It is extremely important to have a clear view when driving to avoid accidents. You probably know this as well as almost every motorist: dirt and streaks on the windshield are very annoying, especially in direct sunlight, and draw more attention to the windshield than to the traffic.
Pedestrians, road markings and traffic signs can now be easily overlooked. To avoid this danger, you should always have a good wiper fluid on hand, or rather directly in the wiper system of your car.
Buy washing water or mix it yourself?
In the meantime, you will find a wide selection of different wiper waters in specialist stores and on the Internet. There are both qualitative and quantitative differences. You can buy several liters of an unnamed product for a few euros or a small quantity of a branded product for a relatively large sum. The cheapest copies sometimes have the dubious reputation of having a penetrating and rather unpleasant smell and although you can choose between several smells now, they are rarely really convincing.
Even when reading the ingredients, no one really knows exactly what they contain. To avoid these problems and to save money, you can easily make your own wiper water. It doesn't take much for a simple but effective product. First you need an empty bottle to fill and mix, for example a clean plastic bottle. It must be completely empty and clean. You also need a certain amount of water as a base, as well as cleaning additives.
Tap water or distilled water?
The base of the mixture is simple water. You can choose between tap water or distilled water. However, the former has the disadvantage that it contains a lot of lime, depending on the region, which could damage the car under certain circumstances. Some reports on the Internet indicate that tap water containing lime would not cause any damage, even after many years of use, but if you love your car, you often prefer to play it safe and choose pure distilled water. So there is no danger of annoying limescale deposits.
How does the windshield clean itself?
If you look on the Internet for a recipe for windshield washer fluid, you will sometimes find the trick to putting a little washing-up liquid in the water. At first glance, this idea may seem interesting, because dishwashing liquid cleans very well and is available in almost every household. However, there are many relatively aggressive products that can attack the rubber on windshield seals and car wash. Here, the same applies to the choice of water - damage is only visible after a long period of use.
If you prefer not to take any risks, it is better to go to the toilet and use a mild shampoo (for hair) and add a few drops to the water in your windshield wiper. This also has a cleansing effect, which is further intensified by the light lathering. To make the result even more beautiful, you can also add window cleaner to the mixture. As advertised in various advertisements, the glass will be clean and streak-free. If you use a little more, you can also leave out dishwashing liquid or shampoo, as there is already enough cleaning power.
Help against annoying insects on the windshield
The worst thing you can do is to remove the remains of insects from the windshield. But to make it easier, just add a little vinegar to the mixture. To improve the smell a little, you can also use apple vinegar, for example.
Windshield wiper water in winter
Although the ingredients described above are generally well suited to the spring, summer and fall seasons, it is essential to use a frost-resistant mixture during the winter or colder months. To get through the cold season without any problems, you can for example add alcohol to the water in the windscreen wipers. The colder it gets, the higher the percentage of alcohol should be. You can also use a pure vinegar/alcohol mixture (in summer and winter).
In summer the vinegar proportion is higher, in winter the proportion of spirits. However, if the temperatures are too low and the frost persists, it is advisable to use special windscreen antifreeze products sold in specialist stores, because methyl alcohol can turn into a hard "jelly" when the temperature drops below freezing point, which can then clog the pipes.
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