The water where I live is very hard (25-35 grains). It's not a luxury to have a water softener. It's a must have or your pipes eventually get ruined. When my softener broke it was immediately noticable on my dishes/glasswear.

squeegee after every shower and once a month a mr clean dry eraser - my shower looks awesome! I tried the rain x - didn't make a difference for me

I like all of the eco friendly ideas, I'm going to be a bit judgmental here, sorry, why use products that are toxic to yourself and the environment/water, it takes some thought and some changing of habits. glass looks so beautiful in showers, and the bar soap, absolutely don't use it. That stuff is the worst and having been a house cleaner it is the absolute worst soap to get off of showers. (and not so good for your body either!, just saying ;p)

a good microfiber cloth will pick up built up soap scum and other residuals using only water. Hard to believe until you do it yourself, but I cleaned a ton of built up soap scum off the shower door and tile shower walls using just a damp microfiber cloth. Wash and dry microfiber cloths separately from other items, in hot water, and don't use fabric softener. This will keep the fibers clear to grab whatever dirt, scum, bacteria, dust, etc. you are trying to clean off your surfaces. Rinse well with hot water after cleaning in between laundering.

I specify a soft water system in all my project so there is no need to worry about water spots, the system is worth every penny. No need to squeegee ad towel dry.

I also have a water softener, but we do squeegee every time we use the shower. Our glass surround is now almost 7 years old, and still looks like the day we moved in....not a spot on there.

I too wipe down my entire shower after each use, but Dawn dish detergent and vinegar is my go to cleaner for the bathroom. It is the best cleaner I have ever used!

Vinegar is a cheap and easy solution for hard water stains. I live in az and keep it for maintenance in different areas of our home. For the glass door, we squeegee before exiting the shower then spray a daily, no rinse shower cleaner. We just clean the outside with windex.

We are a HUGE fan of the BetterLife products. They get the job done, are all natural and safe on ALL surfaces.

I use Ed Fred on water spotted glass and the shower door. It cleans the shower glass spotless with little effort and as long as you use the squeegee after each shower, it can last for a number of years. I did mine about 7 years ago and just now need to do it again as I noticed some areas in need. I really works well.

This thread is making me a fan of my white shower curtain which gets thrown in the washing machine once a month!

No kidding Anna. Shower doors are a pain and curtains are so easy!

Bounce dryer sheet. Works every time!

I use only Norwex in our home-silver imbedded microfiber cloths that don't get smelly. If I slack off and get lazy I occasionally need to use their descaler which is nontoxic and made from coconut oil-it works amazingly well! But I clean 95% of our home with just water and Norwex microfiber cloths!
www.VickiKilpatrick.norwex.biz

Spray on pure white vinegar, Vinegar eats the calcium build-up on glass. Use vinegar in old clear flower vases.

@berlinrl-If you have negligent try mixing 1 part blue dawn dish soap and 2 parts white vinegar in a spray bottle. I tried it today, spray it all over you shower and allow to sit for a bit. I left mine for about an hour. Wipe down then rinse. All soap and hard residue was gone... Super easy, cheap and it worked.

I used baking soda and white vinegar, work perfectly

spray glass cleaner, then polish with newspaper

squeegee each time, then towel dry. Magic Eraser for touch up...

Car wax and squeegee

Wipe the doors with Liquid Gold. Works like magic and helps prevent build up.

I have to second the use of shower gel, and not bar soap. Until recently, my husband and I both had our own bathrooms. I had a shower with a glass wall, he used the one with the bathtub shower. He used bar soap, I used gel. I never had scum build up, his shower was covered with it. When we decided to sell the house, I had it professionally cleaned, including getting the scum off both showers glass and walls, and convinced him to use gel instead of soap. It made all the difference, and made the glass much easier to clean.

White vinegar and kitchen towel roll - smell strong but works perfect

When our house was built I bought a kit for sealing the glass. I also squeegee and use microfiber cloths each time I use the shower.

I keep a microfiber cloth and wipe dry after showering, so there is no build up, use regular glass cleaner every two weeks. or when necesary

Just a few thoughts. First the glass needs to be squeegeed after each use, unless someone will be taking a shower right after, then the last person needs to squeegee. Next, Assuming you may have marble or other sensitive stone in the shower, you need to periodically clean the soap scum and minerals off the glass. This can be done by monthly using a soft white scrub pad and liquid dish detergent and lightly scrub the glass surface with this, rinse and squeegee.

get a dryer fabric softener sheet, moisten it and wipe the glass and other parts. rinse. all the stains and residue is gone. easy and smelling nice (you get to choose the smell, isn't it great?). i keep a box of those in my bathroom drawer and use whenever it is needed while taking a shower.

Use 5 drops of Glycerol in a liter of water. Spray and wipe.
Water will run over the glass, and you just have to wipe and it is clean.
Do not "overdose" the glycerol if you do not want greasy marks.
You can use this very old recipe for faucets, tiles etc...

We've worked with glass for over 30 years and one thing to note is a lot of cleaners are bad because they usually have abrasive cleaning components in them, glass cleaner and alcohol are our go to.

Like @lintre we use a commercial cleaner that you can get at any Costco called Sprayway glass cleaner...no ammonia, streak free, no film. For stuck on mildew or grime you get very fine 0000 steel wool with alcohol and glass cleaner, cleans very well just keep it wet (do not do this if the glass has a Tekon coating)!

