Every six weeks my window cleaner turns up in his van, pulls out his 18 foot pole with a brush on the end and proceeds to clean all the windows with his “Pure Water System”, after 20 minutes he departs leaving my windows soaked. The first time he did this I asked him why was all the water left on?, shouldn’t he have a squeegee and a ladder to take it all off and leave it gleaming? Apparently not, “The Pure Water System will dry and leave your windows streak free” he informed me. So I waited for it to dry and to my surprise it did just that, standing outside I checked all the windows around the house and conservatory and each one showed a sparkling reflection of the drab English weather.

Back inside the house was a different story, what I thought was clean, wasn’t! The insides were covered in smears and annoying little dots, I grabbed the glass spray and duster and started to ensure the inside was as wonderful as the outside, 65 panes of glass and just over two hours later and I can honestly say that they looked worse than when I started!

We all have to do chores around the home, hovering, ironing, washing the dishes and so on and a majority of those chores are aided by a machine, an aid that reduces the time you have to spend doing them and one that generally does a better job than I can. So off I go to buy a squeegee and instead come back with a Karcher Window Vac.

Gadgets and Gizmos always excite me and within two minutes of being home I had the box ripped open and the Karcher plugged in and charging, like a kid with a new toy I pace backwards and forwards waiting for the charging light to turn green.

Whilst I wait I take to “Google” and the remarkable people who leave reviews to get some insight into how best to use this gadget (I’m a Man – I don’t do instructions!), some recommended using cold water, some warm water, some soapy water and others glass cleaner. Obviously I have to try them all and see which works best for me and place three bowls by three windows and the glass spray by the fourth, a quick peek at the Karcher and the light is green “Go, Go, Go!”.

The Karcher is quite light, lighter than I imagined it to be and the handle allows easy access to the on/off switch, never one to wait I switched it on straight away and it immediately burst into life “Vrooooom”, I didn’t know what I expected the noise to be like, but although it is a vacuum it is relatively quiet.

Deciding to do each window one at a time rather than wetting all four, I started with the cold water, damp sponge in hand I wet the pane of glass making sure the streaks and spots were off and fired up the Karcher and proceed to go left to right. The Window Vac effortlessly sucked up all the residue on the glass, a quick wipe round with a microfiber cloth and the window is done, 26 seconds.

Second window is with warm water but this time I use the Vac to go top to bottom, this way it is only two strokes rather than four going left to right, fantastic, except it hits the window sill as I get towards the bottom, so its three movements with a quick left to right at the base of the pane (to avoid the wall). 20 seconds.

Soapy suds for the third window, I found this to be the worst method for me as it did leave me with streaks which I had to buff out. 40 seconds.

Last window, spray on the glass cleaner and as you normally would wipe it round the pane and “suck it up”, I noticed that if I went over a part that had already been Vacuumed the rubber on the Karcher screeched like nail on a chalkboard, although not nice it did mean it was clean. 27 seconds.

Out of all the methods used I preferred the glass cleaner way, it seamed to give me the result that I wanted and 30 minutes later the rest of the house was done. Perfection.

The Karcher comes apart for cleaning and I was astonished to see the colour of the residue that was in the detachable tank, although I had cleaned my windows earlier it goes to show you that sometime all you are actually doing is moving dirt around the pane of glass.

Since using it on the windows, I have tried it on the shower door, mirrors and all the ceramic tiles around the house and the car windows – its a fantastic all-round tool and one I would suggest you get to turn the mundane into a bit of fun.

Without taking the Vac apart it can be stored in a gap of around 13inches and after four cleans of my windows I still haven’t had to recharge it, I probably use more glass cleaner than I used to but when the sun finally arrives I can see it without smears and smudges. Job done.