01.04.16 - Foggy Windshield

01.04.16 - Foggy Windshield

Do you know what the best settings are for defogging your windshield?  Most of us will either start our car a bit early and set the defog on heat and the highest setting expecting the job to be done, but there are other steps to this process.  Knowing how to properly defog your car in the least amount of time will save you some time in the mornings which is something we all want before our commute to work.  The trick is to think about the air inside your car in the right way to understand how this defogging process works.

Before I tell you how to get the job done the right way you need to understand this is only for defogging the inside of your windshield.  If you have ice or snow on the outside of your windshield you need to make sure you scrape it off with the proper ice scraper (never with hot water).  While you are scraping you can have your car working on the interior defog in order to make sure you can soon enjoy the ride to work without thinking that you had to spend a massive amount of time defogging your car before heading out on your commute.

According to former NASA engineer Mark Rober you have to put your car into specific settings in order to defog your windshield effectively.  The explanation he gives makes perfect sense during his YouTube video which shows you to think of the air as a towel.  With this in mind, the air inside your car has become a towel that is too wet to hold any more water which is why the condensation forms on the inside of the windshield.  This is the problem we all face and what we need to be able to do is create a larger and different towel.

With the settings Rober describes you change the air inside the car from cold to hot, which allows for the absorption of the condensation.  Once this is achieved you also need to allow the wet air inside the car to escape into the dry air outside.  By adding the cool air from outside you increase the ability of your car air to absorb the moisture, thus defogging the window much faster than ever before.  Rober performed several experiments to find the right settings to do defog the windshield the fastest.

Here are the settings that work the best for defogging your windshield, next time you go out to your car in the morning and find you have a foggy windshield give these a try and see how they work for you.

  • Defroster fan on the highest setting
  • Temperature at the hottest temp
  • A/C turned on
  • Air recirculation turned off
  • Windows cracked open

You can also use a sock filled with kitty litter up at the front of your windshield which will help to absorb the moisture or coat the inside of the windshield with a thin film of shaving cream in order to have a quickly defogged windshield.

Enjoy Rober’s video tips for defogging your windshield and see for yourself how well this works:

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