Desiccant: How the inside of your windows stay dry.

Post Source: http://www.replacement-windows.com/windowbb/viewtopic.php?t=256

nailbiter,

Desiccant is indeed a drying agent. It is placd inside the IGU space to absorb moisture between the glass panes.

Even a tiny bit of moisture trapped between the panes will cause a certain amount of fogging inside the IG, even if the sael is intact. The desiccant will absorb that moisture and prevent potential fogging.

Guy,

since you and I talked about this phenomena I have seen it addressed a couple of times.

I have seen it associated with both Swiggle and with Intercept.

In the case of the Intercept you hit it right on the head. It is associated with the argon fill hole and is associated with the "baking" process that the Intercept spacer goes thru. Unfortunately, I don't have a better reply. I really don't know why it is happening, but I am going to make a couple of phone calls to peope who are WAY more knowledgeable than I am and see what they have to say.

I have also seen Swiggle droop. But, I have never personally seen the liquid desiccant drip, and I am not sure why it should do so. Swiggle can chemically fog the interior of an IG in certain circumstances, that has been documented as well as the droop, but the drip was new to me when you mentioned it before and I admit I have seen very little about it since.

I suspect that in the case of the assorted swiggle and intercept problems the cause is much more likely to be at the window plant and not in the product itself.

It is kind of like both FenEx and I have had reservations about SuperSpacer...NOT the product, but the possibilty that the window company using the product might not apply it as carefully as the manufacturer might want.

Now, giving credit where due, it does appear that EdgeTech has learned from their competitor's mistakes and that they closely monitor their customer's application of the product, thus ensuring that SuperSpacer does not have the same sort of problems that intercept and swiggle have had.

And, the vast majority of intercept and swiggle are doing fine...but the seal failures in the field and now the "leaking" desiccant has to be making the manufacturers really uneasy, I would think.

Sorry I could not be more help, but I will see what else I can find out.

Post Source: Desssicant in IG falling
http://www.replacement-windows.com/windowbb/viewtopic.php?t=256

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:54 pm