If you’ve ever used a gas-station squeegee to clean your car’s windshield, you may’ve just coated your vehicle in a thin layer of piss.
At least that’s what a TikToker named Mera (@merabell7) is claiming in a viral clip that she uploaded in order to strongly advise folks against replicating a “life hack” posted by another user on the platform: Devin (@irishboy2one).
In Devin’s original video, he records himself taking an empty McDonald’s cup to the buckets used to house gas station squeegees. If you’ve ever wiped down your windshield using one of these cleaning apparatuses, then you’ve probably noticed the liquid its steeped in looks like windshield wiper fluid and maybe the same stuff you put in your car.
The TikToker writes in a caption for the video: “$6.00 for windshield fluid??? Times are tough….” he also adds a “#lifehack” hashtag to the video, giving some insight into why he decides to raw-dog his hand into the squeegee reservoir: Filling the plastic cup up with the squeegee bucket juice, and then pouring it into his vehicle’s wiper fluid reservoir to top his vehicle off.
However, Devin’s video was stitched by Mera, who says that doing this is a bad idea: “Oh my God actually please don’t do that,” she says in her video.
@merabell7 #stitch with @Devin ♬ original sound – Mera
She continued, “I work at a gas station, we have to change that like every night and every single night it smells rancid. Like I think people pee in there. For real. I wear two pairs of nitrile gloves when I am handling that water cause I do not want it to touch my bare skin. For the love of God please do not put it in your car and please do not touch it.”
One commenter seemed to agree with Mera, stating that the only time she ever uses that water is when her car is covered in bird feces: “I only ever use this when I have bird all over my windshield so would not want that in my car lol.”
Someone else stated that the spots they go to fuel up their vehicles don’t seem to keen on replacing the squeegee water: “my gas stations don’t change them,” to which Mera replied: “Ngl, they didn’t tell me I had to do that until I was working here for 8 months”
There was another TikTok user who said that Devin’s own video provided evidence against using this hack: “there was literally something FLOATING IN THE CUP.”
The blog Carwash Country, published by a car washing enthusiast penned a whole list of reasons as to why he believes using a gas station squeegee is almost always a bad idea, writing that “the squeegee and water are usually filthy. There’s a reason why the wash containers holding the squeegee are black…because the water inside of them is 9 times out of 10 filthy in my experience. Everything from engine oil to bug guts, to brake dust, it’s hard to find clean solution anymore.”
In the same piece, the article’s author states that the squeegees can often scratch paint and glass “especially when the sponge on the squeegee is worn out.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Mera via TikTok comment for further information.
