How To Clean A Blown Glass Chandelier
How to clean blown glass chandelier? There are three ways. To keep your chandelier looking lovely and working efficiently, it’s important to carry out a little maintenance from time to time. Little and often is the way to go. A light dusting with a feather duster every other week or so will stop the dust solidifying and clouding your glass pieces.
Before you begin
Remember, before cleaning a chandelier you should always turn off the power supply and allow the bulbs to fully cool down. Make sure your chair or stepladder is stable and on an even surface, and that you can comfortably reach the different parts of the chandelier. Prepare the area by laying some blankets newspapers or towels underneath the chandelier. This will help to protect your flooring during any wet cleaning, and will cushion the blow should any of the pieces become dislodged or dropped (it happens!)
‘Reach and Clean’ method
This method involves cleaning each piece on a fully assembled chandelier. It has the advantage of being a quicker method. You might not reach every speck of dust, but if the gaps in your chandelier cleaning schedule aren’t too large, this shouldn’t be a problem. This method suitable for cleaning on regular period.
Working from the top of the chandelier down, the air compressor is used to blow away a majority of the dust particles. Then wool dusters are used to clean the top, bottom, sides, ends, and carefully between the individual pieces to the best of our ability.
The drip dry method
We recommend a product called “Hagerty Chandelier Cleaner"or something like this.It is simply awesome. It sells for approximately $15.00 a bottle and is similar to a windex application. You can search chandelier cleaner from Amazon anyway, you can find similar product.
What you would do is spread newspapers or a tarp under the glass chandelier. Switched off the light source. You then shoot the stream spray from the bottle up to the chandelier and soak it with this product.
After a very short period of time, the product dissolves all the dust and grime, it drips to the tarp, and what remains is a sparkly, clean, gorgeous blown glass chandelier!
Disassembly method
This is a more thorough cleaning method. Another advantage is that you don’t have to work on a ladder. It involves taking off all the glass and globes, so they can be cleaned individually.
- Turn off the light and let the bulbs cool completely.
- Disassemble the chandelier by removing each glass element one by one.
- Fill a large plastic tub with warm water. Add a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar to the water
- Roll out a large towel on the counter or on a table.
- Take the first glass element and put it in the tub. Make sure it is entirely submerged, or submerge different parts in turn by hand. After it is cleaned in the water-and-vinegar solution, dry it off with lint-free cloth and lay on the prepared towel.
- Repeat the process with each glass element of the chandelier.
- When all the elements have been cleaned and dried, re-assemble the chandelier.
If you choose to disassemble your Chihuly style blown glass chandelier for cleaning, be very careful. If it happen to break an element, do not despair. Contact us and we will assist you with ordering a spare part.
Hint: Take as many photographs as you think you might need so you are totally confident about putting the pieces back together.