There’s a lot of things we love about wintertime … cozy fires, snow angels, hot cocoa, sledding, and the Holidays! But one thing that’s annoying when it gets cold out: fogged-up car windows.
What causes car windows to fog up?
So what causes windows to fog up in your car? As the air temperature gets colder during winter, water condenses on the window’s surface (either inside or outside) because “the temperature of the surface is below the dew point of the air next to that surface. So you need warm, humid air next to a cooler surface to fog up,” according to the University of Illinois’ Department of Psychic.
This simply means that when it’s warmer and more humid inside your car than it is outside, your windows can fog up. This can be a total pain if you need to go somewhere quickly and have to wait to defog your windows or are driving down the road and your windows begin to fog up and you have to fumble around to find the defroster controls.
Tried-and-true defogging methods
There are many standard defogging methods that you may have tried in the past:
- Buying and applying a product like RainX Anti-Fog on your windows
- Cracking a car window to let outside air in to equalize the temperature and humidity
- Turning on the heat and defogger button in your car and waiting for it to take effect
But have you ever heard of using shaving cream as a defogger for windows, including on your car and bathroom windows, as well as eyeglasses? It works!
Using shaving cream to defog windows
This hack is as easy as it sounds. All you need to do it simply apply the shaving cream to the inside or outside of your car window and then wipe it off after 10 minutes. That’s it! The cream will leave an invisible layer to keep your windows from fogging up.
“This works because the soap (which is really what does the job — any soap will do, shaving cream is just easiest to use) creates a protective film over the glass that keeps it from fogging. A little goes a long way; all you need is a dab or two — even on your car’s windshield,” according to Lifehacker.
Why does shaving cream work to defog windows?
As strange as it sounds, shaving cream can work just like many common household cleaners in a pinch. Why? Because it contains active ingredients that are found in most household cleaning soaps, including emulsifiers, surfactants, and cleansing agents.
Other odd uses for shaving cream
Keeping an extra can of shaving cream around the house is helpful if you find yourself short on cleansers. Here are five other genius cleaning hacks that a cheap can of shaving cream can solve.
- Remove carpet and fabric stains: Apply a tiny bit of shaving cream on stained upholstery or carpet stains. Let it dry. Then blog or vacuum up the dried cream. This works on car upholstery too.
- Polish stainless steel: Use a clean rag to wipe down stainless-steel appliances with shaving clean. They’ll look as good as new. This works on chrome fixtures as well.
- Spot clean your oven: For a quick spot cleaning of your oven, use a tiny bit of shaving cream and then scrub it off with a sponge.
- Polish jewelry: Because shaving cream works gently, it makes for a great jewelry cleaner. “Pump a dollop of cream in your hand and rub your jewelry around,” according to Apartment Therapy.
- Clean your hands: If your hands are covered with paint or grease, scrubbing them with a bit of shaving cream will do the trick.
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