# new storm & entry door glass is fogging



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

It is possible there is too good a seal between the storm door and the outside weather. The cavity needs to breathe. You combine hot air with temperate or cooler air and condensation takes place. What did the installers say was the cause of the problem? Having rain and then a hot spell will also cause condensation between the storm door and the exterior door unit.


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## XSleeper (Sep 23, 2007)

Depends on when and where it's fogging. If it is doing it in the morning, it's quite normal. Your car gets dew on it... nothing wrong with the car.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

I opted to leave the bottom adjustable closure off so I have a 1/2" gap down there. Although one would think this would make the all glass storm door useless it gets rather warm in there at times but never fogs up. I also found it helps the storm close and latch is it isn't air tight.

Check the weather for the dew point. Just looked at Philly and it was 68°.

Bud


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## XSleeper (Sep 23, 2007)

And if it's doing it during the day, it's your air conditioning causing the fog on the hot humid air trapped between the doors. When you open the door, the air in the house is below the dew point between the doors. The same thing will happen in the winter when you open the interior door, because the storm door will be cold.

There are likely 3 dew points at work. In the house... (low) Outside (medium) between the doors (high).

You can do one of two things. Leave your primary door open... or keep the door closed and put your screen in.


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## dd57chevy (Jun 21, 2015)

andrewjs18 said:


> Are storm doors supposed to be air tight ?


In a word , _no ._ The same thing used to happen with old wood storm windows if caulked on interior & exterior .

That space (cavity) needs to breathe .


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

+1 to all of the smart folks that have already commented.

You just need a bit of convection and venting in there. They make vents that you can install after the fact on storm doors.

For the record, we are still in the warm season right now and the door should have the screen in it still. 

Its still too warm to go full glass just yet.


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## andrewjs18 (Dec 14, 2011)

hi all,

sorry for the late reply. I ended up swapping out the storm door glass to install the screen since it probably is still a little early to switch over to the glass right now. 

while swapping out the glass, I noticed that it wasn't condensation on the glass in the storm door and on the exterior-facing glass in the entry door, but what felt to me like an oily/greasy residue. being that I just swapped out the glass for the screen, I wanted to give it a day to see what would change since it was a bit cooler today than yesterday. I came home from work tonight and my entry door glass was still pretty cloudy....

after seeing that, I thought that the paint on the door might be off-gasing during the day from the sun and causing the oily residue on the glass. after firing up google to do some searching, the first hit I found was from someone on a site 14 years ago with the same exact problem I have - for the same style doors I just had installed, no less! http://misc.consumers.house.narkive.com/rvvgdPvm/oily-film-on-glass-of-storm-door

I'm going to call the company in the morning. what can be done about this? having just spent $2,000 on the entry & storm door, I damn sure don't want to deal with oily glass all the time..


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## XSleeper (Sep 23, 2007)

My first question would be... did you clean it off? Maybe you haven't heard of construction cleanup... but any brand new item will need an initial cleaning to remove grime. Your moisture could be accumulating more grime every day until it is cleaned WELL. Many products come from the factory slightly oily.

My suggestion is to clean it well... if it comes back then you have anb issue.


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## andrewjs18 (Dec 14, 2011)

bit of a late reply, I know...

I had the door company come out and clean the window about a month ago while they were installing a peep hole in my entry door...I didn't realize it didn't have one until my wife mentioned it. I'm tall enough to look out of the half moon glass at the top to not be bothered by it...anyways......

the gentlemen that came out cleaned both the glass on my storm door and the glass on the entry door - both had a greasy/oily residue on them. once the storm door was cleaned up, I put the storm door glass back inside the closet to store it until it got a little colder out...in the mean time, my screen was installed in the storm door.

I installed the glass back into the storm door 2 weeks ago before I went on vacation. when I got back a few days ago, I noticed that it was fogging up again with an oil/greasy residue on both the storm door glass and the entry door.

something I noticed: with the screen in the storm door, the glass on the entry door does not seem to fog up with the oily residue; it only seems to happen when the glass is installed. 

the door company just cannot believe that the direct sunlight and the high heat with the glass installed is causing the paint on the entry door to off gas and cause the residue...

their service repair guy is supposed to be coming back out to clean the door and see if he can spot any issues....


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

It does. I have seen it on more than a few occasions. 

The heat does cook the paint out a bit.


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## andrewjs18 (Dec 14, 2011)

Is there a way to remedy this? 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## andrewjs18 (Dec 14, 2011)

Windows on Wash said:


> It does. I have seen it on more than a few occasions.
> 
> The heat does cook the paint out a bit.


Is there a way to remedy this? 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

In our particular case, it happened twice and stopped happening after 2 cleanings. Hopefully yours will resolve itself as well as I do not know of any other fixes to speed up the curing process.


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## andrewjs18 (Dec 14, 2011)

Windows on Wash said:


> In our particular case, it happened twice and stopped happening after 2 cleanings. Hopefully yours will resolve itself as well as I do not know of any other fixes to speed up the curing process.



well, here's to hoping that it'll eventually fix itself!


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