Condensation in double glazing

[Muddymike]

Can anyone suggest a way of stopping a sealed double glazing unit from getting condensation inside? Apart from simply replacing it that is.

Mike

[Andrew Gabriel]

It's not a sealed double glazing unit anymore if it's got condensation inside. You could take it to a glazier to be reassembled/sealed. It's not just the seal that's gone, but also the dissicant strip around the edge is all used up (saturated with moisture) if you are seeing condensation.

[AJH]

Andrew G is right of course. New units aren't that expensive and you could always uprate it at the same time eg make it wider (larger cavity between panes), and or get it filled with Argon which is less thermally efficient than a vacumn so better at controlling heat loss. I don't know how old yours is but the new low E glasses are better in performance and could save you money. If you are anywhere near Bristol go to Armour Sealed units as they supply the trade and are very reasonable.

Andrew H

[Andrew Gabriel]

Thanks, but I'm not infallible...

It probably wouldn't fit in the frame anymore.

Argon is slightly better than _air_. A vacuum would be better still in theory, but would cause the window to instantly break with the air pressure on either side unless the glass was very much thicker.

Double glazing is about the least cost effective energy saving measure you can make, and spending even more on it is even less effective - almost any other energy saving measure you spend the extra money on instead will be more effective. You shouldn't go for E glass unless all the other panes are E glass too, or it will look like you've got one dark glass pane verses the others. They should be E glass if installed after April 2002. A few installations were E glass before this date.

Incidently, a glazier might refuse to reassemble your existing one if it isn't toughened glass and now needs to be to meet current building regs (depends on size and height of the window).

[Harry Stottle]

Plus you would have a big hole where the existing one was, until the reconditioned unit was built and fitted ;-)

[Muddymike]

Thanks for all the advise guys. SWMBO however came to the rescue by remembering that the windows have a 10 year guarantee!!!

Fitter has just been and says "no problem" "will order a new one today" Isn't life wonderful sometimes.

Next question.

How do you fix a human memory:-)

Mike

[On Web]

The other lucky thing is that the same company is still in business..

[Kate Morgan]

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Lucky old you, we have two windows that need fixing but the firm that fitted them has gone bust :-(

kate

[Schrodinger]

As a "temporary" solution I simply removed the outer pane as nearly all our units have failed. I sealed some and not others and despite remarkably foul weather, with high winds and driving rain, no water has gotten past the "half" units - whether I took the time to seal them or not.

Sure, it's far from ideal but we don't have neighbours and to be fair unless you're really looking at the windows you can't tell one pane has been removed.

Of course, I'll have to replace them all before winter gets here, but it's saved our sanity in the meantime as the condensation was so bad you couldn't see through them properly.