Bayhill's arrays sit on roofs that started going up in 1998, on lots big enough that sprinkler rotors reach the low edge of a lot of them. Add the field dust that blows in off the ground west toward Lake Lowell and twenty-five years of grown-in canopy dropping pollen, and production slides down quietly.
Three things, and they don't cost you the same amount. First is the fine silt that comes off the farm ground west of Nampa toward Lake Lowell, heaviest during field prep in spring and again through harvest — it lands as an even gray film. An even film is the cheapest problem you have; a light one usually costs low single digits of production. Second is pollen, which comes in a heavy pulse from April into June and sticks because it lands on morning dew instead of dry glass. Third, and the expensive one, is banded soiling: a hard line of crud along the lower rail where dust washes down and sits. That band shades whole cells in a row, and because cells run in series, a shaded strip drags down more than its share of the string.
Nampa city water runs around 7 grains hard, and the pressurized irrigation that turns on in mid-April is siltier still on the first flush. Bayhill's 0.3- to 0.44-acre lots take big rotor zones to cover, and on this neighborhood's low-slope garage roofs and any ground-mount, a rotor that throws long will put mineral-loaded water straight onto the glass. It dries in place and cements. That is not dust anymore — it's a mineral deposit, and rinsing with more hard water just adds to it. We wash panels with 100% pure deionized water, which carries nothing dissolved and lifts the deposit without leaving spots of its own. Honest note: mineral that has baked through several summers sometimes leaves a faint haze we can't take off. Etched glass is etched.
Trees planted when this neighborhood went in are now twenty-five-plus years old, and around the ponds and the stream corridor they're tall. That canopy is the reason Bayhill panels carry a heavier pollen and leaf-grit load than a bare 2015 subdivision on the south end of Nampa. It is also the reason some of these arrays lost production that a wash will not bring back. If a limb has grown into the sun path and shades a corner of the array from mid-afternoon on, the panels are clean and still underproducing. We'll tell you that on site instead of selling you a wash. Same with age: a panel loses roughly half a percent of its rating per year no matter what you do, so a 2010 array is legitimately down several percent from new. Cleaning restores soiling loss only.
Bayhill's build era gives you mostly asphalt shingle at a walkable pitch with gable and hip runs, and arrays racked a few inches off the deck. That gap is where trouble collects. Leaf litter, seed pods and grit wash under the modules and pack against the lower rail, and once it holds moisture you get a wet band sitting against the frame that never dries out and stains the bottom of the glass. We clear what we can reach under the rail while we're up there. We don't walk on modules, ever — foot pressure microcracks cells, and you won't see it until your production sags a year later. We work from ladders and a water-fed pole off the roof edge. We don't do electrical work or bird exclusion screening; if something is nesting under the array, we'll point it out.
Solar cleaning is quoted per array, since a six-panel garage bank and a twenty-four-panel south run are not the same job. We use 100% pure deionized water and a soft brush — no soap, no detergent, no pressure washer. Soap is the wrong tool on panels for a specific reason: whatever residue it leaves behind grabs the next round of dust, so a soaped panel re-soils faster than one rinsed with pure water, and detergent film can dull anti-reflective coating. We also schedule early morning and don't dump cold water onto glass that's been baking since noon. Memberships run Monthly or Quarterly with no contract, there's a 7-Day Rain Guarantee, and same-day and next-day slots are usually open. Reflekt is locally owned and fully insured, based in Meridian, founded in 2025 by Hunter Stevens and Ethan Seusy, with 4.9 stars across 115+ Google reviews.
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For an even film of field dust through a dry summer stretch, usually low single digits — real, but not dramatic. What costs you more is banded soiling along the lower rail, or hard-water spotting on the panels a sprinkler reaches. Check your monitoring app: a slow slide across weeks that resets after rain is soiling. That is what washing fixes.
Almost certainly not, and we'd rather say so before you book. A sudden drop is an equipment problem — an inverter fault, a tripped breaker, a string that dropped offline, or a squirrel through a wire. Soiling comes on gradually. Call your installer or check the inverter first. If it turns out the panels are just filthy, we're here.
Usually. Deposits from one or two seasons come off with deionized water and a soft brush. Mineral that has baked on through several summers sometimes leaves a faint permanent haze — at that point the glass surface itself is etched and no cleaning method removes it. The better fix is redirecting the rotor so it stops hitting the array.
Neither. Pure deionized water and a soft brush only. Soap leaves a residue that attracts the next round of dust, so panels get dirty faster after a soap wash than after a pure-water rinse, and it can dull the anti-reflective coating. Pressure washing risks forcing water past the frame seal, which is a warranty problem you do not want.
Once or twice a year is right for most homes here — after the spring pollen pulse, and again in fall once field dust from harvest has settled. If a sprinkler is hitting your array, fix that first. Adjusting one rotor head costs you nothing and stops the only kind of soiling on this list that can permanently mark the glass.
Nobody walks on the modules. Stepping on a panel can microcrack cells, and the damage doesn't show up until your production numbers sag months later. Pitches in this neighborhood are generally walkable shingle, so we work from ladders and off the roof edge with a water-fed pole, staying on the decking and off the array.
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