I live in Orange County, California...this is a warm area. Well, at night time, temps have been deeping to 50 degrees outside (well, that's what the Acura Temp Sensor tells me). I usually study at my friend's house til 2 AM. So i goto my car, the usual mist/water droplets form on all the windows. So i turn on the Rear defroster lines....i take my 10 min drive home...and when i get home after 10 mins....the rear window is still not clear...not even half clear. Anyone else experience this, or do i just have a faulty one. This happens to my car in California, i don't want to imagine what happens over on the east coast. I do have my windows tinted...but i don't think that's a big factor.

 

I think it is. Before my tint, my windows would defrost very quickly in the morning. Perhaps it is just getting older, but now that I've had my tint, it seems as though it takes at least twice as long to heat up to the same level.

 

Rear Window Defrost is meant to remove frost and/or fog from the window. It isn't meant to be particularly effective at clearing dew (which is what that is- large droplets of condensed water vapor) from the window. They are not meant to be. Do you use your front defrost to clear water from your window? No, you use the wipers.

Here in FL, it's not very good at removing the dew in the morning. When I took a trip up North recently, it was fantastic at clearing the fog quickly. My windows are also tinted.

I'd recommend getting one of those water blade things, and giving a quick swipe before you drive off.

Todd

 

What T HO said.

Those lines aren't for removing heavy condensation. They are designed to remove frost by heating it above the melting point, thus turning it to water. They can remove light condensation up to the point you'd call it "fogging", that's about it.

The reason a tinted window takes longer is that the tint works to share thermal energy. Much like a heatsink on a computer proccessor, which absorbes heat generated by the proccessor, the tint increases the amount of energy needed to heat the frost because you must now also heat the tint. The more mass you have to heat, the more energy you'll need to heat it.

 

I agree with T Ho and trouser chili (hehe.. great name).

"Over on the East coast" I have no problems with my defroster.. and i have tinted windows as well. The last snow we got I had about a 1/2" of ice under the snow on my window. I turned on the defroster... came out, and the window was melted so I could just brush the ice away.... took only 1 to 2 minutes. Frost also disappears quickly.

 

i agree with the last three. up here in wisconsin with tinted windows it only takes a matter of min to start melting the ice that acumulates on my window

 

when i had my TL, my defroster pretty much didn't work...i would leave it on for like 10 min, and nothing would happen. and this is just regular fogging of windows...not heavy condensation or anything...

in my lexus, under the same conditions, my windows defog in about 5 seconds.

 

My defrost works fine until i tinted it. It still works but the dot matrix part on the top takes forever

 

My defroster works great even with my tints. I also agree that it is not effective against dew.

 

Dot Matrix?? The dot matrix is the antenna, not the defroster. My defroster covers a certain area (not the entire rear window)...isn't that how it is on all of the TLs?

 

the dot matrix is just a sort of sun shade

 

ive had no prob w it rather i thing its wors pretty effectivley and fast

 

Remember it's a rear window "defroster", not a rear window "heater"

Tatewaki

 

I didnt know that. so its not meant to defrost.

 

Are you serious?

I have my windows tinted, and mine works fine.

 

the dot matrix part??

 

Oh....I thought you were joking. Sorry. The only part that defrosts is where you see those orange looking metal lines.

 

That's not completely true either. There are a few rows of orange line near the top that are not defrost lines. They are part of the internal antenna.

axleback

 

exactly my point

 

Have any of you ever seen a car with tinted windows and right on the lines of the heater lines the tint is starting to come off?

I've seen this so much that now with tinted windows I never turn on my rear defroster in fear that I'll mess up my tint. Granted I rarely need it since I live in FL. But I do make the ocasional trip to the north east and I've not turned it on because of fear of consequences.

The question I have is why does that happen? Does that only happen to cheap tint? I'm using the 3M stuff but I'm still weary.

 

Good tint shop can cut around the heater lines so they won't peel. My sister's EL got tints and if you look closely they cut around the lines to avoid them. It is mad skills and it must have taken them a long time to do, but that's quality work.

Tatewaki

 

I had my old CL tinted in '99 (and it's still tinted the last time I saw it), and I've had my TL tinted since I bought it (August '01) and I've never had a problem with the defroster lines... and I use the rear defrost quite frequently.....

As for the dot matrix.. it does nothing.. it's just a sunshade similar to the one over the rear view mirror. The antenna is right below the matrix.... the rest of the lines are the defroster lines.....

 

if the tint is start to coming off, you can always bring it back to where you got you tint and have them do it over with no charge that's why they call " life time warrantee"