Hydrophobic glass treatment

[agentsmith1612]

A coating for windshields is a lot more difficult since it has to be transparent, ability to be abraded by windshield wipers constantly

Yes you can see that after some years. My car is not 3 years old (sadly not a Tesla one) and if it rains you will see the difference between the areas on the windshield where the wipers works and "scretch" the glas and the areas where no wipers.

And this is the problem, lets say challenge not always talk about "problems" to design a coating that is easy to get hard bonded to the glas surface. The coating should lasts slow, resists the scratching of wipers and ice and should has the properties of hydrophobic behavior.

 

[Dborn]

Found a coating called "Nanokote " in Australia. Supposed to last between 8 -10 years! According to the blurb. BUT , like all these things the price is sky high. The main area they market for is treating shower screens. Not sure if it is the same product for car screens as they have different packaging ( but same name) for cars. Probably an international product so may be available in the States.

 

[hvb]

I had Aquapel applied a week ago and my wipers have been catching on the windshield ever since. It is SO annoying. I thought this was a problem with Rain-X and not Aquapel. Is there anything I can do to mitigate this? Barring that, can I remove the hydrophobic coating? Please help! It rains constantly here in Seattle, and I don't know how much more of this I can take.

 

[ChadS]

I noted some wiper catching when I first applied Aquapel. But it wasn't really bad, and it seemed to go away after just a few days. I'd say hang in there and it will get better; but I am surprised it is still that bad after a week...

 

[hvb]

Maybe the detailing guy put on an extra thick coating? Ay yi yi. First world problems, right? Maybe I should stop whining.

 

[rogers08m3]

I had cQuartz Flyby30 applied to my windshield. I like it so far, but it hasn't been long. It definitely clears the water away quickly at anything over ~50kph. It's supposed to last 8 months, we'll see. Carpro Flyby 30 Glass Coating -light mist performance - YouTube

 

[hvb]

I had cQuartz Flyby30 applied to my windshield. I like it so far, but it hasn't been long. It definitely clears the water away quickly at anything over ~50kph. It's supposed to last 8 months, we'll see. Carpro Flyby 30 Glass Coating -light mist performance - YouTube

Does it make your wipers drag and stutter over the windshield? I have yet to try a treatment that does not do this.

 

[rogers08m3]

My wipers don't chatter at all. On my wifes car her wipes chattered whenever I used aquapel or rainx but it turned out the wipers had some sort of treatment on them (rainx wipers I guess?), so it was like doubling up or something, they would skip like crazy. I cleaned them really well with isopropyl and it mostly stopped. I was told with this stuff not to use a wiper fluid with any treatment in it like the rainx stuff. I think a big part of applying these treatments is to make sure the glass is crazy, crazy clean, free of water spots, etc. The guy who did mine polished the heck out of the glass, then cleaned it with some cleaning solution, then put the treatment on and heated it with an IR lamp for an hour.

If I can remember next time it rains I will take a vid of it with wipers on.

Does it make your wipers drag and stutter over the windshield? I have yet to try a treatment that does not do this.

 

[babyrocket]

I applied Aquapel to all glass surfaces on my Model S a couple of months ago, and my wipers have been "catching" on the windshield ever since. Incredibly annoying. Are there any new wipers that are recommended to work with Aquapel to avoid this problem? I'll try anything!

 

[pete8314]

Good question. Mine have been doing that too, but just assumed it was because the wipers were a bit 'weedy'. I've used Aquapel on all my cars for years, so I'm not sure what makes the Model S special.

 

[ddruz]

My wipers were catchy since delivery before applying RainX. They are still catchy after application. My assumption is this is not related to the hydrophobic glass treatment but that it is a problem with the wipers. I wonder how many other people have catchy wipers. The wipers in general do not seem on par with the rest of this outstanding car, at least on my car.

 

[pete8314]

Agree with that, I didn't think mine got worse after I put the Aquapel on. It's not really rained here much ,but yesterday it was drizzling, which mean I just did a manual sweep every 15 seconds or so, as the auto wipe every 5 seconds was noisy, and they do just appear kind of weedy.

 

[Borgie]

btw, I just ordered NeverWet from Home Depot online. Site says I will have it in 3-5 days (free shipping).

 

[gbdesai]

From what I've seen and read, NeverWet does leave a cloudy finish on glass...

 

[timvracer]

When I got my car ceramic coated, they also put some sort of Opticoat glass product on, which has been repelling rain/water as well if not better than the ceramic coat. Not sure what it is, but has the same 7 year warranty. I love it!