Can throwing hot water on a windshield that's frosted over crack the windshield?

Question

Can throwing hot water on a windshield that's frosted over crack the windshield? Real answers only, please. Fluff answers will be reported. Examples and links would be great!

Answer 1

Yes, it surely can. Use the slow heat of your car's defroster. If possible,cover you windhield the night before with a tarp or blanket.

This is pretty much what happens if you place a very hot coffee pot down in cold water. Glass (as well as anything else) expands or contracts slowly according to temperature. If it experiences an extreme quick temperature change, it can't adjust and cracks.

Listen and watch an ice cube when you pour hot liquid over it.

Answer 2

Boiling Water On Windshield

Answer 3

Yes, it can. Although in my own personal experience, it hasn't.
The way it happens is if you have any type of crack or divit in your windshield, the very hot water will cause the crack to expand rapidly causing a worse crack and possible spidering.
In my own experience using hot tap water but not boiling water and taking it from the house to the car ( a distance of about 40 feet cooled it enough to where the frost/glaze of ice was able to melt without it cracking. However I would not recommend boiling water or multiple bowls/buckets to melt ice over about a 1/4" thick. Also I would assume the larger the container of water the more likely it would crack the windshield as it doesn't have the surface area to dispel the heat on the journey from house to car as a smaller, shallower dish would.

Answer 4

sounds like it would crack it, but i would bet that the water would quickly turn cold and frost over again so you would be in the same spot unless you dried it off. i have seen people put a old comforter over the car so that it covers the windows and in the morning they come out and just take it off and presto changeo... no ice. that might work better for you, or maybe a tarp or some newspapers or trash bags. if you do try the water you should film it for posterity :)

Answer 5

Yes it will. An easy way to get your windshield clean is to buy the deicer washing fluid. While you are warming your car up use the windshield wipers and fluid until the ice is gone or just use your defroster.

Answer 6

I'm pretty sure it could. It's not a good idea. My friend did that to his door handle and it broke off. That's why you have defrosters and that's why they make those scrapers. I know it's a pain in the butt to have to do all that, but it's better than having to repair a cracked windshield or broken door handle.

Answer 7

as the temp of any thing changes its size changes
Heat causes things to expand
When you get one part of the wind shield hot it expands and the glass around the part with the hot water does not and since glass does not bend like metal; it will crack if the expansion is too great..

Answer 8

really hot water might... warm water, doubtfully. any water is going to be warmer than your frozen windshield... so its not going to take too much to get the ice off... but at the same time the cooler the water is the quicker its going to freeze again.

Answer 9

absolutely! do not under any circumstance do that. make no mistake it will defintely crack the glass. ex... put a glass in the freezer for a couple of hours, then , wearing ppg, pour hot water in the glass and watch, from a safe distance what happens

Answer 10

Yes it can due to some kind of chemical reaction. By doing that you're exposing the glass from one extreme to the other in too short of a time period. Interestingly enough hot water freezes even faster than cold water.