With the drop in temperatures, motorists face the familiar morning battle against frosty windscreens. But this can also cause another issue: as your car heats up, moisture from inside collides with the cold windows, resulting in condensation, or what might appear as fog to the driver.
Fail to clear it, and you’re looking at a potential £100 fine, not to mention three penalty points on your licence. Worse still, an accident caused by obscured vision could lead to a whopping £2,500 fine.
Experts offer several tips for demisting your vehicle: cranking up the heater aimed at the windscreen or toggling the air conditioning to draw in fresh air instead of recirculating the interior atmosphere. However, a quirky solution has surfaced online, straight from your kitchen.
TikTok user Darissa (@darissa. hacks) reveals that a simple potato could prevent condensation. Her viral hack implies that this common vegetable could save you from the hassles of winter driving by keeping your windows clear. “A car hack I wish I knew sooner,” says her post on the popular platform. “This hack will keep water off your car windows during this tough weather.”
In the footage, she is seen rubbing a halved potato across the car’s windscreens. For this hack to be effective, a clean potato is required, so give it a quick wash if needed.
Next, use the flat side to rub the entire window surface. This technique should clean the window and create a barrier to prevent condensation from forming. If starchy streaks appear, wipe them off immediately. To treat all the vehicle’s windows, both halves of the potato might be needed.
Allow the application to dry completely without interference. Once the potato juice has dried, the windows should remain fog-free due to the starch forming a shield between the glass and the air.
In the comments, people were eager to try the hack, with one person saying: “Genius car hack.” Another simply said: “Good idea.” And a third wrote: “That’s a genius car hack, getting easy for the season. Thank you for sharing your experience.”