OH has said he doesnt think this will work because if the units have gone misty/foggy you will have to take the units out to try and clear them, OH said he would advise just replacing the glass units rather than the whole lot if you are still happy with the surrounding window frames. hope this helps

Not so, i believe they drill the glass then heat the unit in place thus evaporating the trapped water. Quite what they do next i am not sure but somehow they need to plug the drill hole(s).

The other thing that bothers me a bit is how the breach in the seal is fixed because if it isnt the glass will mist again sooner or later.

The questions that matter are ; what is the repair cost vs getting a new sealed unit ? and how long is the guarentee and who backs it ?.

If its cost effective and the guarentee has solid backing then its a good money saving option so i would not dismiss it out of hand.

They say they have special tools to clean and dry the insides of the windows and make them streak free.

the cost is half - a third cheaper than replacing.

gonna check out the guarentee now. I neek to speak to someone that has expierenced it first hand.

Has anyone any experience yet of this company or seen an independant review of their service - cost - guarantee etc etc.

Conventional thinking is that once the seal has gone, replacement units are the only solution. Yet these people say that they fit a 'one way' valve that expells moisture but will not let it in.

My house is coming up for 20 years old and the DG is starting to mist on several windows - I have replaced a couple at huge cost.

I tend to be wary of the guarantee with new companies. They tend to go out of business every few years and re-appear with a similar name, same people, sane vans etc but "the company you dealt with has gone out of business Sir and the guarantee is no longer valid"

I a,m also interested as I have a very large downstairs window that needs safety glass, so is even more expensive to replace.

Without the safety glass the quotes I have received have not been that bad.
Most sealed units only have a ten year guarantee if the company lasts that long.

Interesting, I would love it if this works - but somehow I don't think it will

had quote today for one sealed unit ( 38" by 31") sorry old school
cost of £60 pounds plus vat will get him out in next 2 weeks to do the repair i will watch him and let ya know how he does it and if it works.

I charge not much more than that for a new unit. That's Midlands pricing though. Where abouts in the country are you?

sunny southend-on-sea essex

Some of our units are gone. I've spoken to various people re. drilling, and they all say replacement is the only option; as even if drilling worked, the problem will return as it doesn't cure the underlying problem.

On the upside, fitting replacement units is dead easy, so just buy the units, and fit 'em yourself.

I have the 1970's narrow gap 4-6-4 mm units. (6 is the gap in mm) A few have "gone" over the years and I have replaced them with units made up by The Glass Company on Canvey Island (01268 696688). Not the cheapest but they seem to know their business.

Certainly for narrow gaps I would recommend Guardian coated glass, it improves the narrow gap performance by about half as much again in theory.

Harry

I have old DG, half units are misted due to sealnt drying our and allowing air in. dampness causes misting,
1. quick fix carried out, drilled small homes in glass at botton and top to circ air from inside the house- didnt work as seals on all 4 sides allw more dampness in.
2. resealed spacers between glass with silicon gel - still misted.
3. Best Solution: removed one of the glass panes of the unit using a stanley blade, WOLLA - fixed the misting, bought a window cleaning squeegy rubber blade to remove moisture from inside of windows when it bothers me, DG benefits are lost, but saved me 900£ for replacing all the units, the lil extra heating costs far out weighs this cost. Takes half to 1 hr per unit if u know how to remove the sealed units from the window. Best luck...

How much were you quoted per sq meter for replacement units on a DIY basis?
Are you not now getting puddles of condensation?
When you come to sell you will be marked down on the HIP.
(You probably found little granules of chemical in the spacers that chemically capture residual vapour in the space).

