Hydrophilic & Hydrophobic side by side


Didn’t realize there where different glass types/surfaces until I started using WFPs. Here’s a picture of two panes of glass side by side with the two different surfaces. WFPros know which one is the pain pane.

2 Likes

This is every house I do lately. The side with the screen is always hydrophobic. It’s like every single one, I wish I was exaggerating.

3 Likes

Yes, I see that a lot too… could it have to do with the screen?

My guess is they put oil or something on screen fabric when it’s made. Haven’t researched though so I don’t really know. I got used to hydrophobic glass doing commercial and store front. Been using a wagtail wave on my WFP and it seems so far I can clean about as fast as I can and it comes out good. I’ll bet at least 90% of the glass I clean is hydrophobic.

All the panes I clean that are covered by screens are also hydrophobic. I speculate that the screen prohibits pollen from glancing off, but maybe there is another reason.

Fascinating thread! Hydrophobic surfaces are such because of hydrocarbon pollution. Deposits from pollen or some other organic would change the glass. The screen is obviously a player here. Precisely how at this point is unknown. Both theories are reasonable.

I want to do some more testing to figure out what will convert hydrophobic to hydrophylic in the least amount of time. And do it without the use of a glass etchant. Some guys have been putting glass eating acids (kind of like flesh eating bacteria) directly into their WFP feeds. NOT a good idea. Sure it works. It converts. But you wouldn’t want to come back the next day in the bright sun to face a million dollar lawsuit.

Henry

1 Like

The screen that I removed covered both panes of glass. So it’s still a mystery to me why glass/window manufacturers set it up this way. Is there a reason? I wish all glass types could just be hydrophilic.

1 Like

Yup, did you ever notice a sweet-ish smell when cleaning screens? Most notably on Andersen screens?

I think whatever that treatment is leaches onto the glass.

1 Like

Just make sure you get it off for the rest of us…