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.
The windscreen repair resin used to repair a windscreen, takes longer to cure when the temperatures are below 10 degrees Celsius. The warmer the temperature, the quicker resin cures. An additional one or two minutes needs to be added to the curing cycle in winter. The use of a UV lamp and warm it up before stating the repair work. 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 by either plugging it into the cigarette lighter socket of a car (ignition may need to be switched on), plugging it into the socket on a jump start unit or by connecting to the terminals of a 12v battery using the Esprit crocodile clip adaptor. If the lead is not long enough to reach the damaged area, pre-heat the unit by plugging it into a power source, hold down the switch on the base of the unit (found under the hinged flap) for 60 seconds then unplug the unit and take it to the work area.
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 15oC 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.