What is the best way of clearing ice off windows?

mattfielding

As previous posters have alluded to, luke-warm water is the key here. Anything too hot can and will cause cracked windscreens, I thought everybody knew this but some anecdotes here prove otherwise!

Don't leave your car running with the heaters on and go inside - or if you do at least make it obvious that you're watching it from your front window. Thieves cruise residential areas around 8am looking for people doing this, according to my ex-copper father-in-law.

pulliptears

OH leaves a pepsi bottle of water by the hall radiator at night and uses that on his side windows and rear screen. Windscreen has a cover on it.

mandragora_2

Put the car in the garage when you get home and close the doors.

dld2s

Strider590 wrote: »

I open the boot, unplug the mains cable from the side of my garage, throw it into the boot, move the 1.5kw heater from the centre arm rest onto the floor behind the drivers seat and then drive off..... Total time = about 20 seconds :cool:

I have to be honest, im starting to wonder if an 8hr tea light, in a suitable/sturdy container, would also keep the car defrosted over night (it only needs to be slightly warmer than the air outside). Setting it up safely however, would probably require more common sense than the average UK citizen is capable of.

I remember when my cars heater went, money was very tight that particular month, also happened to be one of the coldest winters in years, I had to use tea lights to try and keep my car windscreens clear, it made for some folk looking in my car when it was parked at night wondering what the flickering light in the car was, even had to have some burning whilst driving

I dont know if I was breaking any law but was ch****n myself in case I got pulled over by police, , fortunately never did get pulled also never did fix the car, money got a little better the next month and I traded it in.

Richard53

Strider590 wrote: »

I have to be honest, im starting to wonder if an 8hr tea light, in a suitable/sturdy container, would also keep the car defrosted over night (it only needs to be slightly warmer than the air outside). Setting it up safely however, would probably require more common sense than the average UK citizen is capable of.

Hmmm, until a few days ago I would have said this was a great idea.


We had some people round for a meal, and we had some tea lights burning in coloured glass containers, a bit like you get in a semi-posh restaurant (wife likes them). About half-way through the dessert course, one of the tea lights took off, burning really fiercely and throwing out tons of black, choking smoke. I managed to carry it into the kitchen and put it out with a wet tea-towel, but the smoke persisted for about an hour, really horrible stuff. It seemed as though the wax in the tea light had melted totally and then the wax itself caught fire, rather than feed a small flame in the wick. (It may not have helped that I put the tea light on top of a small quantity of wax that was already in the base of the jar from last time.)


I'm usually fairly safety-conscious, and this really surprised me. Not something I would want to happen in a car of mine at night when I wasn't around


Just sayin'.

buglawton

mandragora wrote: »

Put the car in the garage when you get home and close the doors.

I prefer having the butler clear the windscreen.

cepheus

I used the Lidl stuff on the windscreen for the first time tonight. Good job I'm not an alcoholic, that smell is more addictive than any booze!

Iceweasel

I think it would go down well with a touch of Tonic Water. :beer:

thescouselander

I just use bog standard de-icer. The trick is to keep the can inside the house instead of in the car and that makes it far more effective.