Noticed that there's a new way of de-fogging double glazing without replacing the glass. According to the details ;
Two holes are drilled, top and bottom, in the glass. Cleaning and demisting fluid is injected into the hole and afterwards a one-way valve fitted.
Don't know how effective this method is but I'd like to give it a try. Does anyone know where I can buy the fluid and one-way valves online (or one of the sheds) ? Tried googling but without knowing the correct name for the valves and fluid all I get are pages of adverts for firms who will carry out the work for me !
I posted a method in this ng which I had come across quite some time ago. Like your method, it involved drilling holes in two opposite corners, but working on the assumption that the dg was just suffering condensation from moisture leaking in - I would guess that would be the usual case anyway.
You drill holes in two opposite corners, a good fit for plastic tube as used for a fish tank air pump, then use a fish tank pump to circulate air in and back out of the dg. The dg panel has to be warm and the idea is to condense the moisture somewhere along the loop of tube and be able to drain the accumulated water.
A coil of the pipe could be made to pass through some iced water or be made to pass through a fridge, to act as a condenser. Once moisture stops condensing, the panel is dry, but it can take 24 hours of pumping to achieve it.
If the pump only has one port to which a pipe can be attached, then put the pump in a gaffa tape sealed biscuit tin and make a second port, so it draws its air in via the botched inlet port.
Once it's dry, you remove the air inlet pipe, with the pump running, then quickly seal it with silicon, so it is drawn due to vacuum, squirt a good dollop around the outlet pipe and pull that out as the silicon is pushed into the hole to seal that end.
If youre going to make holes in glass, just drill one hole in the outer pane and the mist wont form to begin with. Plug it with something porous to keep out insects and draughts, eg sand/cement.
By the time a unit is showing condensation, it has both sprung a leak, and the dessicant around the edge is all used up. I don't know how long just drying the air in it is likely to last, but I suspect not long.
If you removed the unit, what might buy you some extra mileage is to try drying out the dessicant -- I don't know if it will dry with any moderate heat, but you could see if application of a hair drier drives off any moisture from it. OTOH, it may not be realistically dryable in place (or even at all). Secondly, you could reseal around the edge with an additional strip of aluminium tape, hoping it will block off the leak. Finally, before refitting, check inside the frame to make sure water isn't pooling in there. A common cause of failures is that water can't drain out of the frame, resulting in the unit sitting in a puddle. This evetually damages the seal, particularly if it ever freezes. The unit should be sitting on spacers with channels underneath for the water to drain away.
The second option if you have taken the unit out is to take it round to a glazier who can take it apart, clean up the glass (condensation eventually leaves marks between the panes), and reassemble with new seals.
Just to point out... if you're drilling through the glass and it's toughened glass (as increasingly they are nowadays), then you won't get as far as drilling the second hole. You bypass that and go directly to the dustpan and brush stage, followed by the yellow pages ;-)
Surely it'd be better just to spend a few quid and get a new pane of glass and have a proper functioning DG unit again? If you want to save a few quid, remove the old one and fit the new one yourself. I would think these repairs leave the pane of glass with a similar insulating factor as a single glazed window.
Well, a DG panel is anywhere from 70-100 quid per m2 (depending on glass) so I suppose if the panel is large or times are tight, a repair might be worth the effort.
But if possible to replace I would agree at least the effort of refitting will be good for a decade or 3.
You do NOT drill the glass, you drill holes through the gap between the panes (through the seal).
To answer the other question about a repaired panels insulation properties, I would imagine it will be similar to when the panel was new - why would it be any different?
How much? That made me look up the invoice for the only units I've ever bought on their own, which were =A359/m2 for 4:6:4 and =A377/m2 for 6 (lam):6:4(toughened) - but that was with a krypton fill to get to
1.4U. An argon fill would have been =A339/m2 and =A347/m2. That's with top spec glass to get the U value. Figures inc VAT.
At this point, if using a box, I would put a quantity of oven dried silica gel in it.
A lot of civil aircraft are kept clear by inserting a tube into the lower edge whose other end is connected to a silica gel container, but that would be difficult to do with a DG window.
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