71% Think Triple Glazing Has Failed To Break Through

A week or so ago I published a post asking whether triple glazing had failed to achieve any sort of genuine market break through. My own opinion was that it had not, and that it can probably now be consigned to the “failed” file. There are still too many reasons for me for home owners to shun the product.

Naturally, I wanted your opinions too, and of course there was a poll. This is a post reporting on the results so far and some of the comments that some of you have left.

The results are pretty conclusive.

The poll

This was the question I posed to you:

Do you believe triple glazing has failed to make a true market breakthrough?

This has been the response so far, accurate to the time of publishing this article:

Infogram

The poll is still live and you can add your vote to that here: https://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/2018/03/has-triple-glazing-failed/

It’s not even close. Over 70% of people who voted agreed that triple glazing has failed to make any sort of impact on the window industry. A few thought it did, a few weren’t sure. The vote is still live so those figures could change, but I don’t see it changing much.

Can it be saved?

For triple glazing to become relevant to home owners, a number of things need to happen.

First, prices need to significantly drop. I’m not talking a few percent here or there, it needs to be in the tens of percent if it’s going to convince home owners that the third pane of glass is worth it. Right now, triple glazing remains a good jump above double glazing. Spending is still tight in the UK right now, so that puts triple glazing off the radar for most.

Second, the benefits of triple glazing need to dramatically increase. For example, noise reduction. At the moment, even a 44mm IGU with equal spacer widths and glass widths will provide no sound improvement. A home owner is better off going for an OptiPhon 6.8mm/4mm double glazed combo. The U-Values need to be far better too. Why would a home owner pay more to not be able to tell the difference between double and triple glazed?

Third, the marketing to home owners needs to improve massively. There’s not that many ads for triple glazing around. But of the ones out there, all they do is seem to shout the words “triple glazing” at home owners without going into any sort of detail as to why it’s supposedly the better option. I could shout “composite doors” at my customers when they walk into the showroom, but it doesn’t meant they’re suddenly going to buy one. It needs a bit of explaining first.

Four, the weather is going to have to get drastically colder. Now to be fair, this is something that we’re not really in control of. But, if the UK suddenly felt a bit like Norway or Russia, then perhaps home owners might be a bit more inclined to take that third extra pane of glass.

Fifth, double glazing is going to have to stop advancing. There’s no doubting that double glazing gets better every year. So whilst this product continues to improve so much, there’s not much point in triple glazing. And do we really think manufacturers are going to stop?

The more you think about it the more barriers there are to triple glazing becoming any sort of success here in the UK. The market is simply not fit for it right now. Perhaps if any of the above takes place in the next decade we might be talking differently. But until then, double glazing looks set to remain top of the pile by some margin to come.