New Laminated Glass vs Reseal dual pane Windows

[jaycocamper6230]

Got the foggy window syndrome and the coach is in my heated shop. Got two windows out, wanting to fix all 6 in my passenger area. Talked to various repair shops. Want to get the opinion of real customers out there which repair they decided on and why? RVFOGDR will repair them for 165 per window which is way cheaper than laminated glass. My coach is and 06 Bounder and it will sit inside until we use it. Wife and I both work still. TIA

[FIRE_UP]

pianotuna wrote:
Fire Up,

And you have used your RV at -34 F with no condensation on the single glazed laminated windows?

Sorry for not getting back earlier. The answer is NO, we did not use that particular coach, or ANY COACH we've had, in conditions like that. Fact is, in all my life and traveling experience, I or we, have never experienced anything even close to that kind of cold. And, if I thought for even a minute, that we would, while camping, we'd either never leave home here in southwestern AZ or, would head back to the barn, pronto.

But, as stated, those laminated windows worked just great in whatever temp it was when we were in snow conditions and, heated conditions like Moab in the summer.
Scott

[doxiemom11]

We also find that we need towels for the windshield as it collects condensation terrible in cold weather. The only way you wouldn't is if you didn't use any heat in your rv. The side sliding windows for the cab are fogging and we will replace with double pane. There is a definite difference between double pane and that windshield!

[wildmanbaker]

rgatijnet1 wrote:
We traveled mostly during the Winter months out West and always found that our windshield sweated so much that we had to put towels at the bottom to soak up the water. The windshield is laminated glass. Our side windows, in which Monaco used double pane glass, did not sweat but the aluminum frames would occasionally sweat. We had a fogging problem in two windows and went to Suncoast in Hudson, FL to have them repaired. My own experience told us that the best choice was to use the double pane windows.

Yes this is true, the frames of the dual pane windows also sweat quite a bit, but the dual pane are much better for quite and comfort. Fire up seems to have had good luck with the laminated glass, but we will stick with the dual pane.

[rgatijnet1]

We traveled mostly during the Winter months out West and always found that our windshield sweated so much that we had to put towels at the bottom to soak up the water. The windshield is laminated glass. Our side windows, in which Monaco used double pane glass, did not sweat but the aluminum frames would occasionally sweat. We had a fogging problem in two windows and went to Suncoast in Hudson, FL to have them repaired. My own experience told us that the best choice was to use the double pane windows.

[pianotuna]

Fire Up,

And you have used your RV at -34 F with no condensation on the single glazed laminated windows?

[IB853347201]

FIRE UP wrote:
Well,
You wanted "real" customers or people that have done that. Yep, we changed to laminated glass on our two, 2' x 4' single/slider side windows in our previous coach, an '04 Fleetwood Bounder 34V. Both side windows were fogging. I did a bunch of research and, well, at the time, it was easier and almost cheaper by doing the laminate route. So, that's what we did.
Long story short, all the milarky about a laminated window "sweating", not insulating against heat and or cold etc., is just that, a bunch of bull. We owned that coach for 7 years and toured all over the place with it. We were in snow and places like Death Valley with it. And, we were in those conditions WITH DUAL PANE WINDOWS and, with LAMINATED WINDOWS.

Guess what, there was ZERO temperature differences using the laminated glass. There was ZERO sweating. The change to laminated glass simply WORKED, PERIOD! The fit and finish was almost completely indistinguishable. In fact, no one could see the difference until we told them. 99.9% of the people who condemn such a change, have never done it. Well, it's simple. It's a choice thing. Good luck.
Scott

X2!

[FIRE_UP]

Well,
You wanted "real" customers or people that have done that. Yep, we changed to laminated glass on our two, 2' x 4' single/slider side windows in our previous coach, an '04 Fleetwood Bounder 34V. Both side windows were fogging. I did a bunch of research and, well, at the time, it was easier and almost cheaper by doing the laminate route. So, that's what we did.
Long story short, all the milarky about a laminated window "sweating", not insulating against heat and or cold etc., is just that, a bunch of bull. We owned that coach for 7 years and toured all over the place with it. We were in snow and places like Death Valley with it. And, we were in those conditions WITH DUAL PANE WINDOWS and, with LAMINATED WINDOWS.

