Car/Weather/Science Question

Actinguy1

Greetings, super friends! I have a car/weather/science question.

My wife and I live in Pittsburgh, and of course we are reaching freezing temperatures now. I grew up here and am perfectly used to it, but my wife is from California, and the existence of actual seasons is a cause of much stress in her life.

My question has to do with our cars. She has a 2004 Hyundai Elantra, a fairly standard 4-door sedan. I have a 2008 Jeep Liberty, which is roughly the size and shape of a standard SUV.

My wife's job sometimes requires her to leave for work around 6:30 am. Her car will be completely covered in ice, while my car doesn't have any ice at all on it.

She is convinced that the weather gods are out to destroy her, but I'm assuming there is a more logical explanation. Could it be that it's the size of the cars that are causing the difference? My Jeep is higher off the ground than her Hyundai is, and therefore further from the frozen ground? Or is there some other logical explanation?

Other than buying her a different car (something we are seriously considering), are there other solutions?

We live in an apartment complex and park in a parking lot. There are no garages/car ports/etc. We park in different spots each time, so I don't think it's the location of the cars causing the difference.

Thanks!

tl;dr: My wife's car freezes in the morning, mine doesn't. What's up with that?

useless4

Does she get done earlier in the day then you?
Could be your car is warmer from running more recently.

BoomShake

What color are the cars?

DevoutlyApathetic

How much do each of you like to make use of the heaters in your car?

If the cabin temperature is nice and toasty and you park it outside the heat will be sucked out of it and condensation will form on the outside if there is any moisture in the air...then that condensation freezes.

The winter when I had no effective heat in my car I had to do very very little ice scraping.

Actinguy1

Thanks for all the responses! The two days that we've really noticed a difference so far, I had used my car more recently than she had used hers, although we're still talking 8-12 hours after I used my car before her car became icy. I did consider that possibility, but it didn't seem recent enough to my non-scientific mind. ;c)

My car is silver. Hers is...champagne, I guess?

Typically, she's definitely using the heat during weather that I leave my windows open for. Last night however, I drove both of us for a several-hour trip, meaning I had the heater on for her, yet the icing thing happened this morning.

Thanks again everyone!

BoomShake

DevoutlyApathetic wrote:

If the cabin temperature is nice and toasty and you park it outside the heat will be sucked out of it and condensation will form on the outside if there is any moisture in the air...then that condensation freezes.

This doesn't make any sense. Condensation on the outside would form the same on a cold car as the ambient temperature drops as it would on a car that eventually cooled to the same temperature as the cold car; the loss of heat is irrelevant. If anything, the added delay cause less condensation if the humidity drops significantly sooner than the car cools sufficiently to support condensation. The only extra condensation that may form would be on the inside as water vapor from you breathing (previously fine as a vapor at the warm temperature) condenses on the as everything cools, and even that is mostly mitigated when you don't recirculate or if you use the AC condenser (like when you're defogging the front window).

Are their any treatments on your Jeep windows that aren't on the other? Any Rain-X or similar?

Actinguy1

Not that I'm aware of, although that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Would adding something like that to my wife's car prevent it from icing over?

DevoutlyApathetic

BoomShake wrote:

DevoutlyApathetic wrote:

If the cabin temperature is nice and toasty and you park it outside the heat will be sucked out of it and condensation will form on the outside if there is any moisture in the air...then that condensation freezes.

This doesn't make any sense. Condensation on the outside would form the same on a cold car as the ambient temperature drops as it would on a car that eventually cooled to the same temperature as the cold car; the loss of heat is irrelevant. If anything, the added delay cause less condensation if the humidity drops significantly sooner than the car cools sufficiently to support condensation. The only extra condensation that may form would be on the inside as water vapor from you breathing (previously fine as a vapor at the warm temperature) condenses on the as everything cools, and even that is mostly mitigated when you don't recirculate or if you use the AC condenser (like when you're defogging the front window).

This is clearly anecdotal but it was my experience. I'm probably misconstruing the cause. When I was unable to heat up the cabin I had much less ice forming on the car.

BoomShake

It won't really prevent the ice, but the ice won't stick. A gentle scrape should have it all fall off in a single sheet. I've even heard that windshield wipers are enough to push the sheet off, but I've never tried it.

Kipling

Ice or frost? And all over the car or just the windows?

Because the simplest reason for ice vs. no ice is geometry. For frost, it's more complicated.

Demerdar

Where does the ice mainly form? You say her car is covered in ice, you mean the windows, correct?

MushroomStick

Do you wash your car more often than her? I've noticed that cleaner cars don't seem to frost over as easily.