The Best Glass Sealants For Water Repellency [2023]

Why Picking the Right Glass Sealant is Important

Making sure that you seal your glass is an important part of maintaining its crystal clear nature. On a car, for example, a glass sealant will help protect your glass from yellowing in the elements. It will also resist etching and scratches from hard water and debris. As well as, providing a water repellent coating for improved visibility. A study by the Transportation Research Institute found that using a rain repellent can increase driver response time by 25%.

This coating also works to resist snow and ice in the winter months. And as for your windshield wipers, not only will you have to use them less but when you do use them the clean, slick nature of the sealed glass will increase their life expectancy.

All of these glass sealants can also be used on shower doors to resist hard water stains and etching as well as boat windshields or any other piece of glass that requires some extra cover from the elements.

Glass is naturally porous. Glass sealant works by filling in those pores and bonding to the glass. It then dries on the glass creating very low surface tension so that water, snow, and ice can’t stick. No sealant will stick on a glass that is covered in dirt, dust, or other foreign matter. So it is very important that you start with a perfectly clean piece of glass. This will improve both the effectiveness and longevity of the product.

How a Glass Sealant Works

Glass sealants work by coating the surface of your glass with a hydrophobic coating. Hydrophobic means “fear of water.” The way a hydrophobic coating works is by increasing the contact angle of the glass. When contact angle increases it inversely decreases the surface area of the water that is touching the glass.

This means that when a water droplet hits the glass it makes the water extremely round so that only a small amount of the actual droplet is able to touch the glass at any given time. This causes the water to roll off of the glass more easily thus creating a natural water repellency. This also works to repel road grime, oils, and bug splatter on the glass. Causing these things to naturally repel so that they don’t stick or at the least scrape off much more easily than normal.

How to Prepare Automotive Glass Before Sealing It

1. Clay Bar The Glass To Remove Contaminants

Using a clay bar on your windshield will remove and dirt, bugs, hard water spots or other debris from your glass. Some of this debris can be extremely small and can’t be seen but as you begin to use the clay bar you will feel it. This same sense of touch is how you will know when the glass is finally clean. We recommend Griot’s Garage Glass Cleaning Spray with Speed Shine as a lubricant. The video below will show you in detail exactly how to use a clay bar to clean your glass.

How to Use Glass Cleaning Clay

2. Polish The Glass To Remove Any Inconsistencies

The next step before applying a glass sealant is to polish the glass. It is important to use a clay bar before you polish because you don’t want any of the contaminants in the glass to come off create scratches as you are polishing. First, start off with a high-quality glass polish. Glass polish is important because it needs to be extremely fine so that it doesn’t scratch the glass. We recommend Griot’s Garage Fine Glass Polish for this job.

We will link in a video below showing you exactly how to use this product correctly. They do recommend you use an orbital polisher for maximum effectiveness we recommend the Dewalt Variable Speed Rotary Polisher Kit. This is a cordless polisher so it is extremely easy to use. Having said that if you want to do it by hand it’ll be a little bit more work but should be just fine 90% of the time for glass sealant application.

How to Use a Fine Glass Polish

3. Clean The Glass To Remove Any Remaining Polish

Next, you just need to clean your glass with a good cleaner like Invisible Glass Premium Cleaner. When doing this make sure that you use two different microfiber cloths. One that will be used to wipe the product off and then a second dry one to make sure that nothing was left behind. Once you have followed these three steps your windshield will be completely restored and ready for your glass sealant.

OUR FAVORITE GLASS SEALANTS!

Best Overall & Longest Lasting

The best glass sealant overall is Gtechniq G1 Clear Vision Smart Glass. This product is sold by a niche car care company that is known for making cutting edge nanotech for cars. They sell this product at a very reasonable price considering how long it lasts compared to its competition. It is able to last much longer because this sealant chemically bonds to the glass.

This coating is said to last 1 to 2 years or about 30,000 miles of driving which is incredible considering the harsh conditions that vehicle glass can go through. Between frequent rains and washing, extreme heat and cold and abrasives like snow salt this is not only the best overall but also the longest lasting glass sealant we’ve found.

This sealant also works as a rain, snow, and ice repellent and the glass coating makes bug removal much easier. This kit is also sold with G2 which helps to remove the residue of G1 after its application.

How to Apply Gtechniq G1/G2

Best Water Shedding at Low Speeds

Many people love a good glass sealant because of its ability to resist water. It does this by drying at a very hard angle that the water isn’t able to stick to. But there are many different factors that affect how extreme that angle can be. One of the biggest factors is some of the chemicals that would also increase its longevity.

Because of this Gtechniq created Gtechniq G5 Water Repellent Coating for Glass. This glass sealant does not have the same longevity as its G1 brother but because of this lack of extra chemicals, it is able to repel water much easier. This means that at speeds as low as 25 mph you will begin to see water shed off of your glass.

If you’re looking for extremely fast application and amazing water-shedding abilities then you may enjoy our article on the best windshield water repellents. These aren’t nearly as long-lasting as these glass sealants but they do work exceptionally well at keeping water off of your glass even at low speeds.

Easiest Application

This glass sealant is made by one of my favorite companies out there and is a nice two in one for easy application. The 303 SiO2 Based Touchless Sealant for Paint, Glass, and Wheels. This sealant is applied to a wet car after your next wash and is then dried to reveal a new shine and an incredible water repellent coating that covers the whole car. This is both a glass sealant and a paint sealant in one.

This product works flawlessly under two very important conditions. One is that the car needs to be cool to the touch and sprayed out of direct sunlight. If it dries one paint or glass then this sealant will streak. The second is that you know less is more. A light mist will begin to make the water bead off of the car so that you know it is working. Then you hit it with a strong jet of water and dry the car off. Using too much can also cause difficulty with streaks.

How to Apply 303 Glass and Paint Sealant

Budget Pick

Griot’s Garage Glass Sealant works flawlessly and comes at a very affordable price. It is applied by hand and it works great to protect car windows, shower doors or any glass that needs protection. It repels, rain, snow, ice, salt, and other road contaminants. This sealant should remain effective for 2 to 3 months depending on the weather. Applying multiple coats of the product will make it last longer and work more efficiently. But when you notice that water is not beading off of the glass any longer then you know it is time to reapply this glass sealant.

How to Apply Griot’s Garage Glass Sealant