Guess what, there was ZERO temperature differences using the laminated glass. There was ZERO sweating. The change to laminated glass simply WORKED, PERIOD! The fit and finish was almost completely indistinguishable. In fact, no one could see the difference until we told them. 99.9% of the people who condemn such a change, have never done it. Well, it's simple. It's a choice thing. Good luck.
Scott

[DFord]

garyemunson, here's a tip about Amazon URLs - everything from the REF on can be deleted/removed and the link will work just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Kohree-Sealant-30-Foot-Sealing-Patching/dp/B07V366FCM/

Back on topic:
A couple of years ago the RVFogDr, repaired our windows. We pulled up to their shop at the end of the day and connected to their 50A service for the night. The next morning, they pulled us in their shop right after 8am. They pulled our 4 largest windows which had fogged up and took them to their workroom. After lunch they had the windows ready to reinstall and finished up about 4pm. We spent the night on their electric again that night and left the next morning. The cost was $300 for the first window and $200 each for the others for a total of $900 - cash or check (no plastic). I've never seen any hint of the fog returning. My MH is always outside and I'm very happy with their work.

[garyemunson]

Use this when you reinstall the windows. Every year all the screws on the inside of the frames should be hand tightened with a screwdriver. This sealer lasts about 10 years then needs replacing. Many RVs are ruined by people who have no idea how important it is to keep the window screws tight and the sealer tape replaced every 10 years or so. Without doing that, water will leak inside the walls unnoticed and rot the wall/floor connection. Pretty hard to repair that. Smearing silicone around the outside of the frame will only leak again very quickly then nothing, even more silicone, will stick there. The butyl tape is what the windows were engineered for and is the only thing that will stand up to the flexing and twisting going down the road (but still need that annual tightening). After about 10 years, the tape is crushed down to where the metal frame is touching the RV wall and then, unless new tape is installed, it will leak no matter how tight the screws are.
https://www.amazon.com/Kohree-Sealant-30-Foot-Sealing-Patching/dp/B07V366FCM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=WVQSFSLA3H97&keywords=butyl+tape+rv&qid=1580435551&sprefix=butyl+tape%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzMU1KNUNBUlJUREhYJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjc3MTY5MktEVFpFTjYwU0tSQiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTg4MDg1UlFUU0lIMVVaUlkwJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[garyemunson]

This Amazon link is for 3/16" spacer. Different windows have different space between the panes. Measure to be sure or your repaired glass won't fit the window frame. The "also bought with" in the listing shows the sealer material.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Wide-Edgetech-Super-Spacer/dp/B00UVUUU5Y/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=super+spacer&qid=1580434494&sr=8-11

[garyemunson]

We've found double pane is far more important in an RV than in a sticks and bricks. In an RV you are usually sleeping/sitting much closer to the window than in your house. We really noticed the difference when we switched from a Class C with single pane to a Class A with dual. We will camp in cold weather and we were pleasantly surprised at the difference we noticed. Our 1st Class A had foggy glass and I did the repair myself. I used a razor blade to cut the spacer out on the top and bottom (so the panes were still together) and pulled a rag with Turtle Wax Chrome Polish on it between the two panes of glass with a coathanger. Takes a little while. Two people makes it easier. Was told the glass was 'etched' and would not clean up, I found that not to be the case. The Chrome polish removed the crusty white deposit then I replaced the spacer and resealed. There are two steps, replacing the spacer making sure it's a quarter inch in from the edge of the glass then filling the remaining gap with the sealer. Once I did that and the sealer dried, I used the razor knife to dig out the old sealer on the two vertical sides (leaving the old spacer) and applied new. The sealer does the real work of keeping moisture out of the space between the glass. I would suggest you do the repair on a dry day to minimize any moisture getting trapped. The spacer is supposed to have some desiccant in it to absorb any moisture that gets caught in there as you seal it up. Worked perfectly for the next 3 years until we traded on a new RV. If you've pulled the windows already, you're halfway there. To get the glass out, there will be splice in the window frame that you unscrew that will let you spring the frame open and remove the glass. $165 each doesn't sound too bad if you both still work!

[pianotuna]

Laminated glass has not much insulation value and won't reduce out door sounds as much.