Have you ever wondered if you could use glass cleaner on your Polycarbonate UTV windshield? In this blog we are going to answer that question for you without you having to mess up the Polycarbonate windshield on your UTV.
We recently were showcasing our products at a Poker Run in which a large majority of the participants were driving UTV's (Utility Terrain Vehicles). We got a lot of questions on if our Glass Cleaner could be used to clean Polycarbonate Windshields, which are commonly used in UTV's because they are less prone to cracking in comparison to Glass Windshields. The Glass Cleaner we had on hand was our Off-Road Glass Cleaner which is far more aggressive chemical wise that out standard Glass Cleaner.
To get to the quick and dirty, the answer is no, not only no, but FUCK NO. Any glass cleaner that contains Ethyl Alcohol or Ammonia will wreak havoc on your Polycarbonate Windshield. In other words, don't even try it, not even once. In addition to that you cannot even use cheap standard microfiber towels to clean it because Polycarbonate Windshields are very prone to scratching, despite being harder than Glass.
After the event we became more curious about what will actually happen if we use our Off-Road Glass Cleaner on a piece of Polycarbonate. I mean one use shouldn't hurt anything right? I want to note that our Off-Road Glass Cleaner is loaded with Ethyl Alcohol, and Ammonia. All the good shit that works really well... for glass. It's made to clean quickly and effectively through heavy contaminates that are consistent with conditions on the trail for off road vehicles. It is also fantastic for household use; we are biased but we consider it to be the best glass cleaner on the market.
To conduct our experiment, we needed some Polycarbonate. We ordered some thin Polycarbonate sheets from Amazon. I would like to think that the Polycarbonate on UTV's is much better quality and way more durable than these cheap thin sheets of Polycarbonate, so if we can conduct the test and not damage these then its more than likely good for an actual UTV Windshield. To replicate the conditions that UTV windshields face, we took our DeWalt blower and blew dust and dirt on to the Polycarbonate.
After we were able to get our Polycarbonate nice and dusty, we cleaned it off using our Off-Road Glass Cleaner and our edgeless 420 GSM Polishing Towel.
We cleaned this piece of Polycarbonate with care so that we could see the damage that would be caused by the cleaner itself. We were able to clean it without scratching it. What we noticed after we were done was that the Polycarbonate did not have a crystal-clear transparency as it did before dirt or glass cleaner was applied to it.
The photo does not do it justice, and please forgive our scratched-up work bench, the scratches that you see in the photo are on the work bench and not the Polycarbonate. If you look closely inside of the circle of light, you can see what we are talking about. The harsh chemical caused minor etching. nothing too terrible, however this is a brand-new sheet of Polycarbonate. In a pinch you could get by with it, but it certainly should not be used if it can be avoided.
In closing our opinion remains the same NO you cannot use Glass Cleaner on your Polycarbonate UTV Windshield. you will cause damage to it, if not immediately, then over time. In our next blog we are going to discuss our method and products to use to clean Polycarbonate UTV windshields. So, keep an eye out for our next post which will be titled "How to clean your Polycarbonate UTV windshield." Thank you for reading if you have any questions or ideas for future content, please let us know.
Nighthawk Brand