baking soda is great on glass,ammonia works too

There's a proprietary spray product specifically for cleaning chandelier drops in place. You cover below with a drop cloth, then spray away, and it dries with no spots.

Bulldinkie's homemade formula, is probably just as good, and cheaper too. Just don't mix vinegar and ammonia together.

Some styles of crystals are not highly polished, and can look more etched-matte. I doubt you could hurt any glass by carefully trying a variety of water based cleaners until you get the right one. Perhaps they are covered with smoke or soot.

Molly

I tried the spray, and I thought they looked better. They were certainly dusty and that cleaned the dust off pretty well. Now our electrician has taken the dangles down to rewire the fixture, and I've done some of them by hand with Windex and a paper towel, and I'm not getting anything off of them, really. And when they catch the light, from some angles they actually look dark at the faceted tips. It's very odd.

I think I'll try soaking in hot water and ammonia. That's what my mother did when I was a kid.

It's just that there are so many of them!

If there are so many, then soaking them is the way to go--the ammonia ought to get most of it off while they soak, and then you'll only have to dry them.

Can you spare the tub? Line it w/ a towel and add water and ammonia. Let 'em sit for an hour or six. Until they look clean.

When you go to dry them, consider a miracle/microfiber cloth (a clean one, of course; maybe a new one, too, so you don't scratch the crystals)

Don't get ammonia on any metal; it can darken it.

WAH!

I've tried hot water and ammonia, I've tried sprays and soaks... I'm starting to wonder if these crystals will always have a kind of yellowish-brownish cast to them. They are not the tinted glass that I've seen; if you hold one in your hand they look clear. It's just up on the lighting fixture that they look... not clean yet.

Maybe it's the light bulbs.

I'm just going to clean them the best I can, put them back up and hope that the replacement prisms I get to fill in the "holes" won't stick out like sore thumbs.

Maybe I'll order one replacement, try it out and see how it looks.

Take them outside in the sunlight with a piece of white paper behind them. Clear glass can have a slight color depending on the source of material used to make the glass. A sheet of clear glass might look colored if viewed on edge. If the replacement pieces do look different rearrange the pieces to make a balanced pattern - new ones in the center; the outside; every other one; however you like.

I bought a chandelier at a junk store one time. I thought the crystals were brown-yellow, but they were kind of sticky, so I put them through the dishwasher and was amazed to see they were clear. I know "crystal" and "dishwasher" shouldn't be used in the same sentence, but it was only once, though I did just dump them in the flatware holder. Good luck! --Kris

Glass is a liquid....yes kids a liquid... a very slow moving liquid but none the less a liquid. Over time the dust and dirt of the atmosphere can become trapped in the glass surface never to be freed again. This is a VERY important thing to know when looking at older glass and stained glass. Many people buy a stained glass piece thinking that they can just take it home and give it a good scrub... but nope.. no go.. the dirt is trapped under the surface.

As for your crystals.... try putting them in a mesh bag and then putting the bag spread out on the top level of your dish washer...this will get them as clean as they are going to get and since it's not an every day event it's not really a big deal.

Maddiemom

I had the same problem- was afraid of using anything too harsh on them as they had the wire hangers attached (looked like pierced earrings!) I had 64 of them. I ended up using a window cleaner (like Windex) sprayed on a microfiber cloth specifically for cleaning glass. I didn't even take them down, just sprayed the cloth and wiped each one. They turned out great! There might still be a little "color" to them, but they are original to the house (1928.) Gives them "character" but all the dirt/grime/smoke/whatever is gone. They are five times as "sparkly" as before.

Glass is a liquid....yes kids a liquid... a very slow moving liquid but none the less a liquid.

This is a very common misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. If anyone's interested, I have a pretty extensive bibliography from materials-science journals that debunk that one.

That's not to say, though, that glass and crystal don't get etched and impossible to thoroughly clean after a while. I'm beginning to think, though, that these are faceted so that instead of sparkling the light out, you get cancellation instead, so they look dark at the tips. Very peculiar. But I think I'll just do the ammonia soak this weekend and be happy with whatever happens.

