Right, so instead of seal failures you will only have to contend with ice forming on the glass in the winter and condensation forming in the summer. Not to good of a solution IMO.

Why not just purchase a quality door with LowE and argon gas and a lifetime glass seal guarantee? Make sure the door has stainless steel wheels and a good quality handle and you shouldn't have to contend with the ongoing problems anymore.

that is a bad idea, prob the worste idea for solving your problem. Have you been getting your glass replaced by the same company? If so find another glass shop, there are load of glass shops around and ask if you can buy a warranty for the glass and IGU(insulated glazed unit).

Also depending on where you live thre are energy codes that must be followed and unless you live in the south just single pane tempered will not meet code.

Dont do it...

I should also point out that I doubt you will be able to use single pane glass in a door designed for double pane. I am unaware of any glass shops that offer much of a warranty on double pane IGU's.

If you are replacing relatively new units, maybe the weep holes are plugged or don't exist. This can possibly lead to seal failure due to the glass resting in standing water.

Thank you for your responses. These are wood doors and the glass man says that the wood is soaking in moisture which is making the seals fail. The doors also are subjected to direct sun all summer. I live in Virginia. I want to sell the house in 3 years so don't want to spend the money to replace the doors but also don't want to do anything that would jeopardize a sale. Looks like from the consensus I need to stick with the double pane insulated glass. I am using a new glass company this time - I had been using the same one all the other years. Thank you for all your advice.

A lot of glass manufacturers supply their raw glass products to localized glass assemblers. This assembler is the outfit that turns the raw glass into insulating glass. They are the entity that provides the warranty that is passed through the neighborhood glass shop/installer. Often, the warranties are five years, but we have one source out of Denver that recently moved to a ten year warranty on glass within fifty square feet in size.

As for water absorbing into the wood, I highly doubt that is the case. If it is, you can eliminate this excuse by the glass installer by simple applying a plastic sealer to the wood -otherwise known as polyurethane.