Carefully Cleaning Your Chandelier's Crystal Pendants

Owning a crystal chandelier can be one of the best home design decisions you could ever make, as you will be given the opportunity to feel and experience looking at its wonderful glow and sparkle, which radiates and reflects on your walls, ceiling, and existing furnitures.

However, when the time comes and your lighting fixtures begin to lose their luster and shine because of the layers of dust and grime on the crystals, it just goes to show that you need to clean them already. The frequency of cleaning this lighting piece would depend on fixture's exact location, and the type of crystal and shape of the crystal pieces.

Cleaning The Crystal Pieces

Your chandelier's crystal pieces need careful cleaning when they begin to appear dusty or dull. By simply looking at your fixture frequently, you’ll know when to do the cleaning. You also need to remember that every time you dust your house, you also need to take the dust from your chandelier by utilizing an antistatic dust brush, and while performing the dusting, take note that the crystal pendants should not beat or hit into each other, or else it may create invisible cracks and eventually spoil the clear structure of the crystal.

If you own a modern crystal chandelier, you may also clean it without removing the pendants from the frame, and while handling these pendants, you should use white cotton gloves. For preparing a cleaning solution, use one part isopropyl alcohol and three parts distilled water. Put this mixture in a spray bottle, and spray one part of the cotton glove with the solution. The other glove should be kept dry, and used to carefully caress the crystal with the damp glove. Wipe the crystals afterwards with the dry one.

Use Only Recommended Cleaning Solutions

In effectively cleaning these exquisite lighting fixtures, you need to remember that you should not use packaged cleaning fluids, even if these products claim to be for crystal fixture. The reason is that these may contain ammonia or other chemicals that could damage or degrade the fixture's frame finish.

You can buy chandelier-approved cleaning solutions from lighting stores or home decor shops, which can offer you to buy cleaning solutions manufactured by chandelier makers specifically for cleaning these kinds of lighting fixtures cleaning. You can use these products by properly following the instructions on the package.

If you own a classic crystal chandelier, it would be best to first detach the crystal from your fixture for starting to clean it. In doing so, carefully hand-wash the crystal in lukewarm water, using mild dish soap. Next, rinse these in clean water and dry with a soft clean cloth. It would also be advisable to first layout a trim diagram or sketch of the crystal pendant's patterns before removing them all along, as this will aid you in properly reassembling it without any difficulties.

It's also advisable to frequently wear white gloves when re-hanging or reassembling the crystal on the lighting fixture. Lastly, do not put the crystal pieces back to the fixture's frame while they are still wet,, as these may cause the frame's metal parts to corrode.


Vanessa Arellano Doctor
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