Sticky Glass, ... what the?

Storefront
1

I’ve encountered this a few times now and thought I’d ask if anyone knows what the heck this is and if I can do anything about it.

I have a few accounts where the glass seems very “sticky”. There is nothing on the glass that I can see and it’s not “sticky” like goo all over it. But the glass drags super hard. It is even hard to move my washer over the glass without a lot of resistance. It’s almost as if my squeegee and washer are the eraser end of a pencil and the glass is like paper. The squeegee and washer do not want to move freely even with extra soap. These windows are really hard to clean this way and I’m forcing my squeegee to just move the water off of it. The windows don’t seem to be coated or tinted or anything that I can figure out. And they don’t feel different to the touch than any other windows. And they aren’t any better after cleaning, they remain the same, … like I’m cleaning windows made of sandpaper (but they don’t feel gritty or anything).

Anyone encounter this?? Puzzled.

2

Are there hard water stains present?

3

No hard water stains

4

I realize this is in the storefront section but it sounds like when you have a energy panel with a low e (it may just be a factory applied tint and not low e) coating on it. The way they seem to do things in the glass industry it wouldn’t surprise me to find what should be a #2 or #3 side of an IG unit on the #4 side.

5

Is the window near a kitchen exhaust fan? Is it interior glass or exterior? Is the window near where employees do their smoking breaks?

6

I would think you are dealing with a self cleaning glass. It is a coating that is applied to the exterior side of the glass to help keep the glass clean. When water and sunlight are applied it causes the glass to vibrate thus removing the dust. Check with the manufacture if you can find out who it is for cleaning instructions. I have had great success with pure water and wfp. Hope this helps

7

This is interior glass, not near exhaust vents or smokers. The exterior (flip side of same glass) is fine, … normal. But the whole entire glass wall inside (grocery store) has this situation. (I also have a couple of doors at other locations that have the same thing). I will say though that the glass might be a bit darker like it is tinted (I’ll have to look closer). But it doesn’t have any applied sheet tint as far as I can tell. And I’ve never had a problem with washing tinted windows.

And I’m not really sure what Hunetrst is talking about because I’m unfamiliar with it, but maybe it is some factory applied thingy. The glass does seem kind of old though and pretty unsightly even after it’s cleaned. It’s definitely a pain in the butt though.

8

Are they cleaning the glass w/ windex when you aren’t there? I’ve had that very reaction on glass cleaned w/ those type of products.

9

Some residential windows have a panel that attaches to the exterior, not a storm that goes over a window. I’ve noticed the exact thing you described with the drag, on these type of windows. Its usually been a factory applied tint or low e coating. That would be my best guess.

10

Sounds like some sort of thermal glass to me. We have a fair bit of it down here, its a low e glass like Jay said. It has a super sensitive interior coating on the glass, makes squeegeeing ‘drag’ like you have said. I’m not sure if you have much of i in the states, but if you touch it with a blade or anything steel (even the edge of a squeegee channel) it will leave black lines across the pane. It has a dark tinge to it and looks pretty average even when cleaned.
This is what I mainly deal with: Product