New-and-improved cleaning products are constantly popping up and vying for your buck. There’s nothing we won’t do to try to cut our cleaning time, even if it means paying more. When it comes to cleaning windows, this is probably even more true; after all, who likes cleaning windows?

When we heard that the Glass Wizard would make your windows sparkle with just a few passes over the glass – cutting your cleaning time in half – we just had to give it a try.

Glass Wizard

Comes with cleaning wand, two microfibre covers and one "grime buster" cover.
Cost: $14.95

We weren’t willing to let the Glass Wizard off easy, so we made a real mess of a department store window with toothpaste, hairspray and cooking oil to really put it to the test. For comparison, we cleaned half the window with regular rags and window cleaner and the other half with the Glass Wizard and the recommended squeegee bottle filled with plain water.

We also had two professional maids try out the Glass Wizard in their day-to-day work. It got thumbs up for being lightweight and easy to use and for getting to hard-to-reach places. But given the size of its cleaning head, it was tough to get into those smaller spots and dirt that really needs scrubbing wasn’t going to budge.

We attempted to clean our filthy window for over half an hour before hitting the second half with a rag and window cleaner. Upon review there was no comparison – the window done the conventional way was gleaming compared to the Wizard window.

In the end, we agreed that there’s nothing special about the Glass Wizard that some window cleaner and a little elbow grease can’t deal with. We found no real magic to the Glass Wizard and gave it one-and-a-half bags out of five.