I have encountered a problem with a customers sliding glass patio door. It is double pane tempered and has a coating of film on the exterior side. It is a seaside unit and as such I thought it had hard water buildup as regular cleaning scrub/squeegee, didn’t work. I used crystal clear 550 by Winsol and it completely clouded up the glass, ten times worse that it was. a PGT rep in Cayman said it might be low E coating but I was made to understand that low E would not be on the exterior side. I need to repair what I have done even if it means taking off the coating but this coating is not just tint and it doesn’t just come off. If unsuccessful I will need to replace the sliding door. one of three. I only damaged one. whew, Any suggestions. Glass manufacturers have proved useless so far.
Is it a coating on the glass or tint applied on the exterior of the window. If it’s a coating on the glass ur screwed and replacing the tempered glass window but you only need to provide them with a clouded up window not a brand new window
coating of film on the exterior? like solar film?
or do you mean it has a tint coating or another type of coating on it from the manufacturers?
low e coatings can be applied to any surface of glazing, and this depends on the manufacturer - so you need to check the manufacturers of the glazing and assess their type of manufacturing processes before using anything other than detergents on glazing.
[MENTION=11646]ChrisG[/MENTION] There is no manufacture sticker on the windows and the glass is etched with Guardian tempered. Guardian pass the buck by stating “we only make glass. Not windows” It is definitely not tinted and the coating will not budge with a razor. It seems to be applied in the manufacture process. how I know its a coating is that the scrubber and squeegee grip the pane instead of gliding as in glass.
I like this guy… He knows his shit…
[MENTION=40731]clearchoicecayman[/MENTION] Further to this , I have thought of using a paint stripper. Anything to get the coating off. I also heard of buffing it off with rubber wheels . Any suggestions would be great. Anything would beat replacing the whole glass. Here, it may cost me upward of $500 to replace and that is a lot more that the residential cleaning paid but I have to correct my error at my cost, to be fair.
Is it a film you can see?
To be honest, I think that you had either a really soiled window or the seal was busted and you applied cc550 which reacted with the tinside of the glass and etched it. So you have two options. Replace or get in to glass restoration
As it was dirty in the beginning, I could not see a film/layer/coating. It was only after using the CC550 that became apparent I had stained the film in a cloud of scrub marks. I have used CC550 on other glass to remove hard water stains and it worked great and I never experienced this until now. glass restoration sounds accurate but all the other 150 units have the same glass and I just need to start with this one to find out how to remove the coating. I will update if ever I hear about the actual manufacture or what exactly is this film/coating. thanks
If it’s a film u can blade it off with a razor blade.
Buff it with cerium oxide
Hi CCC,
I am guessing it likely is a low e hard coat on the first surface. If so it is metallic. So no solvents will strip it off. A one step using cerium likely won’t touch it either. The HF in the CC has etched it. It will need to be removed by a grinding and a polishing process. Two steps. There are people in our industry that have developed a process to do this type of work. The same technique is used to remove the most difficult hard water stains, and scratches. It is not done dry. And it is not done slow. It is also not done with a rotary drill motor but rather a heavy duty grinder.
Henry
[COLOR=#3e3e3e]One more thing. I will never endorse the use of any commercial or other products based on Hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, or ammoniumbifluoride on glass or metallic surfaces. Even the manufacturers of CC 550 suggest that it never be used on low E hard coats. So please be safe.
Henry
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[MENTION=5152]wws[/MENTION] Out of the 96 units with the same patio glass. the neighbor was having their sliders completely replaced with PGT doors and donated to me the middle slider which I had ruined. This was free of charge and now I still have the bad one to figure out how to get it clean. I will look into cerium oxide and with any luck I may have future customers from the same complex since all the patios are coated with the same crap. I still believe its Low E. I will try to submit photos.
Thanks Henry. Very helpful and much appreciated.
