Cerium Oxide

So I’ve been reading about cerium oxide of buffing out hard water etches. I’ve also been reading about slayer powder. Is this an apples to apples comparison or are they each used for something different?

Has anyone used (or regularly uses) cerium oxide and if so, how well does it work? My parents have some etched windows and I was thinking about picking some up to test it out.

I’ve used Cerum Oxcide to take minor scratched out of glass by buffing and water to keep cool. Its called old school and can be very messy. Sure you could buff etched glass

Have you tried safe restore?
Paul
Show Me Cleaning Window Cleaning Kansas City, Missouri, Mo. Kansas City, Kansas, Ks

I’ve tried safe restore with dwell times of 2, 5 and 10 minutes and didn’t get any results. The water has etched the glass so it will take some sort of buffing compound if anything is going to work.

How long do you buff with the cerium oxide for?

Just buff it with the oxcide and a spray bottle to keep the wet and cool. If its a lot it will take some time. Are have you tried 550. I don’t use that I walk. If you don’t cover it with some protection it will come right back.
Paul
Show Me Cleaning Window Cleaning Kansas City, Missouri, Mo. Kansas City, Kansas, Ks

Yeah, we’ve got HORRIBLE water here in the hill country and I’m using my parents to test a method of getting of the etched stains and then throwing some Glass Guardian on there to prevent future etching. I just have to figure out the process of buffing out the etches first.

Cerium oxide is a main component in most slurry’s used in scratch removal systems. For severe etching a scratch removal system is a good choice. Slayer powder <a href=“http://shopwindowcleaner.com/soap-chemicals/stain-removal/slayer-powder-by-mr-squeegee.html?&a_bid=cc9f2458” target=“_top”><img src=“http://www.shopwindowcleaner.com/affiliate/accounts/default1/banners/hard-water-slayer-powder.jpg” alt=“” title=“” width=“220” height=“220” /></a><img style=“border:0” src=“http://www.shopwindowcleaner.com/affiliate/scripts/imp.php?&a_bid=cc9f2458” width=“1” height=“1” alt=“” /> is for removal of standard hard water staining. Not scratch removal.

The difference in verbage here. Paul is thinking it is a mineral build up that can be removed with chemicals. ie CC 550 or SafeRestore. Where as Tony is going with the “etched” damaged glass surface. I’m going with the Tony on this. Etched glass will only be restored by buffing it. If you are going to go with this approach there is the SRP scratch removal system. It is a closed system that won’t splatter everywhere. Then you have open wheel systems that are messy. I have done the SRP system and they work excellent. When you are using the “open” exposed polishing wheel, what I did was to roll up some huck towels and tape them to the glass surrounding the damaged area. That way the slurry would spin hit the towels and not all over the place.

So back to the original question, is slayer powder used for buffing or for mineral deposit removal? If it’s used for buffing I’d rather buy it from WCR than buy cerium oxide from another company.

I disagree there?? Cerium Oxcide. With a felt disk from home depot. Mix Oxcide with water make a paste. Get a elec. drill and water spary bottle. Soak your felt drill pad in the oxcide for a day. Then go to your etched glass and wet and buff it DO NOT put alot of PRESSER on it or let it get to warm. I will warn you that it will be messy. But Cerium Oxcide cleans you real easy. I’ve done it alots of times on etched glass and small hair scratched glass. I had to do or spent 2 grand on a scratch remove.

Paul
Show Me Cleaning Window Cleaning Kansas City, Missouri, Mo. Kansas City, Kansas, Ks

Thanks Paul, I’ll try that out then. Maybe I’ll take some picture and post 'em up for other people who are curious.

It’s for hard water removal.

Saw a couple products at the IWCA Trade Show that would be of interest.

  1. NanoUltraTM [I]Super Hydrophilic Window Technology[/I] stain remover and polish and treatment. Works up to two years per manufacturer. 2- or 3-step process dependent upon conditions. Makes the glass hydrophilic! ~$75 per full kit, though I done forget the coverage details. I have a sample to experiment with.

  2. Glass Renu Scratch Removal System mechanical system utilizes a chemical spray and pads – no slurry.

I would love to get a glass scratch kit but I can’t cough up $2300 right now.

buy-now-pay-later

I need to make sure by business will stick around long enough to pay later :smiley:

Just tested out the cerium oxide I got and it worked! It’s raining out today so as soon as the sun comes out I’ll make a video for everyone who’s curious about using it. Thanks for the info Paul!

Curious to know what kind of ratio others use to formulate a cerium oxide ‘paste’. With the scratch removal kit I have, it was suggested 1 part cerium to 8 parts water. Now that produces something far removed from the paste a lot have mentioned on the forum. Can anyone enlighten me?

I am repairing double pane sealed windows whose seals have broken resulting in condensation inside between the panes that has left deposits on the glass. Most of the deposits are a whitish streak which can mostly cleaned off (with difficulty) but there is a slightly goldish ‘checkering’ like a spiders web that is all across the glass and seems to be impossible to remove. I’m not a professional so not sure what members mean exactly when they refer to ‘deposits’ or ‘etching’, what I’m trying to remove is rather faint but covers the whole of the glass, and is different than the white deposits that seem to form more as water trails down the face of the glass. What if anything works on this gold-ish checkering that I’m trying to remove? Thanks.

If the water spots have ‘etched’ the surface no comound will fix the issue. The only way to fully remove the effects of etching is to remove glass.

This is known in the glazing industry as “glass mildew” and you wont remove it unless you grind the surface. It csn be hard to find information about this, because if you search glass mildew google will bring up lots of links about mildew on glass which is something completely different