How to Clean Light Fittings Safely
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A dim room is usually a dirty fitting rather than a tired globe
Light fittings sit above head height where nobody looks at them, and they collect dust, kitchen grease and a surprising number of dead insects over a few years. The light gets softer and greyer a little at a time, so slowly that you never notice it happening, and then you clean one shade and wonder why that corner of the room suddenly looks different.
It is a genuinely satisfying job, and the whole trick is doing it without damaging the fitting or hurting yourself.
Before you touch anything
Turn the light off at the wall switch. If the job involves taking a shade off or getting anywhere near a globe holder, go and turn it off at the switchboard as well, because a wall switch is not a guarantee and it costs you 30 seconds to be certain.
Let the globe cool. Halogen and older incandescent globes hold serious heat for a good while after the light goes off, and a hot globe against a damp cloth can shatter.
Put a towel or a drop cloth down underneath, so that if a glass shade slips out of your hands it lands on something soft rather than on tiles.
Use a proper step ladder with a top platform you can stand square on, not a dining chair and not the edge of a bench. Most of the people who get hurt cleaning a light do not get hurt by the electricity.
Glass shades and pendants
These are the easy ones. Take the shade off, wash it in a sink of warm water with a bit of detergent in it, rinse it and dry it properly before it goes back on. Methylated spirits on a lint free cloth is the finishing move if you want it to come up clear with no smears.
Dry it completely. Water trapped in a screw thread or sitting in the bottom of a shade is the thing that corrodes a fitting over the next few years.
Outdoor sensor lights
These are the grubbiest fittings in most houses, because insects are drawn to them and spiders follow the insects. Brush the cobwebs out with a dry paintbrush, then wipe the housing and the lens down with a damp cloth.
Do not hose it and do not spray water at it. Those fittings are weatherproofed by a seal that is designed to shed rain falling downwards, and directing water at the joints pushes it straight past that seal. Once water gets inside, the sensor starts triggering at nothing and eventually stops working altogether.
While you are up there, look at the rubber gasket around the lens and check the screws are still snug, because a light that has been leaking quietly for a year usually shows it there first.
Battens and downlights
Dry clean only, and the same goes for anything else that cannot be taken apart. A soft brush, a vacuum with the brush attachment, or a dry microfibre head on an extension handle. No water, no spray bottle, nothing damp going anywhere near it.
If a downlight has gone yellow or hazy rather than dusty, that is the plastic itself ageing and no amount of cleaning brings it back.
Ceiling fans with a light in them
Wipe each blade with a barely damp cloth, supporting the blade from underneath with your other hand so you are not putting sideways load on the motor. Then do the light fitting the same way you would any other. Keep moisture away from the motor housing entirely.
What not to use
Bleach and ammonia based cleaners will strip a painted or plated finish off a fitting, so keep those away from anything that is not plain glass. And if something will not come apart, leave it rather than forcing it, because a cracked diffuser or a snapped clip turns a 20 minute job into replacing the whole fitting.
If you find scorching around a globe holder, brittle wiring insulation or anything that looks heat damaged, stop there and get an electrician to it. That is not a cleaning problem.
How often is enough
Once or twice a year for most of the house, and more often in a kitchen where cooking grease gets into everything, or on outdoor lights where insects build up fast. While you have the shade off, have a look at the globe, because if it has been flickering that is the moment to swap it.
Shop related products
- Methylated Spirits 1L. The smear free finish on glass shades.
- Kilsoot Glass Cleaner 500ml. For the everyday wipe down.
- Sugar Soap 750ml. What kitchen grease on a fitting actually responds to.
- Plastic Bucket with Lid 5L. Warm water at the bottom of the ladder.
- Hard Unit Head Lamp, USB Rechargeable. For seeing what you are doing with the light switched off.
Did you know we also stock Gorilla step ladders in single and double sided, plus a microfibre duster on a 600mm telescopic handle that reaches a ceiling fitting without a ladder at all, and neither of those is listed online. Ring us on (08) 8536 4333 to see what is in.
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I am the person who turns it off at the switchboard for a job that probably did not need it, and I have no intention of changing.
Cheers,
Candeece
