Glass Shower Maintenance Tips

Adding a glass shower or shower doors to your bathroom is a wonderful way to add style and beauty to the room, but when the glass is dirty or covered in soap scum, even the most elegant shower can be an eyesore. While there are a number of products that are great for cleaning glass, tiles, and the metal accessories found in most showers, we thought it would be nice to help our customers keep their showers clean by offering some tips and tricks that we've picked up on shower maintenance over the years.

Using Common Household Products

Cleaning Your Shower With Vinegar:

Did you know that while some cleaning products can kill bacteria and remove soap scum from your shower, not all of them will get rid of mold? Cleaning with distilled white vinegar is a great way to ensure your shower is left mold free. Using a rag, just wipe down the shower glass, door, and hardware with undiluted white vinegar to eradicate mold and mildew.

Cleaning Shower Glass With Vinegar:

White vinegar also works wonders removing scum from the glass walls and shower doors. If the glass is dry, wet it using regular water and then take a small squeegee and clear the water from the glass. After that, use a spray bottle with undiluted white vinegar and cover the area you wish to clean. Now just spray it clean with regular water to remove hard water deposits and minimize their chance to stain the glass.

Removing Tough Stains With Baking Soda:

Use baking soda with a little tap water to make a "runny paste" and apply it on a cleaning cloth or sponge. Use this concoction along with some elbow grease to remove tough hard water stains and other grime including mildew buildups on faucets and on tile.

In addition to products you can usually find lying around the home, there are also some interesting commercial products available that work well... even if they weren't intended to clean a shower:

Using "Other" Products

Pre-Cleaning With Bounce Fabric Softener:

Believe it or not, Bounce Brand, and other fabric softener can also remove soft soap scum build-up and even loosen other stains and build up that would otherwise be hard to remove. Take a sheet of fabric softener to the dry glass and scrub. This will loosen tough buildup and remove the lighter stains. Then take some tap water and your trusty squeegee or even the vinegar solution explained above.

WD-40 Does That Too?

WD-40 is man's best friend. It scores right up there with action movies, duct tape, and bacon, but did you know that you can also use it to clean the glass in your shower? Christine Argier, an eHow contributing writer advises to use it for cleaning your shower doors. She says to spray generously on the inside and outside of the door and you can spray both dry and wet glass. Wipe it away with a clean dry towel to remove dirt, soap scum, calcium deposits and more. Read her full article here.

Hazards Of A Dirty Shower

Having a dirty shower can do more than harm the look of a beautifully designed framed or frameless shower; it can be dangerous to your health as well. WebMd.com (a popular online health website) shares one woman's story who found out her persistent cough was caused by a lung infection she got from an unkempt shower!

One of the dirtiest parts of most showers is the actual shower head, the source of the water you use to get clean. In an analysis of 50 showerheads from 9 U.S. cities published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they found that roughly 30% of shower heads harbored high levels of mycobacterium avium - a group of bacteria that can cause lung infections, much like the woman in the link above.

Want More Information?

For more information about keeping your shower clean and clear from bacteria, mold, calcium deposits, and other buildups that can be dangerous to your health and cause your shower to age prematurely, just ask. In addition to recommendations on cleaning supplies and tips, don't forget to ask us about products that can be installed in your shower to make it easier for you to clean and harder for calcium deposits, mildew, and other buildups to materialize.