Again, tried & true! Wipe the doors with Liquid Gold. Works like magic and helps prevent build up. Just spray it on, then wipe with a cloth. Helps prevent that white residue that cakes up on the shower doors. Try it! :)

I have recently tried equal amounts of blue Dawn and white vinegar. Put in a spray bottle and as soon as you finish your shower, spray the walls. Step out and finish drying. I go back in and with a soft brush, just brush it down and spray it off. I use a towel then to dry. It worked beautifully on mine and I had tried EVERYTHING!

Glass shower doors - hate them, but husband insisted on them for his new shower. Ugh. I had already lived with them so I knew in advance how high maintenance they are. Like I said - Ugh. Our deal was he could get the glass, but I would NOT be the person using the squeegee on a daily basis, I would not be cleaning it weekly, monthly or ever.

So I read all of your comments, took some notes and then visited Hints from Heloise -

Since y'all got me curious, I decided to test some of these suggestions today. Yes, giving in and attempted to clean just one glass panel. Ugh.

Tried the dryer sheets - didn't work at all on our soap scum. Plus I felt stupid doing it...haha!
Tried shampoo (can't recall where I heard that) - didn't work at all.

Tried White Vinegar - full strength - Heloise's website says to use white vinegar - full strength. The scum was about 2 months old b/c he's been very, very busy and has way more important things on his mind than the shower.
Here's what happened: Sprayed the vinegar - let it set for 5 minutes. I could see the streaks flowing down the glass and seemingly taking the scum with it. Hmmmmm I thought. Is it true? Then I scrubbed with the Dobie sponge (a non-scratching sponge) And then rinsed. It was an improvement, but not the miracle I was hoping for.

SO -- as Heloise often says - "try again". All in all it took three tries with the white wine vinegar - Each time - spraying, waiting about 3-5 minutes before using the Dobie sponge and then wiping with micro-fibre cloth. And it worked! It looks amazing.

I think this scum was particularly heavy, which was why it took 3 attempts. But it did work and I think if the husband does it weekly (or bi-weekly) it should only take a few minutes.

Husband also reports that Barkeeper's Friend works great too.

I find Barkeeper's works well on the fiberglass walls and glass. I have a hand-held shower head which makes rinsing easy. Between major cleanings (which are not very often), I take a few wipes with large "Ultimate Cloth" from the Shopping Channel. Much quicker and easier than using the squeegee. They are wonderful on glass, taps, etc. No chemicals required.

CLR and squeegee

Product called "Repel" made in Arizona where they understand hard water. I spray it on, microfiber it off.

Here are a few tips for keeping your shower glass clean and neat.

1) Firstly try tokeep the glass dry.

2) Also, you can use commercial glass cleaners to clean theglass shower door.

3) You can use Vinegar or Bleachhousehold items to keep the shower doors clean.

4) After you shower, make sure that the bathroom is well-ventilated

5) Use the Fabric Softener Sheet. They are specially designed to break up water spots so they work great on glass shower doors.

For more details, click here: Shower Glass Protection

THE Mark Cuban?

yes

I agree with the poster who said to check with manufacturer's recommendations. We have the Diamond Shield treatment on our glass and were told to use a good squeegee every day, then clean with their (Diamond Shield) cleaner once a week. Well, we squeegee every day but only need to use the cleaner once a month, and the glass stays as clean and shiny as the day it was installed. It cleans and shines the chrome fixtures as well (they get scummy a bit faster, so get cleaned more often). I swear by Diamond Shield!!!!

Hi everyone,

This is a great question, with so many possible solutions! Toothpaste, vinegar, glass cleaners and so many other chemicals can definitely get the job done, but are laborious, costly and time consuming. And the difficult part is that after using such solutions, your glass can easily get dirty once again.

The solution that provides the best bang for your buck, minimizes cleaning time and essentially eliminates cleaning time is a hydrophobic coating. In short - a water repellent coating. In a nutshell the coating fills the peaks and valleys, that are seen on a microscopic level of the glass, then adds an additional barrier over the glass making it harder for water to stick to the glass - helping it slide right off.

Most shower doors come standard with such a coating, in which case your shower door installer should let you know. However, if that's not the case there are always DIY kits or applicators who can come to your house and apply the coating for you. It is the best solution to keeping your shower door glass looking newer, longer. Please let me know if this helps! Thanks!

The DFI Team

what I just said above!

Simply is the best - mix water and vinegar, then dry with kitchen paper towels. Smell's not so good, but it's working perfect!

@ Ivana Djurovic

The only difference between using vinegar and water as opposed to a water repellent coating is that it's one and done with the latter option. Whereas with the former, you'll likely have to keep on repeating the process.

Thank you for all sharing. I am finding this all helpful as well!

I use Simple Green and a plastic brush in circular motions. I'm going to try waxing the glass with car wax afterwards to see if it helps.

Maybe I should start a new thread for this but it is about cleaning shower glass. What can I use on the glass that will not harm the honed limestone tile if some gets on it? The tile is sealed but I don't want to take any chances. This is a remodel and I think my days of using Limeaway, Kaboom, scrubbing bubbles are over!

Buy a squeegee ...

I used white vinegar and dawn yesterday on my shower doors and then squeegeed afterwards. Eureka finally, everything is clean--CLR, Baking Soda, ammonia and bleach none of these things works. Thank you to those who recommended vinegar !!!

Well I've been banned from using our master shower. Wife has banished me to the guest bathroom because I never clean the glass. So, the best way to keep it clean and presentable is by not allowing your husband to use it.

Cinar, bad boy. 30 seconds to use a squeegee and you could use your own shower. C'mon, you can do it.