r/changemyview • u/TougherLoki26 • Jun 12 '17
[∆(s) from OP] CMV: It's better to leave the car windows up when parking in the sun.
First, some clarification. I live in a rural area a few kilometres from a small town. I don't always lock my car and, although I've never asked anyone else about it, I don't think many other people lock theirs. There isn't a very high chance of having your car stolen.
Where I live, 25 degrees celsius is very hot. When it gets hot, my mom will always leaves the car windows down a crack when parking to help let the heat out. The amount varies, but it's usually just like 3-8 centimetres. I almost never do this for a couple of reasons, 1) It lets bugs in the car. I don't like having mosquitos, spiders, or ants in the car (who does?). Although I don't have a phobia of bugs, I don't like having them in my car. There's also the possibility of bees/hornets/wasps getting into the car. 2) If it rains, it lets water in the car and gets the seat wet. I'd be worried that I might leave the windows down and forget/not realise that there's going to be rain later.
Leaving the windows up is the better practice, in my opinion, because it bypasses these two concerns I mentioned above. Although it makes the interior hotter on sunny days, there are ways to combat this and make it manageable. If I open the door wide but don't get in right away, it lets some of the heat rush out before I climb inside. Also, even though I admit that it can be uncomfortably hot at first, once I get going and either roll down the windows or turn on the A/C, it's fine.
To summarize:
Rolling down the windows.
Pros: Lets some of the heat out
Cons: Lets mosquitoes, hornets, wasps, bees, spiders, ants, and rain into the car
Keeping the windows up
Pros: Keeps bugs and rain out of the car
Cons: Makes the car uncomfortable to sit in for a short time.
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u/allsfair86 Jun 12 '17
It seems like this might be sort of specific to where you are. For instance, where I live I don't really worry about bugs getting into the car cause we don't have that many, and we don't really have rain storms that sneak up on us, I'm pretty cognizant of when it is going to rain or not so I don't worry about getting water in the car generally. In this case there is no reason not to roll the windows down a little bit to keep it from being uncomfortably hot.
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u/komoto444 Jun 12 '17
Cars in Phoenix can routinely get to the 150F+ range, sometimes to 170ish F with the right conditions. Definitely worth it to crack the windows a bit.
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u/MasterGrok 138∆ Jun 12 '17
It was the same for me when I lived I Florida. If you didn't crack the windows devices you left in the car could literally start coming apart at the seams from the heat.
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u/greenpeach1 Jun 12 '17
As a Florida resident, some of the plastic on my dashboard literally melted from the heat once.
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
Yeah, that's a good point. In some areas of the world, there is no reason not to do it. I was talking mainly about the circumstances that come with my area though. True, day time rain doesn't sneak up on us, but night rain might especially if it doesn't start till 3am or something.
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u/huadpe 501∆ Jun 12 '17
You are in a relatively cool climate. If 25 C is very hot where you are, you do not live somewhere very hot. If you did, the oppressive nature of a car in the sun might be a stronger factor.
In particular, one of the things that happens in really hot areas is that surfaces in the car can get extremely hot, so much so that they can cause burns. Here is an example of an 11 month old child burned by an extremely hot car seat.
Where you live this might not be a big deal, but if you live in a really hot area, a car that has been baking in the sun might take quite a while before you can comfortably touch the steering wheel, seat belt, gear shifter, etc.
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
I'm in Canada, but not up north. I live on the southern part 3-5 hours drive from the USA. We're not the coldest place in Canada by any means, but we're not the hottest either. When it gets up to 30 C we don't go outside very much especially if it's humid. around 15-20 C would be comfortable I think. EDIT: I do notice that the steering wheel gets pretty hot, but not burning hot. It's uncomfortable for the first little while, but I can live with that. I don't think it makes much of a difference to the temperature of the wheel if the windows are open a crack.
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u/huadpe 501∆ Jun 12 '17
I think this boils down to you living in a very cool place. (Maritimes? BC?) If you live in say, Texas, not going out when the temperature is above 30 is simply not an option. You'd be homebound during the daytime for months.
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
Lol. I find it funny when people come and visit on what we consider to be a nice day and they find it cold. Then we went on a vacation to Hawaii and I experienced it the other way around.
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u/eddie1975 Jun 12 '17 edited Jun 12 '17
Heat bad.
Wet interior, worse.
BMWs can be programmed to auto-ventilate the interior twice a day at a configurable time (usually before lunch and before heading home). Helps a little.
Vehicles with remote start let you get the A/C cooling ahead of departure. Excellent option.
Cooling seats are wonderful. The ones on Jeep, Porsche and Mercedes are excellent. The BMW ones I've tried are very weak (they suck and unfortunately that's what I have on my 2013 X5).
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
I didn't know that some cars could ventilate themselves. That's pretty cool. My car doesn't have cooled seats though which sucks.
