Windows Get Foggy

Eventually most every thermal pane window will fail and fog up. By their very design, thermal pane windows are made with eventual failure in mind.

The panes of glass in your thermal pane window are separated by and sealed to a spacer bar, creating a closed container of air. During the day, sunlight will shine on the window and begin to heat the air between the panes of glass. You are very familiar with the “green house effect”, like when you open a parked car that has been sitting in the sun. Solar energy enters through the glass and super heats the car’s interior. This also occurs between the glass of your thermal pane windows. Temperature inside can easily reach 170 degrees, and at that temperature failure is eight times more likely to occur. Free Quote

During the day the sun is heating the air between your panes of glass, expanding the air and building up pressure. The pressure will literally push the panes of glass outward. Then in the evening, as your window cools down, the air now contracts and returns to a balanced or even a contracted state. Day after day, year after year, this cycle of expansion, contraction, expansion, contraction occurs. We call this action “solar pumping”. The window literally acts like a pump, stressing the integrity of the seals and drawing air through the side. With that inflow of air comes moisture. Free Quote

Window makers know and expect this solar pumping to occur. They actually pre-plan for it. Thermal pane windows are built with a form of moisture control inside the spacer bar. Most spacer bars have a desiccant, or moisture absorbing material inside the spacer bar. You are familiar with the most common desiccant called Silica. It is what’s inside those little white pouches you find when you get a new pair of shoes or maybe a small electronic product. You know, the one labeled “Do Not Eat. Contains Silica Gel”. That’s the stuff inside your window’s spacer bar. They expect your window to fail and moisture to get inside and they prepare for it by having silica there to absorb that moisture! By the time you see fog in your window that silica is fully saturated and cannot hold anymore moisture. There may be years of accumulated moisture that has nowhere to go, so it just circulates between the glass and begins to cause permanent glass damage if not repaired quickly. Free Quote

Our  Process gets the moisture out of the thermal window panes and keeps it out!