Exact Answer: Two Hours
A windshield, also conversely known as a windscreen, is referred to as the front window of a vehicle. This front window in any vehicle like a truck, car, or boat is expected to protect the passengers of the vehicle from dust and other similar elements. Meanwhile, it also helps the driver in providing a clear view of the way forward.
Summary
The windshields are generally made up of treated glass. This treatment of glass involves two curved glasses having an acrylic plastic lamination between them. This resultant laminated safety glass is considered relatively strong and not easily breakable. However, accidents resulting in such breakages happen frequently around the world.
How Long Does It Take To Replace A Windshield?
Steps in Windshield Replacement process | Time Taken |
Actual time in replacing the windshield | Half an hour to an hour |
Waiting time before driving back | An hour |
Total time in the windshield replacement process | Two hours |
A person can opt for their windshield replacement to be done by either reputable and well-established companies or their local windshield repair stations. Services offered by well-established companies are generally considered best due to quality concerns. Moreover, such windshield replacements take far less time as compared to the local repair stations.
Those windshield replacements which have been done by reputable companies take approximately half an hour to an hour in the replacement process. However, before the repair and the replacement process kicks in, the technician will let the vehicle owner know about the time requirements and the replacement process. They will also provide the vehicle owner with a warranty certificate and a record of work done.
However, the owner cannot take away the vehicle right after the replacement. The replaced windshield needs to rest for at least an hour before taking the vehicle out for driving. This ensures that the windshield is fixed well as there is enough time for the adhesive to dry up making the windscreen last longer.
In contrast to that, replacements done by local repair stations take far more time. This is on account of the comparatively poor technology used and the technician’s comparatively poor skills. Such replacements can take up to three to four hours, including the time for the drying of adhesives.
Why Does Replacing A Windshield Takes So Long?
The time taken to replace the windshield of a vehicle is influenced by several factors. The predominant of these factors is the local weather like temperature and humidity in the region and the quality of goods used in replacing it like the adhesives, the vehicle, and the new windshield for the vehicle.
The summer season is characterized by higher temperatures and more humidity levels. This helps the windscreen adhesives to dry down at a faster rate. Apart from that, it also facilitates in a short duration actual windshield replacing period. This results in a shorter period needed in the replacement process.
In contrast to that, the winter season is characterized by lower and cold temperatures and fewer humidity levels. In those conditions, adhesives, primers, and other tools work at a slower rate. This leads to the consumption of a large amount of time in the windshield replacement procedure. Moreover, technicians may be required to put in effect certain special steps to make the replaced windshield last longer.
The quality of adhesives, primers, and other tools that are used in the replacement process also influence the time required in the same. Generally, better-quality products tend to dry up at a faster rate as compared to poor-quality ones.
Conclusion
Replacing the windshield of a vehicle through a reputed company may take up anywhere between half an hour to an hour. In addition to that, it would also require an hour for the adhesive and the primer to dry up. Thus, the effective time needed for the windscreen replacement process is about two hours. However, a couple of hours more would be needed if that is done by a local agent.
Factors like the temperature, humidity, and the type of adhesives and primers were used to determine how long it would take the adhesive to dry. For faster curing, there should be more temperature, higher humidity, and good quality adhesives are used.
References
Sandeep Bhandari is the founder of ExactlyHowLong.com website.
I am a professional full-time blogger, a digital marketer, and a trainer. I love anything related to the Web and I try to learn new technologies every day.
All the team management, content creation, and monetization tasks are handled by me. Together with the team at ExactlyHowLong, the aim is to provide useful and engaging content to our readers.
In game development, I love playing with every different engine, toolset, and framework I can find. In digital art, I love everything from painting to vector work to pixel art to 3D modeling.
In short, if it’s creative and you can make it digitally, I love it.