A FORMER NASA engineer has revealed the quickest way to de-fog your windscreen in a YouTube science test.
Mark Rober conducted the test to help solve the condensation issue many motorists find on a cold morning.
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Condensation can slow you down on your busy morning commute, but it is also dangerous for drivers because it blocks their view of the road.
“Since you’re in a hurry the question becomes what optimal combination of settings will defog the windows quickest.”.
Rober says common knowledge was to turn the air conditioning on full power and the temperature to maximum heat.
But, Rober wanted to test whether the common practice was actually best practice.
Over 10 mornings, Rober created a controlled environment inside his car and tested different methods of removing condensation.
He created humidity inside the car by using a small steamer with a cow face displayed on the top.
After testing different combinations, Rober found four things that people could do to reduce condensation the steamer produced in the car.
Your goal is to make the air inside the car warm and dry so that any water vapor can hang in the air, rather than clinging to the glass.
Firstly, Rober says turn the car’s heater on maximum heat and on full blast as warmer air means more water can be held in the air.
Secondly, turning the air conditioning on gets air circulating and pulls the moisture out of the air as it passes over the cold coils in the unit.
Thirdly, make sure the inside air circulation is off (that’s the button with an arrow inside a car on it) so the cold outside air doesn’t get into the car.
Finally, open your windows at the start for a little bit to exchange the warm wet air inside the car with some colder and hopefully drier air outside the car.
Deciding to open your windows will depend on what the weather is like outside the car as it could be raining.
Rober said there are also other small hacks that you can do, such as filling a sock with cat litter, which absorbs moisture.
Or, he also suggests wiping shaving foam across the interior of the glass as chemicals in the foam will prevent water from condensing in the future.
Rober runs a popular YouTube channel, which has nearly 30million subscribers and over 4billion views.
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