It’s that time of year again: some mornings it’s below freezing, so knowing if there’s going to be frost on the windshield is a crapshoot, and hard to plan. The easiest way to rid your windshield of a thin coating of frost is to spray deicer on it. Two minutes later, off you go.
But after you spray the decier onto the windshield, there’s a tempory haze in the glass. (I do mean in, it seems not to be a surface level thing). That makes me worry that the deicer is harming the glass somehow, perhaps weaking it… It’s a baseless worry, right? Or do I need to get up earlier so I’m not shortening the life of my windshield and windows?
Of course, if it’s really cold (e.g. - Saskatchewan in mid-January), the windshield liquid freezes on your windshield and then you have to scrape it off, or wait for the defroster to warm the windshield enough that the window wipers will take off the frozen residue.
The anti-freeze in the fluid isn’t really de-icer; it’s purpose is to keep the reservoir and tubes of fluid from freezing.
Windshield De-Icer is not washer fluid.
The linked De-Icer’s data sheet even states it won’t harm the paint and does not contain ozone depleting propellant. You can use the link on the page to ask them about the spray.
Here’s something interesting. Heated Washer Fluid Option Dumped By GM After Massive Recall
Here’s an alternative after market washer fluid heater.
I note that in general these heaters seem to be a safety hazard, due to to staying on and over heating. I would think at the 150F that the water heats to, it would be a burn hazard for people. Think of that spraying you. I would also worry about the windshield cracking during extremely cold temperatures.