Cleaning low-e coated windows
Izzza
| Posted in General Questions on
It has come to my attention that cleaning windows with a low-e coating is not standard. It seems metal reacts with the coating, so nothing metal should go anywhere near the glass… ok. But then it says to avoid using a squeegee, presumably because of the metal but also it says a squeegee won’t clean the surface because it’s rough with the coating?
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Replies
A standard low-e window has the low-e coating on one of the surfaces that's facing the space between the two panes of glass. There are windows that have coatings on the exposed surfaces, but most don't. Is there any more information on your specific windows?
Hmm, for some reason I thought it was interior facing coating. We are in a cold climate, CZ6. Windows are triple glazed, here is what the info looks like but I’m not sure how to tell where the glazing is so I will need to ask…
Izzza,
According to this you can tell where it is: https://geoshieldusa.com/blogs/blog/low-e-windows-detection?srsltid=AfmBOopSwo1m04qRkToD_3L0eux4WnQk3z-SfLoId0g40iC8du0Wi6eJ
The only coating I'm aware of that is applide to the interior-facing glass surface ("surface 4"), is Cardianal's i89 coating. That coating is supposed to be physically tough and not require any special cleaning precautions, although I'd still try to minimize aggressive cleaning and scraping anyway, just to be careful.
The other low-E coatings are applied to the surfaces within the IGU that are protected by the glass panes themselves, so you don't have to worry about damaging them.
Bill
There is no mention of a inside surface coating in the document that you posted, so should be no concern when cleaning the glass.