Ammonia ruins the silvering, especially on older or antique mirrors, along with scratching/etching glass. New products, ie Windex, leaves a residue on surfaces, which may cause streaking the first time you use Sparkle. Sparkle is highly recommended for anyone with antiques or vintage items. Sparkle, due to no ammonia, will not harm your wood around the surfaces you are cleaning.

DeniseW16

Cleveland, OH

You have to wipe it off a couple of times which means that it seems like it sparkles but there is a residue that won't dry quickly and it smells a little like vomit. I cleaned my windows with it and then was looking for cat throw up for a day before I realized it was the glass cleaner.

cherylann1815

USA

I'm not even sure when I bought this product, since I tend to stick to the better brand names. Maybe this was in my basement when I moved into it. Whatever it is, this product deserves to be moved back into my basement. And sit there for the rest of eternity. Before, I wasn't really sure what would make a glass cleaner bad. Would it smell? Would it leave streaks? Would it smudge the glass? How about all three. Because that's what this product does. I used this product to clean the glass on the large screen door leaving out to the backyard of my house, and it began to streak the moment I put it on the glass! I applied it to a small area at first, and watched in horror as it streaked away. I even tried using a different towel, but it was clear that the problem lay with the cleaner. It smudged, and even smelled a little weird. The smell began to grow, actually making me wishing I could wear a clothespin or something of the sort to get rid of the smell.

fathniz

USA

I would not use this product nor recommend that anyone else use this product. My windows came out so streaky it was not even funny. I had to actually go back and use another product to reclean my windows due to the mess this stuff left them in. It does smell nice though.

teacherguy

USA

This was an okay glass cleaner.  I liked the way it worked on the mirrors in my house, especially the smaller bathroom mirror.  On the larger (older) mirror on my dresser I did not think that it worked quite as well.  There seemed to be a few streaks on it.  I also was not at all impressed with how it worked when cleaning windows.  All of the windows ended up being very streaked.  I finally started keeping it in my bathroom so I really only use it on the bathroom mirror and I use other things for larger mirrors and the windows.  When I just leave it in there it works great.  The bottle is a fun purple color that was a nice change from looking at a Windex bottle with blue spray.  I also liked the price on it.  It was 2.49 when I bought it for a 33.8 oz (1 liter) bottle and I ended up getting it at Menards with a rebate so got most of my money back to use towards my next purchase.  This is also an ammonia-free product. 

jleah

Albany, MN

I have used this glass cleaner for MANY years.  Others come along or are on sale but I always return to Sparkle.  When Sparkle is on special I generally buy three bottles of it so I don't run out between sales. For some time my husband would use Windex for auto windows but he has come around to my way of thinking!  Sparkle is now his glass cleaner of choice too.  If he could use it at work he would be really happy! These days we not only use it on glass but on our steel entry doors as well.  Streak free is so sweet!

DebraMggd

Hayfield, MN

If you grew up in the Northwestern suburbs of Chicago, you didn't grow up with Windex, you grew up with Sparkle,  easily identified by its purple color and 60s era logo. The inventor of this window cleaner kept his factory out here and lived out here as well. It was folklore to us. Along with the purple bottle, the inventor/owner of the company also had bright purple trim on his house. Again, it's folklore around here. I grew up thinking Sparkle was the only glass cleaner. You know how brand names sometimes take the place of products when we use it a lot? Like asking for a Kleenex or Scotch tape. Well, that's how well-known our Sparkle was ... to us. It wasn't where's the glass cleaner, but where's the Sparkle. I never knew people outside of this area didn't use it until I was an adult. I thought everyone knew what Sparkle was. We even used it at a print shop where I worked. We had to clean the light tables in the art department frequently, so bought Sparkle by the case. Somehow I switched my allegiances as an adult, and I don't really remember making that decision. I started using Windex and even (gasp!) generic brands. In the late 80s/early 90s I had a glass dining room table and a glass coffee table. A good glass cleaner was a must. Now I have granite countertops in my kitchen, and I dutifully use Windex, just as the installer suggested. Yet, I got to wondering about good ole Sparkle every time I'd see it in the store.  Why did I stop using it? Was it not as good? Is it hard to find? More expensive? I couldn't remember. But just the smelll and identifiable logo and color completely fill me with nostalgia every time I see it at the store. I had to try it again, for nostalgia's sake if for no other. What I found was that it worked ... the same as any other glass cleaner. It wasn't super-special at cleaning, but it wasn't super-bad either. It was ... just the same as any other. I couldn't tell after using it on my black granite that I'd used anything different than usual. But I still like the identifiable smell and purple bottle. I'll buy it again if it's on sale ... or if I'm feeling nostalgic.

LauraBelle

South Elgin, IL