Sub-Zero
Do not throw hot water on a frozen windshield, unless you want a broken windshield and a wet interior. #LFMF
Submitted by: Sub-Zero via Submit Page
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I saw a guy do this to his car when I was living in Ohio. Pretty impressive, the whole thing just imploded…
Seriously, there are people that still don’t know that?
Obviously. I didn’t, and I live where it freezes regularly every winter.
How would a person who lives in a region where it never snows know that? That’s how we quickly defrost our windshields in Florida, and they never get cold enough to break like that.
I live in Texas and I still know about that. Region has nothing to do with it.
Lived there your whole life?
Yes, my family has been stuck here for a couple of generations. I think I may stir things up and move to Cali.
Cold water. COLD water. Should it be etched into the glass???
Sub-Zero, meet physics. Physics, meet Sub-Zero.
Or would that be thermodynamics?
Depends on the glass. I’d never do that with older or scratched windshields. Otherwise I do it all the time, never had a problem, much less an implosion.
Isn’t thermodynamics a branch of physics?
I wonder if the insurance company would file this under an “act of sod”.
Thermal shock is not your friend, though it is funny to watch.
I’ve done this. My windshield didn’t break. The ice simply melted away. I guess pouring the boiling water on slowly helps.
Must have been an older car, windshields these days have a polymer between two layers of glass to prevent complete shattering. I use warm water but then it doesn’t get anywhere near freezing here. The windshield frosts over just enough to be annoying and have to sit in the car for 10 minutes to defrost if you don’t. But well yeah… hot water + cold glass or vice versa – bad thing in general.
Windshields have had the polymer in the middle since at least 1960
^This guy beat me to the name and same general idea I was going to post. Windshields are TWO layers of glass with a sheet of plastic between them. As a retired firefighter I can tell you that getting through a car’s windshield is NOT an easy thing to do. So I won’t say that what the OP describes is impossible, but I’m going to need to see a video before you convince me it can happen as described.
My dad did this. Only he was rinsing off a really hot windshield with cold water. Pretty much cracked the windshield in hald. I don’t know what it is with men and making this same mistake.
Okay, I live in Los Angeles where it doesn’t snow and even I know not to do that….
Thermal expansion!
Next time you cross a bridge (like Golden Gate in SF) notice that the bridge is not a solid surface, but separate sections. That is there for the same reason, the metal expands and contracts with the weather.
My wife likes to throw ice in a pot to cool it off fast after using it – she is afraid the kids will get burned. All the pots & pans are all warped on the bottom and don’t sit flat any more.
Hot water on the windshield caused a quick expansion of the glass, and the stress shatters it.