Much of West Valley City went up between the early 1970s and the late 1980s, and across Granger, Hunter, and the neighborhoods off Redwood Road and 3500 South, that means aluminum-framed sliders and single-hungs. Aluminum was cheap, strong, and easy to extrude into thin profiles, and it also moves heat extremely well, which is exactly what you do not want in a wall. On a January morning the outdoor cold travels straight through that metal to the inside face of the frame. You can feel it with the back of your hand. The glass may be the newer part of the equation, but the frame is still a direct path.
That cold metal is why the sill under your window is wet at seven in the morning. Warm indoor air holds moisture from showers, cooking, laundry, and people breathing. When that air touches a frame chilled to near outdoor temperature, the moisture leaves the air and lands on the metal, then runs down and pools on the sill. Over enough winters it lifts paint, swells the trim, and stains the drywall below. Running the bath fan longer, cracking a window while you cook, and keeping drapes off the glass all help, but they treat the humidity side, not the frame.
These two look similar through a bleary morning window and mean completely different things. Condensation on the frame or on the room-side face of the glass is water sitting on a surface you can touch. Wipe it and it is gone. It tells you that surface is cold and that your indoor humidity is high enough to give up moisture when it hits that surface. It is a comfort and moisture-management issue, and it points at the frame material and the amount of humidity in the house rather than at a broken window unit.
Fog trapped between the panes is a different animal. A double-pane unit is two pieces of glass sealed around the edge with dry space in between. When that seal fails, humid outside air works its way in, and moisture condenses where you can never reach it. You cannot wipe it, you cannot clean it out, and there is no product that reverses it. It usually shows first as a haze in one corner and eventually leaves a mineral film. Utah's daily temperature swing works that seal hard, expanding and contracting the unit year after year until it lets go.
Once you decide to replace, the first question is what happens to the existing aluminum. An insert goes inside the old frame, which is faster and disturbs less of the stucco or brick around the opening, but it leaves that metal in the wall, and the metal was the part conducting the cold in the first place. A full-frame replacement takes the old unit out to the rough opening, which lets the installer see the framing, address any water damage hiding behind the trim, and start clean. The right call depends on the condition of what is there, so have it looked at.
Whatever unit you choose, the install decides how it performs. The gap between the new frame and the rough opening has to be insulated without being packed so tight that it bows the frame. Flashing has to lap so water that gets past the exterior drains out and down instead of into the wall. Shims have to be set so the sash slides and locks without being forced. A well-made window installed carelessly will draft, stick, and fail early. When we refer you out, installation habits are the thing we ask about first.
Because the frame or glass surface is colder than the dew point of the air in the room. Indoor moisture condenses on it and runs down. Aluminum frames make this worse because metal carries outdoor cold straight through to the inside. Lowering indoor humidity with bath and kitchen fans helps, and keeping air moving across the glass helps, but a warmer frame is the real fix.
No. The moisture is sealed inside the glass unit, and there is no way to reach it or dry it permanently. Drilling and venting schemes circulate air through the cavity but leave you with a unit that is no longer sealed. The practical options are replacing the insulated glass unit itself or replacing the whole window, depending on the age and condition of the frame and hardware.
Sometimes, and it depends on what the frame is doing. If it is straight, dry, and the wall around it is sound, an insert is a reasonable, less invasive job. But the aluminum stays in the wall and keeps conducting temperature, so the cold-frame complaint may not fully go away. If comfort at the frame is your main reason for doing the work, price the full-frame option too.
A few quick questions, then we match you with a contractor who works on Utah homes.