It’s been a while.
Place looks weird.
Anyhoo, my neighbor and I am in a heated dispute regarding how to use liquid Pledge.
I say you spray it on the pine, then wipe. My neighbor, the ninny, says spray it on the rag instead.
Who’s right?
I would say you spray it on the pine, then wipe it off. My reasoning is that you are using a rag to soak up the liquid, right? If you sprayed it directly on the rag a large amount of the liquid will just soak into the rag and never come into contact with the surface you are wiping. There is also the issue of missing the rag with some of the spray, where it is really hard to miss a large flat surface.
I always spray it on the rag. Its neater that way because the spray doesn’t splatter.
I like your thinking.
The problem is, or as she is contending, is that on the ad they show the woman (Man, woman, I don’t know) spraying the stupid rag.
That’s her claim to the bet – you do it the way they do on TeeVee.
And, sure as shit, they do show it on TV as a woman spraying the rag before the counter.
IIRC, the instructions on all the cans of furniture polish I’ve ever seen say to spray on the rag, not the wood. Just look on the side, there are instructions.
But… then why does it come in a spray as opposed to a squirt bottle?
I remember seeing an add for a game apparently set in Vietnam (jungle setting, US soldiers) in which a soldier slowly scrolls across the screen holding a bazooka with the rear firmly braced against the center of his chest. I really wish I had saved it, but the point is that errors slip into advertisements. Pledge can be used either way, but it seems to me that spraying first then wiping is what the package is designed for.
On preview, check what Telemark said. I can’t imagine this going to the Straight Dope if it was on there…
If you spray it on the rag, you have more control over where the actual polish ends up. Spray directly on the wood, and you risk getting stray flecks of flying polish on metalwork (furniture polish is not good for brass), glass or mirrors (smudge), fabric (it could stain), or your books and clutter.
A little goes a long way too. My grandmother sprays her rag once to dust her entire house. And her wood practically gleams.
I recant my previous testimony. I must have remembered it backwards.
From http://www.pledge.com/family_aerosols.html
All the furniture polishes have similar directions.
Probably depends on the porosity (read dryness) of the wood.
If it’s a highly polished, good quality surface like that of a piano, you could probably just spray the surface and then wipe.
But if it’s a dry, porous surface like that of maybe an old grain bin and you shoot a puddle of liquid onto the surface and then wipe, there’s a good chance that the wood under the puddle will remain darker than the rest, having absorbed more. At the very least it will probably require more wiping and rubbing to get a homogeneous tone throughout.
I don’t know which is “right” but I prefer spraying the rag first because it gives me the impression (as stupid as it may be) that the contents of the bottle are being more evenly distributed upon the surface of the woodwork, and not saturated into one spot, then spread around from that one place. Crazy, I know. Plus, I like the idea of having more control over what gets hit/touched with Pledge by uging the rag instead of random sprays that could end up all over the place.
The makers of Pledge probably want you to spray the surface directly because you will probably go through a can more quickly by doing it that way.
More of an IMHO answer, I have always sprayed the surfaces. A few years ago I hired a gal to clean my house and she sprayed the rag. The first thing I noticed is that when I came home after she had cleaned, I couldn’t smell that “clean” smell from the polish. I’ve even been home when she’s cleaned so I know it isn’t that she wasn’t dusting. I happen to like the smell of furniture polish so it’s sprayed surfaces for me.