Solar panel types in Hays County — and how each one gets cleaned

Panel glass is not all the same, and the wrong method costs you output permanently. I am on the roof by hand with deionized water on every job in Kyle, Plum Creek, Buda, San Marcos, New Braunfels and Wimberley — no pressure washing, no soap, no driveway spray-downs.

• Monocrystalline (black cells)

  Most Kyle and Buda rooftops built after 2018

  Deionized water and a soft-bristle brush, top row down. Black backsheets show every water spot, so the final rinse is spot-free water only — no soap film to bake on.

• Polycrystalline (blue cells)

  Older San Marcos and Wimberley arrays

  Same soft-wash pass, plus extra dwell time on caliche dust from gravel drives and FM roads, which bonds harder to the textured blue glass.

• Anti-reflective coated glass

  Nearly all modern high-efficiency modules

  No abrasives, no pressure washer, no scrapers. Pressure or grit strips the AR coating permanently and costs you output for the life of the panel.

• Thin-film / flexible laminates

  Barns, RVs and a few Uhland outbuildings

  Hand-wiped with the softest media I carry and minimal downward pressure — laminates flex, and flex plus grit means micro-scratches.

• Ground-mount and pole arrays

  Uhland, Niederwald, Martindale acreage

  Low rows collect mud splash, grass clippings and wasp nests underneath. I clean both faces of the frame area and clear the airflow gap so the panels stay cool.

• Tesla Solar Roof & flush-mount tiles

  Newer Plum Creek and 6 Creeks homes

  Foot placement matters more than the wash. I walk the battens, keep water moving downslope, and never pool water above a tile seam.

• Microinverter vs. string setups

  Every array I touch

  One shaded or filmed panel drags a whole string. On string systems, cleaning the dirtiest row often recovers more output than the rest of the roof combined.

Where I clean these arrays

Kyle 78640 · Buda 78610 · San Marcos 78666 · New Braunfels 78130 · Wimberley 78676 · Uhland & Niederwald 78640 · Mountain City 78610 · Martindale & Staples 78655