Question About Starphire Glass:
Dear Glass Detective,
I would like to know the manufacturer name and address for Starphire low iron mirror. I had a large wall mirror installed. My problem is WITH the Starphire mirror. It produces double and triple reflections on windows (mostly at night from city lights). It has such a strong reflection that I cannot view through my windows at night because of the distortion and double images. I replaced my ‘high iron’ mirrors with Starphire did not have this problem with the high iron mirrors. Could you direct me to a person I could contact that might help with this problem?
Thanks again and Happy New year to you.
Trudi R.
Answer to Question About Starphire Glass:
Hi Trudy,
Your question regarding the Starphire mirror was forwarded to me, the Glass Detective. And I will try to help but first, can you answer a couple of questions for me?
- How big is this mirror?
- Is it a framed mirror?
- Which side of the house is the window on that is being affected- i.e. which direction does the window face? South, east, west or north? Thanks much.
-GD
Trudi:
The mirror(s) are three panels
2 panels 8′ by 4.5′ and 1 panel 4′ by 4′. They are not framed but sit in a channel at the base and ceiling. According to my i phone compass the window is (faces out) S/W 208 degrees (if I were outside looking in it would be N/E 25 degrees…hope I’m doing this correctly?). I could send photos, if that would help? I appreciate any information as I am not able to figure this one out and as much as I thought covering an entire wall with Starphire mirror was a great idea, it is taking a toll.
Thanks again Lyle.
-Trudi
Glass Detective:
Thank you for your prompt reply. This was a pretty expensive installation for you and I am sure you don’t want to simply remove it. If it is indeed Starphire glass that was silvered to produce these mirrors, they will be brighter (more reflective) than ordinary float glass. Based on my interpretation of what you have described, you don’t have a lot of options.
You could eliminate the source of the light (your windows) that is being reflected by the mirror, but this is not practical so this is out. And based on what you have described, I do not believe that non-Starphire glass mirrors would have made a huge difference so replacing the mirrors would not only be costly but probably not of much benefit.
So my first suggestion to you is going to be to contact a window tinting company and test some various types of window film on the inside surface of your windows. There are a number of films and one of these might actually help quite a bit. Try to find an experienced window film provider in your area that has been around for a while. I am going to hope this works for you.
There is a pretty good chance that the glass in your windows has a low-e coating on the interior side and this (in my opinion) could be making the reflection problem worse than it would be without the coating. Your comment about the double reflection issue is what makes me think you are dealing with a glass in your window that has some type of treatment applied to it. I think if you experiment with the film approach, you might get to an acceptable solution. The window films now available are really good and a good installer can apply it so well that you will never know it is there. Your other option is to try to treat the mirrors with a coating of some type but this will be very difficult.
As an aside, there are some settings that are simply not conducive to large mirror installations and you may have one of those settings due to window location and orientation. Please let me know what you end up doing and what your final opinions about this entire ordeal are. We (Glass.com) are constantly compiling information pertaining to glass installations so that we can continue to advise users of glass products to not only help solve problems with glass but also perhaps to be able to provide advice to consumers before they choose a glass product. We hope this has been of some help and thank you for contacting the Glass.com Glass Detective.
