2 Nov 2018

And Then A Revisit...

With increasingly cold nights advancing, thanks to global warming, I thought I’d pass along an old winter-lude tip. Again.

Are you a ‘sufferer’ from window condensation? Does that water running down your windows not bother you at all? Move on; nothing to read here. If, however, it do bother you and you’re sick of wasting time every morning wiping your bedroom, windows down, try this simple and cheap ‘remedy’.

Never mind double glazed or not,  using a dehumidifier, keeping the temperature at X degrees,  and opening a window a tad – there’s a big plus and a big minus right there by the way – the sure way to prevent window condensation is not to breath while sleeping. It would seem this method works well but isn’t widely recommended.

This leaves us with one cheap and cheerful method: First off wipe dry the window that’s giving you ‘problems’ and then simply take a slightly damp cloth, squeeze some washing-up liquid – or any liquid soap – onto this cloth and wipe it all over the window. Don’t be disheartened by the messy and streaky looking result; it’ll dry out and the window will look perfectly normal**. That is all that’s required for a cheap fix to winter window condensation.
NOTE: This fix will show best results if carried out on the INSIDE of the windows, okay?  At least it’s wet now and not like it was when many of us were pups when the condensation froze. Yes young folk; froze on the inside.
**My experience? To be sure of no visible streaking at all, use that bathroom liquid soap that comes in they little pumpy action bottles.

A long time ago I mentioned I’d done this on the toilet cistern as with cold water vs. warm room in winter, it was constantly wet on the outside and dripping floor-wards. The liquid soap works a treat. Pardon? The back o’ the tank you say? Dependant on your courage level, you can slack off the holding screws just enough to wipe the back using a long kitchen knife and soap soaked tissues. Low courage level? Stick some tape along the bottom between the cistern and the wall and just generously squirt soap down along the top edge. Give it a few hours, remove the tape and wipe away any run-off.

Yes, I hear you; where’s the moisture in the air condensing if it’s not doing so on the windows? It would seem, through an experiment I conducted a goodly while ago, that it remains in the air as there’s nowhere as cold as the windows for the vapour to condense out to with any great speed. This I discovered by running the dehumidifier** overnight prior to soaping the windows and measured the collected water. After soaping there was a measurable increase in overnight dehumidifier collected water.
**The dehumidifier on its own did reduce the winter window condensation but didn’t totally cure it on very cold nights. Older property and  that  annoying breathing thingy I guess.

If anybody’s still here, and as strange as this may seem to you, I’ve just had a thought. Would WD-40 work the same as soap? It’s a moisture repellent is it not? Smell?

Quote;  Terence McKenna.

“We live in condensations of our imagination.”

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