Quote:
Originally Posted by jayn123[_2_]
It turns out that it it's not condensation. It's some kind of white residue on the inner-most pane of the glass, and it wipes off with a wet cloth, but not a dry cloth. It's either minerals (or other impurity) from shower steam condensation, or some kind of dust that stuck to the glas, or some kind of mildew. I'm not seeing any water leakage.
The skylight is located in the bathroom of my condo, and even though I have an exhaust fan, it does get some condensation on the inside after taking a shower but it goes away after 20 minutes. The white residue was something I've never noticed before, and doesn't go away on its own, and I thought it was condensation between the panes. As long as the white residue is not the result of any leakage, I guess the skylight is okay for now.
|
I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that white residue is soap and/or soap scum.
When you have a shower, the shower spray bouncing off your body puts gazillions of tiny droplets of soapy water into the air. That soapy water ends up all over your bathroom, but tends to congregate most on the ceiling (especially directly above the shower) and high up on the walls because warm air rises, and warm air will contain the most humidity.
I suspect the reason why a damp rag will remove that white residue but a dry rag will not is because soap is soluble in water. Next time, try using a phosphoric acid toilet bowl cleaner (which you can get in the cleaning aisle of any home center) to remove the white residue. Phosphoric acid is the active ingredient in shower, tub and tile cleaners because it cuts through soap and soap scum like a hot knife through butter, but won't attach chrome, even at high concentrations.
If you get excellent results using a phosphoric acid toilet bowl cleaner to remove the white residue, and clean water to remove any residue from the phosphoric acid, then the stuff is soap and/or soap scum.
PS: It's that shower spray that spread soap all around the bathroom that results in bathrooms where people shower having mildew growing all over the grout. If people have baths, the soap wouldn't get on the walls, and mildew wouldn't grow on the walls. That's because, like everything else, mildew needs to have food to grow and multiply, and soap is made with vegetable oils (notably Palm and Olive oils, from which the Palmolive company gets it's name). If you don't have showers in your bathroom, you will never get mildew growing on your bathroom tiling.