If you live in a climate that has extremely cold temperatures in the winter and extremely hot temperatures in the summer, your windshield probably fogs up all year round! This can get annoying to deal with after a while; when it’s cold outside, you just want to crank the heat, but then that results in fog building up inside of your windows. When it’s warm outside, you blast the air conditioning, but that causes the opposite effect as fog accumulates on the outside of your windows and starts blurring your vision.
Your windows fog because of the temperature and how much moisture is in the air. When it’s cold outside, moisture from inside your car will turn to condensation when it hits air next to the windows. Moisture can from a number of different things including snow you tracked into your car or even when you breathe. The condensation is what makes your windows fog up. When it’s hot outside the opposite effect happens. When the muggy air comes in contact with your cold windows from the AC system a fog will appear on the outside of your windows.
It doesn’t matter if the fog is inside or outside your car; fog creates vision problems that make it extremely dangerous to drive with. Here are a few tips on how to properly defog your windshield and windows whether it’s warm or cold outside.
Dealing with Cold Weather Fog
When your car is colder than the temperature outside, your car will start to fog up when you crank the heat up. For a quick fix to this problem, follow these steps:
- Turn your heat on to the max temperature.
- Turn on the air conditioning which allows the moisture to be pulled from the air.
- Turn off the recirculation. This allows dryer, colder air to be brought into your car.
- Crack the window if you can for a little. This helps change the humid air inside to dryer air.
Dealing with Warm Weather Fog
When the moisture levels outside are higher than inside your car, along with the warmer weather moisture condenses on the outside of the glass. To get rid of this kind of fog, you will need to change the temperature from within your car and try to match it to the outside temperature. The next time your windows fog during the summer, try following these instructions:
- Clear the fog with your windshield wipers. Because the fog accumulates on the outside, your windshield wipers are great for easily getting rid of the fog.
- Try warming up the car a little bit. You can still leave the air conditioning on but put it on a lower setting that will try to match the temperature outside.
- Turn off the recirculation button. This will help fight off your foggy windows because the moisture levels and temperature begin to balance with the climate outside.
Driving with foggy windows is very annoying to deal with, and it is a driving hazard. Use these tips to clear up your windows and drive with better vision!
All credit goes to Car R Us
