How to ensure successful windscreen repairs in cold winter weather?

During the cold winter months in the UK the very thought of standing outdoors in the icy weather repairing the windscreen of a vehicle may bring 'shivers down your spine'. While it is possible to repair a chipped windscreen on a cold day, it needs to be done with care.

Our Esprit Windscreen repair equipment is used the world over, from Scandinavia and the coldest climates, right down to Australia and the warmth of the Outback. The environment the repair is conducted in can affect the way the windscreen repair resin behaves, becoming slightly thicker in cold and thinner in warmer conditions. The windscreen can also behave differently in colder weather. Whereas in the warm, summer days, the damage is quite open allowing the resin to flow easily, in the cold - the combination of a less responsive screen and thicker resin, means more patience is required during the repair process. 

If you are a professional and travelling to different sites to do repair work, keep the tubes of resin warm and whenever possible, pre-warm the windscreen to get the glass to over 15 degrees Celsius. The vehicle’s heater is the best way to warm the glass but other types of heaters can be used as well. Just be careful not to heat the glass too quickly, to too higher a temperature or on too small an area as windscreen damage is more likely to spread under these circumstances.

Rejel supply an ESPR675 Esprit 12 Volt heater and moisture evaporator. The Esprit 12 volt heater can be powered using the Esprit lithium-ion battery pack, or plugging into 12V or mains supply. A jump start unit can also be used. If the lead is not long enough, don't forget your Esprit 3m extension cable sold in all kits. 

The red and green LED’s illuminate when the unit is connected to a 12 volt power supply. The unit is fitted with a thermal cut out to prevent overheating. If the cut out activates, the red light remains on but the green light is now off. The unit will now start to cool down, when the temperature drops by 15^oC the thermal cut out will automatically re-set and the green light will switch on and the unit will start to heat up again, thus maintaining a working temperature. 

Time taken to warm the glass using the heater unit, is about 60 seconds. It the heater unit is warm, then the time taken to warm the glass is 15 to 20 seconds

If warming the glass is necessary, make sure it’s done slowly and evenly. Sudden changes in temperature can cause the glass to crack.

If you don't have a UV lamp, a hairdryer can be used as an alternative. Just make sure you warm the area several inches around the damage, and if possible, keep the warm air blowing across the damaged area to maintain an even temperature. Again, be careful not to overheat the windscreen. Matching your windscreen repair resin and injector temperature to the glass temperature within 5 degrees will greatly minimize the chance of crack outs.

The best solution for doing windscreen repairs when the temperature plummets, is to take the vehicle in doors if at all possible.