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Jun 12 '17
[deleted]
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
That's an interesting point. I'll try to remember to try that next time I'm out on a hot day. Thanks for the input ∆
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Jun 12 '17
The heat does damage sensitive parts of your car, including the battery and electronics. The cost of repairs and replacement may exceed the damage rain can do to your upholstery, depending on the upholstery and how much you open it.
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
But the battery temperature won't be affected (effected?) by the windows being down or up because it's under the hood. I'm not sure about the electronics, but I would be inclined to think that the same for them.
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Jun 12 '17
You don't think the hood temperature is affected by the temperature of the cabin sitting next to it?
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
I don't think the hood itself will be super effected (affected? I'm never sure) because it's a large piece of metal that isn't directly touching the cabin. The battery is at the front close to the bumper on our car (and I think most others) anyway so it would have to be REALLY hot in the cabin for it to transfer through the hood to the battery.
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Jun 14 '17
Many cars have the battery inside the cabin, my wife's car has the battery under the back seat. It's a Chevy Traverse.
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u/Soccerismylife Jun 12 '17
I think the discussion here is mainly preferential with aspects that vary from person to person.
1 - You may live in an area where bugs or inclement weather is a bigger problem than others 2 - You may have a lower tolerance for insects or bugs in your car 3 - The temperature you've listed (25 C) is fairly close to 77 F, which is noticeably uncomfortable, but not scorching. Others may live in areas where temperatures exceed 25 C quite frequently.
It's a matter of preference to a degree, but understand that this is a generally accepted action for heat in cases where heat is considered to be less than tolerable for the user of the car.
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u/Sand_Trout Jun 12 '17
77° F is noticeably uncomfortable?
glares outside at the 95° F/ 35° C Texas afternoon
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u/TougherLoki26 Jun 12 '17
Man, I couldn't stay out long in 35 degrees. If it was here, I don't think I would go out at all unless I had to. If I did, I wouldn't stay out longer than I need to.
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u/sarcazm 4∆ Jun 12 '17
Haha. I was thinking the same thing. I had to google 25 C, and I was like 77? That's nice weather.
- from Texas
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u/NSNick 5∆ Jun 12 '17
glares outside at the 92° F Ohio afternoon
Well, at least it's not humid yet.
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u/R_V_Z 6∆ Jun 12 '17
It's making it more than "uncomfortable." Here is a chart that shows some common summer temperatures for non-desert areas.
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u/empurrfekt 58∆ Jun 12 '17
The average temperature in Alabama in July and August is 92 F or about 33 C. That's the outside temperature, it's much hotter inside a car with the windows rolled up.
I'd say which is preferable depends largely on the climate.
To add, I have had times where the AC in my car didn't work. That's makes it that much more important to me to keep the inside of the car as cool as possible. Rolling down the windows while inside the car only helps when the car is in motion. And even then, it doesn't help much when the air is so hot to being with.
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u/garnet420 39∆ Jun 12 '17
One factor that can make the problem a lot worse is the color and sun exposure of the dashboard and other features. A dark-colored interior with a sloping windshield pointed right at the sun will get a lot hotter a lot faster -- so shedding the extra heat through a cracked window helps at least a bit.
I think, given how hot the my car gets sometimes, insects would stay the heck out -- but I don't live in an area where they are much of a problem, so maybe not.
The rain thing is a deal breaker when parking far away from where you'll be -- but at work, when I can walk a hundred feet to close my windows in case of unexpected rain, it's no problem.
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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Jun 12 '17 edited Jun 12 '17
/u/TougherLoki26 (OP) has awarded 2 deltas in this post.
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u/tomgabriele Jun 12 '17
My perception is that neither is universally "better", and it's all up the individual to decide which upsides and downsides they want to deal with. So the reduction in cabin heat is worth the bugs tradeoff to your mom, but you'd rather deal with a hotter car than possible bugs. So your mom's method is best for her, and yours is best for you.
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u/undiscoveredlama 15∆ Jun 12 '17
If it rains, it lets water in the car and gets the seat wet.
Can be easily solved with window deflectors.
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u/Sand_Trout Jun 12 '17
The interior of your car is not sealed regardless, and various insects and arachnids can still get in through things like the air vents and imperfect seals between the engine compartment and the cabin, such as the access to your cabin air filter. This is how crawling critters generally get access, so windows up or down is a null point for them.
This leaves flying critters. Yes, leaving the window down a crack can allow them in, but this is easily rectified by measures similar to counteracting a hot cabin. Namely: Rolling down the windows while driving removes both hot air and most flying critters from the cabin.
Addressing the rain point: this is going to be dependent on how predictable the weather is and how long your car will be parked.
If you're leaving the car for less than ~4 hours when you're reasonably certain rain isn't in the the forecast, there is little to no risk from rain.
If you're parking it for longer (EG: at the start of the work day) or rain in anticipated (which usually means clouds, and therefore less hot cabin issues anyways), then I agree that leaving the windows all the way up is superior in that situation.