and white vinegar. I mix one cup of vinegar and a teaspoon of dish soap in a cleaning bucket and then fill the bucket with hot water. Here are a few tools you might not already have that will be essential: a rubber-edged squeegee, a cloth-covered squeegee, and a bucket wide enough to allow for dipping the squeegee inside.
Method
After I mix the homemade glass cleaner in my bucket, I soak the cloth-covered squeegee in the cleaner. Then, I scrub my shower glass using the “snake” method. Starting at one of the top corners, I pull horizontally and then down, ending with the bottom corner opposite to the side I started on, essentially creating a big letter “S”. This is the most efficient way to reach the most glass surface with one swipe. Then I take my rubber squeegee and swipe away the cleaner residue.
Results
While this cleaner works great for the glass in my windows, I don’t think it is ideal for shower glass. One swipe of my squeegee didn’t remove the stains on my shower door. I had to repeat the cleaning process a few times for the glass to appear spotless. If you don’t mind a little extra work, it could still be a solid choice for a glass cleaner for your shower, but it didn’t have the ease of store bought products. Wanting to dive into more homemade cleaning product tips? Check out this natural cleaning recipes cheat sheet.
Glass Cleaner Pro
This homemade glass cleaner is eco-friendly and uses ingredients you probably already have at home. It’s versatile. Use it on any shiny surface in your home.
Glass Cleaner Con
It didn’t take the soap scum off the shower glass with the same ease of some of the store bought products, and even though the ingredients for the cleaner are budget-friendly, the tools for using the cleaner – the squeegees and bucket – are not exactly cheap.
Glass Cleaner #2: Kaboom With OxiClean Foam-Tastic
This bathroom cleaner comes in a metal aerosol can and claims to eliminate soap scum, grime, and stains. It also claims to take away any stains left by calcium build up, lime, and hard water. Here’s the most amusing part of this cleaner – the “foam-tastic” element. Once you spray the cleaner onto the glass, it goes on as a blue foam, and then, the bottle claims that the foam color changes from blue to white once the glass is clean. Not just a cleaner, but a magic trick too! Let’s see how it goes.
Method
I sprayed the foam onto the glass and waited as the blue foam turned to white. The directions on the bottle told me that when it turns to white, the glass is ready to be rinsed clean. This color changing transformation took about a minute, and when the foam was completely white, I wiped the glass with a wet sponge and dried with a paper towel.
Results
Not only was the magic trick of the foam turning from blue to white kind of cool (Obviously, I’m easily entertained!), but the Kaboom cleaner cut right through the soap scum and finger prints on my glass shower door. I have to say that I was pretty impressed!
Glass cleaner pro
This cleaner worked really well and was the least expensive of the bunch.
Glass cleaner con
If you have a large glass shower, one can would probably only last for one or two cleanings. That could start to add up if you are using it to clean your shower on a regular basis.
Glass Cleaner #3: Rejuvenate
I scoured the internet for the best glass cleaners for the shower, and many blogs recommended this glass cleaner – Rejuvenate. Rejuvenate comes in a plastic spray bottle and claims to “instantly dissolve soap scum” and to be a “no scrub” solution where all I will have to do to gain a clean and streak free shower is spray on the cleaner and rinse off. It is also bleach free and is safe to use on more sensitive surfaces like stone.
Method
I sprayed the cleaner on my glass shower door. The directions say to leave the cleaner on the glass for two to three minutes to let it penetrate the stains. The cleaner was really thin and watery, so when I sprayed it onto the glass, it just ran down onto the floor in about thirty seconds. I’m not really sure how much stayed on the glass to work on the stains. After a few minutes, I rinsed the glass with a wet sponge and dried with a paper towel.
Results
After letting the glass completely dry, I felt that my glass was cloudy and streaky. It was definitely not the streak free and clean glass the bottle promised. It is possible that this cleaner would have worked better if I had worked it into the glass with a cleaning rag or sponge, but the bottle claims to be “no scrub”, and I wanted to test that claim.
Glass Cleaner Pro
Considering this cleaner is bleach free and claims to be “safe for kids and pets” on the bottle label, this is probably a more environmentally-friendly option compared to the more chemical-forward cleaners like Kaboom and Microbubbles. It’s also the only cleaner on this list recommended for stone surfaces.
Glass Cleaner Con
This was the most expensive cleaner in the group, and I felt like it didn’t do what it claimed to do. My glass had a cloudy film and streaks.
Glass Cleaner #4: Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foamer
The Scrubbing Bubbles Cleaner comes in an aerosol metal can and sprays on as a foam. One thing that makes this cleaner unique is that it not only claims to be a glass and shower cleaner but also works as a sanitizer killing all kinds of germs and viruses that could be hanging out on surfaces. I always like a two-in-one product because that means I’m doing two jobs at once.
Method
I sprayed the foam cleanser onto the glass. The directions said for me to wait a few minutes to let the cleaner work on the stains. After a few minutes, I rinsed the cleaner off the glass and dried with a paper towel.
Results
Truth be told, this glass cleaner might have been the winner of the whole contest if Kaboom hadn’t been in the running. It was easy to apply, had a pleasant smell, and it wiped off quickly without much effort, and the glass was clear and clean afterwards. However, everything Microbubbles did, Kaboom seemed to do better. The Microbubbles foam was thinner and runnier. The end result was clean, but Kaboom’s looked cleaner. Plus, Microbubbles didn’t change colors! (Just Kidding. Maybe. The color change thing was really cool.)
Glass Cleaner Pro
Microbubbles performed well and got the glass in my shower clean and spot free.
Glass Cleaner Con
Both Kaboom and Microbubbles come in pretty small canisters when you consider the price you pay for them. If your shower has a lot of glass surface to clean, this cleaner isn’t going to go a long way. The price might become a sticking point.
Conclusion
We have a winner! Kaboom with OxiClean Foam-tastic was the clear winner. It was easy to apply, required almost no scrubbing at all, wiped off quickly, and got the glass in my shower sparkling clean.
Want more bathroom cleaning tips? Check out our post – A Bathroom Cleaning Checklist.
What are your glass cleaning tricks? Do you have an amazing shower cleaning hack? Let us know in the comments or share it with us on Facebook!
