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Saturday, June 18, 2016

Sealing Glass for EZ Clean Maintenance

I have a window cleaning route of about 200 commercial storefronts.  They are cleaned weekly, twice a month, monthly, every other month, and quarterly.  I have marketed glass sealant application to certain accounts with good success.  That being how easy it made their routine cleaning of small mirrors. Like at a salon.  I have about fifteen of these on my route.  So this IS one of the benefits of applying a glass sealant.  It makes it rather difficult for certain things to adsorb onto the glass surface.  That is adsorb with a D not a B.  This is the Wikipedias definition of the word,

Adsorption is the adhesion of atomsions, or molecules from a gas, liquid, or dissolved solid to a surface.[1] This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent. This process differs from absorption, in which a fluid (the absorbate) is dissolved by or permeates a liquid or solid (the absorbent), respectively.[2] Adsorption is a surface-based process while absorption involves the whole volume of the material. The term sorption encompasses both processes, while desorption is the reverse of it. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon.

I will not necessarily apply a sealant to the inside of windows because it makes it very easy to see any film that develops on the inside.  Such as smoke, or fryolater oil, or car exhaust.  This effect becomes much more pronounced as the weather becomes colder.  Such that there is a temperature differential between the outside air and the inside.

Another concern when applying a sealant to mirrors is they must be cleaned with pure water after.  Such as with a microfiber cloth.  If any type of detergent based cleaner such as Windex is used it will streak;...badly.

For the EZ clean effect I might offer to apply the sealant to the outside of windows.  There are two concerns here.  One is in the heat of the summer.  Then the outside is warmer than the inside.  And I have had difficulty with that filming effect I just spoke of.  Mirrors do not experience this because they are always at the same temperature on both surfaces, front and back.  You might test your sealant on a large spot in the middle of a window during the hottest month of the year with the AC blasting inside.  If the EZ clean effect IS the reason you are applying the sealant, you will want one that is water based such that it can be applied with little to no extra time.  This way too if it wears off in one to three months you can just up your window cleaning/maintenance cost say 20% and make more money.  Now the application of the sealant becomes an integral part of your cleaning maintenance.  And the employees MUST use microfiber towels to take off fingerprints in between your visits.

Another application of such an EZ Clean sealant/coating is Water Fed Pole (WFP) work.  My Soap and Seal product is more of a Contact Angle adjustment for window glass.  It is hydrophobic but not as much as Rain X or the Invisible Shield, or Aquapel, etc.  The beauty of this is water tends more to "sheet off" the glass rather than "bead up".  This means there will be less water drops on the glass to dry in the hot sun.  So if there happens to be a certain amount of silica in the water that doesn't show on a TDS meter it will not be left behind.  This problem is greatly reduced.  The SS product is also water based.  So you can apply it to the glass with an applicator then rinse it off immediately after.  I will be doing some videos of this technique.  My idea is to show the results we can get from a surface that has been "modified" by a sealant.  Which make WFP work much easier and quicker.  Cuz you see.  The so called hydrophylic glass that guys say is so wonderful for WFP work is really not truly hydrophylic.  It is indeed hydrophobic. But just enough to change the rinse properties of window glass.

The PDR on the new Soap and Seal water based glass coating will be out in July.  Check out the first video I made of this product.  



Written by Henry Grover Jr.

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