Whitening uPVC

[GillD46]

Does anyone have a tried and tested method for whitening aged uPVC window frames? We have just painted the outside of our house which has made the frames look really dingy, despite thorough cleaning.

Thanks for any replies.

[Silver_Shiney]

Try T-cut or similar

[david63]

There are companies that offer a propriety service to do this (no it is not me) whereby they wash it down, apply a cleaner and then apply a coat of silicon over the top. The result is, in my experience, very good. Cost - obviously depends on the size of house but in the region of £150 (all windows, soffits and conservatory)

[Manoverboard]

No first hand experience but you may wish to investigate this National Company ... ' U-PVC cleaning '.

[ChrisB]

My daughter in law has just purchased T-Cut uPVC cleaner and swears by it for cleaning her front door and window frames.

[GillD46]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. May start with T-Cut and see how that goes, then proceed further if necessary.

[Keechy]

If it's just small patches, try toothpaste.

[Dark Knight]

Gill
The short answer is no you cannot, despite what ANYONE tells you
I will try not to bore you, but this sort of stuff is what I do for a living
Any product that is advertised to whiten up Upvc is a CON, you cannot make pvc whiter because the colour, gloss and surface finish is set by the additives used during it's manufacture, the main ingreient for making Upvc white is Titanium Dioxide and to a lesser degree the Calcium Carnbonate fillers and toner pigments such as blues, yellows and blacks that are in the polymer

T-Cut products strip away the top layer of the window, which is discoloured or has gone dull, which is due to "weathering", to reveal the next layer down ,which is still white, however this is not whitening anything , just stripping off the top layer to expose what is underneath.
Once this layer is gone, the window is now prone to even more effects from weathering and the surface finish and gloss are seriously reduced, which is why a protective layer is added, this may be another polymer such as Silicone or PMMA or a lacquer.
if the compnay are going to put this type of coating on the window after applying an abrasive, then it is absolutely vital, you make sure the coating is UV stable and that the coating is applied evenly and has sealed the window, if not ,you will accelerate the damge caused by the elements by a factor of 50-100% and will be buying new windows inside 2 years

after this process your windows will look cleaner, brighter and whiter, but this is only beacause they have scraped off or chemically peeled of a layer of plastic to expose more "clean" plastic underneath, they have not magically made you windows whiter with some technical wizardry, as it is simply not possible to whiten a window once it has been manufactured
this is based on nearly 30 years of knowledge in both the manufacture of windows and selling to every company in the UK that makes window profiles and conservatories

[Silver_Shiney]

I am sure all of us who were about to get the T-cut (or whatever) to spruce up our uPVC are grateful to DK for his timely advice.

Cheers, mate!

[GillD46]

Indeed, many thanks DK.

[xmaslisa]

Hi Gill we've just done the same and painted the outside if our house whilst the window frames have cleaned up well with bleach the dormer windows which are PVC cladded not so well. Steve has bought some PVC paint which seems to work well!

[Kendhni]

A little aside ... early versions of uPVC suffered from 'pinking' which meant that the sun caused the colour of white PVC to change to a pinkish colour. While this is much rarer now it is still caused by a flaw in the manufacturing process and should be covered under warranty.

[Silver_Shiney]

A little aside ... early versions of uPVC suffered from 'pinking' which meant that the sun caused the colour of white PVC to change to a pinkish colour. While this is much rarer now it is still caused by a flaw in the manufacturing process and should be covered under warranty.

except that if you bought from a cowboy company like Coldseal, there is no warranty

[Dark Knight]

Ken
pinking is actually caused by UV radiation and its interaction with the stabiliser and the Titanium Dioxide pigment not a flaw in manufacturing but a problem with the Ultra violet light stability of the finished profile

if people are happy with the results of using T-cut or some other abrasive or indeed a solvent based cleaner, then good luck to them solvent cleaners do remove grease and grime and , can give the appearance of a whiter window, it is in fact just cleaner not whiter
T-cut is an abrasive that removes the top layer of material from the profile to expose a cleaner layer underneath
no manufacturer of windows advocates using such abrasive products on windows as it causes damage to the integrity of the product

[Kendhni]

Ken
pinking is actually caused by UV radiation and its interaction with the stabiliser and the Titanium Dioxide pigment not a flaw in manufacturing but a problem with the Ultra violet light stability of the finished profile

That's another way of looking at it ... Either way it is covered by warranty

[Dark Knight]

Ken
it sTHE way of looking at at and it is factually what causes the problem, as verified by years of research and testing by the manufacturers, raw material suppliers and window profile producers I know this to be fact because I and several of my colleagues within the industry were involved in the research and cure of this issue

it is covered by any warranty given and thousands of windows were destroyed and replaced as a result of pinking and it is still a watchword in the plastics industry even now

[Silver_Shiney]

but it's only covered by warranty if the company is still extant....

[Kendhni]

We had several bits of pvc cladding replaced due to pinking ... The manufacturer of the frames referred to it as a flaw in the manufacturing process ... Personally i don't care about titanium, stabilisers or other spin, as a customer, something went wrong when the units were manufactured ... I bought white and i expect white.

[Dark Knight]

Ken
please explain why it is spin, you obviously know jack about polymer science and the process of extrusion, so your comments come across as either woefully ignorant or you just trying to be sarcastic and dismissive
think of it as an educational post, you know, like when you patronise people about politics etc etc etc

who knows you may just learn something

[Kendhni]

Ken
please explain why it is spin, you obviously know jack about polymer science and the process of extrusion, so your comments come across as either woefully ignorant or you just trying to be sarcastic and dismissive
think of it as an educational post, you know, like when you patronise people about politics etc etc etc

who knows you may just learn something

Calm down dear!
Who am I to believe? A sales man on the internet or the representative from the company that manufactured the items and told me that there had been a fault in the manufacturing and they would therefore gladly replace them under warranty ?

Let us look at it logically (since your rant lacks that element) ... a product is made, it is installed and it is used ... I am using it as it was designed to be used, so it can not be that at fault (I am pretty sure that the manufacturers knew that their product had a high chance of being exposed to sunlight if they were installed outside so while the reaction with sun light is the manifestation of the problem (as per my earlier post) it is not where the fault lies); the installer could have installed it incorrectly but I am not aware that that results in pinking; therefore that just leaves the manufacturing process (from raw ingredients to finished product).

I also believe that the solution to the problem of pinking was to alter how the product was made. I think the solution related to not using lead based stabilisers ... but that could be out of date .. the actual solution is irrelevant because from a consumer point of view my only interest is that it is manufactured correctly so that it stays the colour it says it should.

Personally I like your spin because then when people complain about bugs in their software I could be really obnoxious and childish by telling them that they know jack about coding and the process of development ... however that would just be sad and, in the education stakes, about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

[haveabeer]

I used jet wash on my patio doors and the French door proper job came up like new even though the doors are ten years old and in direct sunlight
Just gotta work out how to do upstairs windows