Is it safe to blast defroster on my cracked windshield during winter?

Hey folks! This is Patrick from Chip Happens Auto Glass.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from y'all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"Is it safe to blast defroster on my cracked windshield during winter?"

Answer

So, is it safe to use your defroster in the winter on a cracked windshield? Um, you would want to acclimate acclimate your vehicle prior um by using the forward- facing uh heating until the car has a chance to acclimate slowly as a blast straight to the crack on your windshield will uh rapidly make it spread.

Summary

Patrick Sherman cautioned that blasting a defroster directly on a cracked windshield in winter is unsafe because the rapid temperature change will likely cause the crack to spread. They recommended acclimating the vehicle slowly using forward-facing heating (00:01:21). Patrick Sherman also explained that Subarus and Teslas are generally harder to replace due to the required "very in-depth" dual or sometimes triple recalibration, which results in extra cost and work for the technician (00:02:49).