I used jewelry dip cleaner on my Mother's. It was like nite and day. Made sure just touched glass part. Then wiped with micro cloth.

Indeed you are right that it is technically not a liquid,and that is more of a lay-way of talking about it... I should have been more clear and used correct terms but as i understand it's an amorphous soild... it does *droop* or entrap dust etc over Loooooooong periods of time since if I am undertanding it right it has a poor or unstable crystal structure which leads to this sort of behavior.

Maddiemom, who really should know better and start right from the start :)

Glass can possibly entrap solids over many many hundreds of years.....but a chandeliere with crystal drops is not even slightly part of that scenario.
Get a bottle of something called "Chandeliere Cleaner"...it'll cost about $12 to $15 for a pint or so....place towels below the fixture and spray away.....let it drip, don't wipe, don't rub. If there is some dark stuff at the bottom of the prisms.....repeat the spray.
Maddiemon? You a physicist?
Linda C

OK, they're all carefully piled up in a towel-lined sink filled with hot water, ammonia and a little dishwashing liquid. The ammonia bottle recommended the dishwashing liquid (which seems reasonable), and also some isopropyl alcohol. I don't have any, but perhaps in my travels today, I'll pick some up and pour it in.

I want this fixture back in one piece by the end of the weekend. Wish me luck. At least I'll know that they're as clean as I can get them!

Doesn't some glass have components that change color over time and exposure? Magnesium? Manganese? Doesn't that cause a purple cast to occur? Is it possible the glass has changed? Some window glass has a greener tint to the cut edge. Please, glass experts, tell us more.

Got me. I know about structure and rigidity, but not a lot about the chemistry.

Glass (and minerals), when exposed to high energy radiation (x-rays and gamma rays) becomes tinted. If I recall correctly, it results from the chemical modification of the metallic impurities of the glass. If you have a high intensity radiation source, you can change your clear glass to brown glassware! Perhaps with time and prolonged exposure to natural radiation (cosmic rays, Radon, etc) glass turns brownish/greyish. Just guessing- but it make sense. FWIW our prisms our greyish color as well, which is easily seen when compared to our new prisms.

- Mike

Got me. I know about structure and rigidity, but not a lot about the chemistry.

I have no idea how that repeat message got posted. How strange. Anyway, it was only supposed to be there once.

Mike, thanks for the reply. I feel better knowing that it's patina, not a flaw! Eighty-five years of cosmic radiation... hey, now, that's history! And since our houses were built by the same people at around the same time, I'll bet our crystals had a common source.

Interesting.

Vicki

I got the crystals as clean as they'll ever be (and maybe if I do that spray-in-place cleaning every month or so it'll keep them in shape), and rehung them. There are lots of crystals missing, sadly, but it still looks pretty good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Wedding Cake Light Fixture

Depending on what flux used when making the glass, it can change color when placed in the sun. Good "crystal" that is glass that has been made with a high lead content won't change color....but cheaper glass which has been made using another element for a flux ( most commonly manganese) will turn purple in the sunlight. Not likely to turn brownish nor greenish in 80 years of being on the ceiling and not outside in the hot sun. Mike, it's most likely your old glass has a different composition than the newer prisms....of if you buy new from a different source, they might be slightly different still.
Ever been to parts of New England and seen the purple windows in some 200 year old houses.
Vicky, most likely your prosims are lead crystal and clear as....well....glass, when you get them clean.
Taking that all apart and soaking is a huge job! Next time try Chandeliere Cleaner.....does a good enough job and it's very easy.
I have a fixture very like yours in my bedroom....but smaller. My house is a Cape Cod style built in 1927.
Linda C

Thanks, Lindac. I have the chandelier cleaner, and I'll use it from now on, but those babies hadn't been cleaned in some time. They look sooooo much better now than they did! The difference is amazing.

It's too bad that we're missing so many crystals. I've left most of the "holes" on the side facing the fireplace, on the theory that they'll be less noticed there.

I need to find some time to go to the old house parts store and order some new ones. One of the old crystals' hanging wires broke off, so I can take that one with me for comparision of size and cut.

Isn't it pretty, though?

Vicki

looks great (much more elaborate than ours!)

- Mike