Jay Markanich's Blog
Hit The Bull's Eye!
It isn't often we thermographers get such an opportunity to photograph this. Windows are one of the things routinely looked at during a thermal image sweep of a house. We look for many things, not just leakage.
Andersen Windows has had problems with seals breaking and argon gas leakage in windows manufactured 1989 - 1993. What most people don't realize is that broken seals create pressure inside, literally drawing the two panes together. John installed these windows in 1991. These are images of the same window taken from indoors.
Andersen has agreed to repair this seal problem.
And apparently hundreds of thousands of them. The window on the left is before the repair. Thermographers call this a "Bull's Eye" pattern. It is classic! I have seen it before but have never been able to photograph such good before and after images as this. You rarely get this opportunity!!
The image on the right is after Andersen's repair. They sent two techs to this house. The repair involves drilling a hole in the top of the window to relieve the pressure. Argon is then re-inserted and caulking placed over the hole.
Note the temperature on the left where the two panes are actually touching! And note the uniform temperature of the same window on the right, after the repair.
My recommendation: If you have broken window seals, it might pay you to contact the manufacturer. One that is proud of its product may just come to your house and take care of the problem. It sure beats a local window guy charging $250 - $450 each to replace the damaged ones!
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Jay performs inspections Monday through Saturday, throughout Northern Virginia, from his office in Bristow to Leesburg and Centreville, to Great Falls and Vienna and everywhere in between!
