Self-Cleaning Windows

[SuzySue]

Was just wondering if any of you have had self-cleaning windows installed?

Have you had to have them cleaned, or do they work?

Thanks!

[Gary]

SuzySue scribbled :

I would love to know how these work, not really seen much about them. Do they have a squirter jet and window wipers like a car ;-) Seriously how the hell can glass clean itself?

[Harry Bloomfield]

We use that stuff which was once demonstrated on 'Tomorrows World', which makes ordinary glass self cleaning. Its a blue cream in a small tub, which goes a very long way. We have used it (same little tub) for the last 10 or 15 years, cleaning and recoating once a year.

The widows do aquire a dust build up in dry weather, but it can be hosed off easily. Otherwise it works and they stay clean.

[Mary Fisher]

Hey, Harry, tell us more - name of product, source?

Pleeeeeeeeeease ..........

Have you used it on leaded lights?

Mary

[MrCheerful]

Rain-X does the same job and is in every car shop.

MrCheerful

[Harry Bloomfield]

Mary Fisher wrote on Thursday (01/01/2004) :

I don't have a name for it, the label long since became unreadable, but we got it out of the those door to door catalogues, sounded like 'Betterware' or similar. Cost around £5.

No, but I am sure it would work just as well on them. We just give the windows a thorough cleaning once a year, then put the tiniest smear of the liquid on the corner of a cloth and polish them up with that.

It is the stuff which was demonstrated to Prince Charles on TW. They coated half the width of the glass, threw a bucket of mud at the glass, then hosed the muck off. The mud stuck to the uncoated side pretty well, but it hosed straight of the coated half.

[mike ring]

Harry Bloomfield wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Do you do this for a living, or a hobby?

mike r

[Ziggur]

Do a Google search for Rytec Clearshield.

It coats the glass, filling in the microscopic hollows, and makes it more "slippery" and thus helps to prevent dirt from sticking.

Won the Prince of Wales award for Innovation.

Ziggur "S'ils te mordent, mords-les"

[Andy Hall]

Poor ladies. What have they done to deserve this? :-)

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Harry Bloomfield]

On 01/01/2004 Ziggur opined:-

think we must have got hold a bottle when they were first starting out, it is a kit now and £50.... Ouch!

Try 'Betterware' or whatever they are called.

[dave]

I use Mer car polish. seems to work a treat for me and we live in an industrial area.

Dave

[Mary Fisher]

That's what tramping the streets does for you ...

Thanks to everyone for their replies. All noted.

Mary

[SuzySue]

Here's a link to the website

any other companies manufacture self-cleaning windows, or is it just this company?

Does anyone know if these windows are more expensive than "regular" double glazing of similar standard? If so, by what percent?

[Suz]

> Do any other companies manufacture self-cleaning windows, or is it > just this company?

Pilkington Activ is the best known and it does work. A neighbour got it installed with new windows (not cheap) but his windows only get a 10th of the dirt the rest of ours do. Apparently it is only good with natural stuff that can be broken down further, so it isn't as good on minerals eg quarry dust.

Wish I could afford it. But then my window cleaner only charges £3 - isn't that good? And most of my dirt is on the inside. What I need is a coating on the inside that works like an electric fence for small fingers (and tongues). Why *do* they lick glass? The best one I saw was a school bus with a tiny tot licking the window where no doubt 40 previous children have licked it too. Yum!

[the q]

We had our's fitted by Zenith about three years ago (Pilkington glass), they work very well, as we are less than half a mile from the sea we often got salt stains on the front windows, plus the normal dirt and pigeon crap. We've not had to "clean" the windows since. They work because they have a clear substance bonded onto the panes of glass. The rain washes off anything that lands on them. I've only had to hose the front windows down once during the 3 months without rain in the summer.

The windows are a good product, (Zenith and Pilkington) just watch out for the lying B*******d sales men.

The Q

[davenpat]

Also look for Perma Clean by eliteforce. Customer care line is

01322 521880. This is the stuff I use,

Dave

[Adrian M.]

To build up their immune system? Must be a built in instinct, the same one that also makes them pick things off the floor and stick them in their mouths

[SuzySue]

Do you know approximately how much more expensive (percent%) these windows were than similar windows of same quality, but not self-cleaning?