Article:  Replacement Window Glass Pane Spacers

     Spacers are the strips placed between the glass in double or triple pane home replacement windows. They are used for energy efficiency in all types of home windows, from the cheapest vinyl or fiberglass to the most expensive wood or Fibrex® since cold and hot pass directly through glass to the next pane of glass and into the house.

     Spacers are usually strips of aluminum. The aluminum metal strips are either flat with a scoring pattern down the middle, or often they are U-shaped (which can help energy efficiency a bit).

     The cheap windows put a bead of adhesive on these metal strips to stick to the glass panes but that's it.

     Just like cooking pots and pans or ice cube trays, aluminum spacers are hot and cold conductors and will also pass heat and cold through the glass and inside your house. If the metal is steel, those conduct hot/cold less and do not expand/contract as violently as aluminum.

     Aluminum spacers also expand and contract with cold and heat against the glass in your home window. In the cheapest windows, the spacer is responsible for early or eventual glass breakage as well as leakage of moisture between the panes of glass (condensation/fogging happening) because of this contracting and expansion against the glass and rubbing against the glass as a house normally shifts and settles over its lifetime.

     Aluminum metal spacers can also cause early leakage out of any insulating argon gas if it was used in the first place. The homeowner has no way of knowing the gas is gone from between the glass panes, however if the gas can escape, moisture/water can get in. The homeowner will know because now there is fog and mold between the panes that can't be cleaned off. The window (or at minimum, the glass panes in the frame) has to be replaced.

     Some vinyl window manufacturers (and window manufacturers in general) put strips of butyl, a gray, gum-like substance, around the metal strip and call it "warm edge technology" to stop the reaction of metal against glass. The butyl helps but is not as good as not using aluminum for a spacer in the first place.  If you look closely between the panes of glass in a window, you can sometimes see the butyl-- gum like "goop" or beads-- (and always the metal spacer!). Recently (2009), I have been seeing this goop in the spacers actually crunch up and/or melt down between the panes of glass!

     Depending on the type adhesive used, and other sealing and padding, these glues can also become brittle in high UV radiation areas and/or homes in locations with extreme temperature fluctuations like high-mountain homes.

     Another choice for a spacer is one that is made from a special dense "foam" material often known as a "Super Spacer". It is flexible rather than stiff (at least for 3 years) so as the home window might move and shift as a house settles, it protects against glass breakage and leakage (no moisture or fog between the panes), AND certainly does NOT conduct heat or cold! HOWEVER (see above!)....we have begun to now see (2009) these type spacers actually MELT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE GLASS and bunch up in the corners between the glass panes!!

     And, just like bad metal spacer sealants, a Super Spacer might also become brittle in an extreme environment and could then cause leakage of the insulation gas. I have seen these (or cheap, similar examples) actually crumble between the panes of glass in windows on a south or west facing side of the house and literally melt and run down between the panes!

     The BEST windows will triple seal and correctly pad the glass and spacer to the frame with special silicone formulas. The spacer is sealed with butyl adhesive to the glass, then a special weather stripping barrier like mylar is added to the spacer, then the thick coat of silicone or more butyl is added over that.

     The BEST windows companies will ALSO then warrant their windows for the lifetime of the home and be fully transferable to a new owner since they will do what they can to the spacer sealants and other window components and construction to keep their U-Factors low and give quality in any environment.

     Michael Dennis

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About the author

IPS Group, Inc. Board Member and Director of their Home Improvement Division, Michael Dennis is an avid real estate fix and flip investor, a former long-time replacement window salesman, and the author of several books and websites on home replacement windows including How to Save Thousands on Replacement Windows: The Homeowner's Insider Secrets Manual, and the tell-all report on the big-brand home improvement centers, The 7 Myths The Big-Brand Home Improvement Centers Want You to Believe About Replacement Windows.  Visit their website at www.vinylwindowmanufacturer.com to get your copy TODAY.

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