>> . Best Solution: removed one of the glass panes of the unit

strangely enough, I did this a couple days ago though by accident now trying to figure out how to remove the remaining pices of smashed glass from the edges of the window, you don't have any tips do you? so far pounding and crushing them with a hammer is the only thing that's worked

Harryhound, 90£ for each unit incl. measure and fit X 10 units. Very costly for me, I get condensation, but a rubber blade window cleaner removes them and i mop up each day if i feel like it, water seems to run out from a tiny gap in the spacer to out side via the window frame. Didnt open the frame to check for granuals, i assume they are all consumed over the years. Yesterday I sealed the both panes of glass using silicon gel mastic sealer, did the job so far, may be later it will cause minor misting, i can live with that, i wouldnt care less about HIPs. There r millions of properties in UK with single glazing.... they dont have any probs with HIPs. When i come into lots of money, I will replace the units, at present i can buy 2' x 3' sealed unit for about 50£ supply only, if anybody can get it cheaper please post a reply, Good luck

Pepsi, dont break the glass, if u have already done so, then cut the sealing glue with stanley blade, do it in quarter inch depths till u have cut it all the way in past the edging. Happy DIYing, beat the robbing tradesmen and suppliers.

Sounds expensive at 90 GBP per unit, however big that is. Where ever you are in the country, you could 'phone these people in Canvey and ask their clerk "how much per sq meter for an order ..........". When I replaced mine, this producer was NOT the cheapest but their customer service/experience seemed to be better. I started using them by removing an opening lite and taking it in saying "make me a unit for that". Now I have done most of the rest of the house with the more expensive coated glass I am pleased. Though the outside temperature today is 2 degrees and frosty, the condensation is still not running down the inside, though it is misting round the edges. I used to waste 1/2 an hour a day drying windows when I had single glazing.
By the way, best practice is to mount these units on narrow plastic strips, like putting plaster board on battens to keep it off the dirty damp floor. A block/strip an inch or three in from each corner at the bottom for fixed lites. For opening casement lites it is a block/strip at the bottom in a bit from the corner nearest the hinges and the second one near the top poked in vertically to take the weight of the unit trying to fall away from the hinges. This is because the unit is stronger and heavier than the frame

Ouch, the vapour barrier must be on the inside.

Small holes in the outside glass would have been an interesting experiment, unless driving rain could get at the top holes. Would only last a season before getting dusty and filling up with dead spiders.

I've read this thread with interest having having spent over 25 years in the glass trade. After reading the thread, I visited the companies website, and I see a few things that worry me and/or make me think they are talking crap.
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1) I've never heard of a process that can cure a broken down unit (that's the technical term we use) that doesn't involve splitting the unit (taking it apart) and replacing the seal and the desiccant.

2) Drilling a hole in glass cant be done from one side cleanly with a drill (diamond or not). I've drilled many 1000s of holes in glass, and it needs to be done from both sides of the glass to get a good result (you drill halfway through from one side, then halfway from the other side to do this properly). This cant be done in a double glazed unit once it's sealed.

3) I see from their website they talk about the 'thermal pump' of a unit that makes it fail. What the **** are they on about??? Never heard of it. This sounds like complete and utter cow poo (you know what I mean) to me. The desiccant absorbs the water out of the air inside a unit. This is why a unit doesn't normally mist up. The reason (99%) a unit mists up is because the seal around the edge has failed over time (broken down). Without new desiccant, and a new seal, the unit wont be repaired properly.

4) They seem to claim they have a tool that can clean water marks from the inside of a unit from a small hole in the corner. This claim is really quite laughable. Once water marks are ingrained in the glass, they are practically impossible to remove. I've used big industrial glass polishers on water marks in the past and still struggled to get rid of them in many cases. I've thrown away many tonnes of glass over the years because of these marks.

5) They offer a 3 day training course in aspects of glass handling/cutting/types of glazing/etc. I used to teach glass cutting for Pilkingtons, and it would take me longer than this to teach a trainee pick up and move glass safely. Their claims for this course are frankly ridiculous, and very concerning.

6) This is a UK registered business, but nowhere on the site is an address or telephone number. I actually thought this was illegal nowadays. I only found their address and phone number by doing a whois lookup on the registered owner of the website. Personally I would never deal with an online company that doesn't publish an address and landline phone number (this is very basic web sense).
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My recommendation..............

Phone around a few glaziers and get a quote for a new DG unit. You only have to replace the unit (not the frame). It is an easy job to do yourself, but for a glazier, it's not a big job, so shouldn't be too much. A new unit is the only way of guaranteeing a clean/clear window (and it should be covered by a warranty of at least 5 years, although I see no reason for a decent company not to offer at least a 10 year warranty on a new unit).