Athermic glass

The athermic glass makes for a very cool looking van from the outside and always draws favourable comments from onlookers.

There is no condensation and absolutely no effect on either WiFi or the Garmin GPS.

The light levels inside are far from gloomy, even in the winter months, being helped no doubt by the large Heki rooflight.

In over four years of use we have found that we prefer the privacy and security afforded by this type of glass compared with the alternative of looking into a glass house. We have never encountered any hostilities and I suspect that the negative comments expressed by others come from those that have not actually experienced the advantages offered by this type of glass.


Keith

I few myths need busting.

I have broken my rear door glass panel on a Warwick Duo. Insurance job. Phoned Auto Glass who told me there's no such thing as athermic glass panels fitted to the van sides or rear doors. Athermic glass is only for windscreens.

I ring Peugeot with chassis number of my vehicle. The replacement part given is for a heated double tinted window, not athermic. I asked about the side windows and they said tinted but not double tinted.

I ring Autosleepers who tell me that only the Symbol has true (in their understanding) athermic glass. All long wheel base vehicles arrive in the factory with tinted windows and a separate company is called in to fit a vinyl tinted 'athermic' layer.

To be fair AS in their brochure say 'Athermic Flush Fitting and Insulating Privacy Glass ('athermically treated'). ... not it seems athermic glass.

So AS are to ring me back with the name and phone number of the company that apply the 'athermic layer'.

So I have to contact Auto Glass, ask them to fit Peugeot standard part and then ask the separate company to apply their 'athermic layer'. No doubt the insurance company won't be pleased to be faced with two bills!


So AS do not do (I am told) long wheel based vehicles with athermic glass.
The vinyl layer may have athermic type tinting properties.
This means that AS use Peugeot vehicles that have tinted glass which is then treated in their factory to achieve athermic like properties.

Phew! All this took some digging.

Further update:
The company that does the tinting vinyl layer is Autoshine & Tinting Ltd at Telford http://www.autoshineandtinting.co.uk/

So Peugeot vehicles delivered with ready tinted glass but Autoshine install a further tinted layer. The effect is that the suns effect is cut down to keep the vehicle cooler. My guess is because it's vinyl its less prone to promoting condensation.
Price for tinting one rear door panel £35 maybe + VAT?

I am unaware as to exactly how to windows are produced and cannot see any evidence of a film being applied to the glass. It must be a very exact process because there is no obvious edge to the film. The van is a 2014 Warwick Duo

After nearly 5 month use, I can confirm all the good impressions of the athermic glass. It does reduce solar gain in the vehicle and condensation is not a problem when it is cold outside and we are cooking. At Easter, even when heating rice, the windows only developed a thin film of moisture, which cleared very quickly whilst we were dining (in fact we did not notice exactly when it cleared, sometime between first and second courses).

We do not find that the tint make the interior gloomy, but we do have the 2014 lighter tinted woodwork, which may be helping a bit in this respect.

It is an unfortunate reference for AS calling it 'athermic'. As far as I'm aware only windscreens can be made athermic (according to Auto Glass repair people) and they do cause interference as reported here from another web site:
See this first post: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

My Peugeot 406 (not a tug) has athermic windscreen glass. The glass has an embedded thin metallic layer to cut down heat, but it also cuts down GPS signals. Going by the signal strength meter the received signal is about 1/4 of what it is outside the car.


Athermic glass is a laminate of glass and a thin metal layer. Not so the AS tinted glass. So no interference ought to occur.
Also one couldn't have athermic glass in a heated rear window. Sparks would fly!!

From Autoshines web page:
Why should I have privacy film fitted?

- Reflects up to 75% of heat, keeping the interior of your car cooler.
- Reflects sunlight, keeping the heat and bright light off passengers, an essential when carrying young children!
- Reflects 99% of harmful UV rays.
- Provides a darker atmosphere, great for in-car DVD player viewing, and greater security as valuables as less visible.
- Greatly enhances vehicles look, with many customers stating 'it sets the car off'!
- Keeps glass in place in event of break in or accident.

We have athermic glass on our Sussex Duo which we have had since new over a year ago.  I will not repeat all of the advantages mentioned above but....

If you have reactolite glasses and enter the van on a bright day the combination of dark glasses and dark windows makes for a very gloomy interior. However the main disadvantage with our van is the inability to open any of the windows at the rear thus not able to have any cooling breeze - especially at night.  With the current heat wave we have found it to be quite uncomfortable.  We do find a slight film mist (condensation) on the inside of the windows during the cold weather when using the van.

Incidentally. The Sussex Duo came with a Dometic Air Con fitted to the roof. Totally unusable due to the excessive noise generated by the unit.  It is impossible to be in the van whilst the unit is running.

We've just had our rear Warwick Duo door window replaced by Auto Glass. As discussed, it comes tinted. Our next stage is to have the inside surface film applied to give it it's athermic like properties.

When tapping your windows with a finger nail it appears to be just glass, but go to the near edge of the glass and you will find the thin edge of the film applied by Auto Sleeper at the factory before fitting out.

My guess is that the film, being a different material than glass, reduces the potential for condensation on its surface. The tinting helps reduce the internal heating impact (solar gain). We have only ever had the smallest amount of fine condensation which quickly goes once the heating is on.

So, if we don't have our new, so called, athermic glass treated with the tinted film we will no doubt have condensation problems.

Something to be aware of if you ever have to replace a broken window.

I was disappointed to see the film on our 2014 Warwick duo. I'm sure they could get it from Peugeot already tinted. Large manufacturers of cars use privacy glass and the film is part of the glass so no air bubbles etc. You can tell it's a film if you look at the writing on the window and there is a 2mm ish edge around the film.
Love the look though.

Jas

There is actually both.  The athermic glass is Peugeot ( or Sevel Sud ) and works perfectly.
It is a layer of metallic oxide in the glass which absorbs heat.  It is not a film, but AS apply a black film complete with bubbles to define the window
 frames.

Pete

Interesting reading. I am now on my third Warwick, starting with a 2008 Warwick. No problems with the Athermic glass. No problems with being gloomy only when the light starts to fail. Helps keep the van cool and it certainly looks 'cool' turning heads. The second Warwick was a 2009 Duo. Due to the opening window in the side door leaking, this had to be replaced by Peugeot under warranty. No additional layer needed to be applied, it exactly matched the original. My latest is a 2014 Warwick XL with winterised option fitted. Although obviously not used in the winter yet, no condensation has appeared during cold wet weather in March. I'm starting to feel a bit cheated now that none of these three vehicles have had bubbles.

No bubbles on mine either!