COLUMBUS, Ga. — Now that temperatures are cooler, you may notice the interior of your windows fogging up more often. This is because you produce heat and moisture when you sit and breathe inside your car.
This causes a difference in the temperature and relative humidity inside your car compared to outside…which leads to the condensation of water molecules onto the interior of your car windows. It’s the same process of fog formation outside or seeing your breath on a cold day.
In order to de-fog your windshield, you need to get rid of the difference between the inside and outside temperature and humidity. The obvious first step to do this is to turn your de-frost on.
But there are some other things you can do to fix the problem quicker.
- Turn your heat on full blast. This will evaporate the little water droplets on the windshield. Cold air works too, but warm air works faster since warm air “holds” more moisture than cold air.
- Turn your AC on. It acts as a de-humidifier.
- Turn off inside circulation. This will pull in drier outside air and push out the more humid inside air.
- Crack open windows – this exchanges the humid inside air with dry outside air.
There are also some things you can do to help prevent your windows from fogging up.
- Clean the inside of your windows. The less dirt or smears then the less the water molecules have to condense and stick to.
- Take shaving cream and spread it on your windows then wipe it off. This does the same thing as an anti-fog liquid you would buy at a car shop!
