Magnetic Window Cleaner – Double-Sided Glass Cleaning Tool with Squeegee, for Single-Pane Windows

Two magnetic halves that wash both sides of a single-pane window from indoors

This is a double-sided magnetic window cleaner: two matching hand-sized blocks, each with a felt washing pad and a rubber squeegee strip on its face and a magnet behind them. You put one half on the outside of the glass, bring the other to it on the inside, and the magnets hold them together through the pane. Move the inside half and the outside half follows, washing and wiping the far side of the glass you cannot reach. A cord ties the outer half to you so it does not fall if the magnets let go. It is built for one job: the outside of a single-pane window you cannot get to from outside, on a second floor, behind a fixed screen, or across a light well.

Read this before you buy: it only works on thin, single-pane glass

What it is

• Two identical halves. Yellow plastic bodies with a blue ribbed grip on the back. Each working face carries a white felt pad that soaks up the cleaning solution and a thin rubber squeegee strip that wipes the glass behind it.
• Permanent magnets, fixed strength. One magnet in each half. There is no adjustment and the maker does not publish a pull figure; the only fit figure it gives is the glass thickness above. The halves snap together hard when they meet with nothing between them, so keep fingers out of the gap.
• A safety cord. About 63 in (160 cm) of cord tied to the outer half with a ring on the end. You loop the ring over your wrist or tie it to something inside before you put the outer half on the glass. If the magnets lose grip, the outer half swings on the cord instead of dropping.
• Small. Each half is about 4.5 x 2.2 x 4.3 in (11.5 x 5.5 x 11 cm). A large pane takes many overlapping passes.

Using it

• Tie off first. Put the ring over your wrist or tie the cord to the window catch before the outer half goes outside. This is the step people skip and regret.
• Wet both pads. Warm water with a little dish soap on both felt pads. Dry pads drag and the halves let go.
• Outer half on first. Reach it round onto the outside of the glass, then bring the inner half to the same spot on the inside and let the magnets grab.
• Slow, straight, overlapping passes. Move the inside half slowly in straight lines, each pass overlapping the last, squeegee strip trailing. Fast strokes and sharp turns are what break the magnetic hold. The corners will need a few tries; the squeegee edge does not reach fully into them.
• Expect streaks the first time. Heavy grime needs a second pass with fresh water. Rinse the pads between passes.
• Finish by bringing the outer half back to the opening edge of the window and lifting it in with the cord in hand.

Size and specification, as the maker states it

Good to know

• The outer half can drop. A dry pad, a fast stroke, a thick or dirty patch of glass, and the magnets let go. The cord is there for exactly that. Do not use it over a walkway or a lower window without the cord tied off, and do not use it in wind.
• Grit scratches glass. Rinse the pads before you start and whenever they pick up grit; a gritty pad dragged across a pane will mark it.
• Strong magnets. Keep the halves away from pacemakers, magnetic-stripe cards and hard drives, and out of the reach of small children.
• It is a compromise, not a squeegee on a pole. If you can reach the outside of your window with a pole or from a ladder, an ordinary squeegee does a better, faster job. This tool is for the pane you genuinely cannot reach.

In the box

• Two magnetic cleaner halves, one with the safety cord and ring attached
• Instruction leaflet