How Do You Stop Ice Buildup on LED Headlights?

How Do You Stop Ice Buildup on LED Headlights?

If you’re like most people, you’ve been dealing with ice buildup on your LED headlights this winter. It’s a pain to scrape off and it can really damage your headlights over time. So, how do you stop ice buildup on LED headlights?

LED headlights are roughly 90% more efficient at producing light than halogen headlights. As a result, LEDs produce very little heat compared to a standard headlight. This lack of heat makes it easy for ice to buildup and freeze onto the outer lens of a LED headlight.

In fact, LEDs are so efficient that they do not emit any infrared light at all. Halogen and HID headlights by contrast, create both heat and infrared light (IR) when generating light.

Which is why, in most cases, ice is unable to stick to the lens of a halogen headlight.

By comparison, the way an LED light generates power is much different than a standard bulb. In fact, the absence of heat is a direct result of how electrical current is used to create light.

Without getting too geeky, LED headlights are a semiconductor device in which electrons pass from a negatively charged component to a positivity charged one. The end result is, you guessed it – light!

So by now you know why ice builds up on the lenses of LED headlights. But, how do you stop ice buildup on LED headlights? Let’s dive into a few simple tricks anyone can use.

Easy Tricks For Keeping The Ice Off LED Headlights

While there is no magic solution for keeping ice off of LED headlights permanently, there are a few tricks that have been proven to work. In fact, many truckers commonly use these exact same methods before heading out into cold winter weather. If it works for them, it will certainly work for you as well.

  • Spray De-Icer on the headlights. This will keep ice and snow from sticking to the LED headlights for at least a day. Keep a rag and spray bottle filled with de-icer in the car just in case you need to apply another coat before hitting the road.
  • Wax your headlights before a snow storm. Any paste wax will do, and should help keep off any ice and snow build up for a few hours.
  • Spray a coating of DuPont Dry-Film Lubricant onto the headlight lenses. While this product is not intended to keep snow or ice off of headlights, many vehicle owners have used it with great results.
  • Spray a thin coating of PAM cooking spray onto a rag and wipe the headlight lenses with it. This cooking spray will create a thin oily film on top the lenses, keeping snow and ice from sticking.

Of course, the best way to avoid having ice accumulate on your LED headlights is to park in a garage or under an awning. However, that still doesn’t keep ice from accumulating onto the headlight lenses while driving.

Just as hazy and yellow headlights are a safety hazard, so too are icy headlights. Both reduce night time visibility, making it more difficult for drivers to see the road ahead.

Thankfully, the tips outlined above should help keep the ice from accumulating onto your LED headlights, making for a safer winter driving experience.

Final Thoughts

LED headlights are a great advancement in automotive technology, but they do have one major downside: ice buildup. Following the tricks outlined in this post should help you keep your headlights shining brightly all winter long.

Have you tried one of these methods to keep the ice off your LED headlights? Let us know in the comments below!

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