better than ducttape when it's cold?

[Gary_Yngve]

Some jackasses smashed out a window on our car when it was about -15C outside. We couldn't get ducttape to stick to anything on the outside or the inside of the car. When we got back to Seattle and the temps were above freezing, the ducttape worked fine. Is there any good adhesive when it's that darn cold outside?

[Dru]

Maybe your duct tape was substandard and you should pay $20 for a premium brand.

[Thrashador]

Hockey tape. The black hockey stick tape works great in cold temps...

Kentucky chrome fails in cold, cold temps in my experience.

[Gary_Yngve]

Maybe your duct tape was substandard and you should pay $20 for a premium brand.

 

You're absolutely right, Dru. I bought my ducttape at the local hardware store. Had I gone to REI and paid 4X the price, I might have gotten better quality.

 

(Seriously, we borrowed a different brand of ducttape from the ski resort, and their ducttape wasn't performing much better.)

[Alex]

Gary, we got in an accident Christmas day with our Toyota.

 

We had a 1.89$ roll of duct tape and a single hefty bag to work with; the patch over the rear window lasted the entire trip to Banff, including -30C temps and the 60-75mph drive to Banff and back to Seattle with only 1 spot retaped the entire time.

 

There seemed to be a couple keys: the surface doesnt have to be warm when you tape, but should be as warm as possible and has to be absolutely dirt free. Clean the surface as best you can, warm up the tape as best you can, warm the surface as best you can (inside a garage for a few hours, or a shake-n-warm applied as you tape, or an XGK/canister stove held at a safe distance).

 

That said, Nashua brand model #357 duct tape is well worth the money spent if you can find it. Stock up.

[EWolfe]

The Nashua IS superior, and it is celebrity endorsed:

 

[Gary_Yngve]

Nashua is what we borrowed at the ski resort. It was a little stickier than Duck Tape, but it still couldn't do the job given the cold temps.

[catbirdseat]

If you are lucky enough to have a car with a frame around the window, you can just shut some plastic in the door, but it seems you were not so lucky, were you?

[slothrop]

The window was not in a door, so your suggestion wouldn't work, CBS. Luckily, we had so much gear in the trunk/hatchback that we just shoved a piece of cardboard between gear and window.