Safe Speed Forums

Just wondered who does what as I see different methods on my street. Personally I just pour warm water over all glass and then drive off. This to me is the best way as it's quicker, easier, and keeps the screen clear long enough for the heater to get warm. The only drawback is having to stop or get someone else in the house to grit the drive to stop the postman from going flying with the excess frozen water. I know some people don't like it as it can crack the screen, but I've never had that happen, and even if it did tomorrow I'd consider the time saved over the amount of times I've done it as being worth it.

Not sure how relevant it is as I know a lot of cars have heated front screens but we'll see anyway.

I know this is a bit way-out, but I keep my car in the garage so I don't need to de-ice it

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Lucky bugger, they built the garages on our estate too small to fit a car in

Heated front screen - best device Ford ever patented.

I know, I REALLY miss it since I moved to the VX camp.....


Last wee while I've been trying the 'night before' treatment with mixed results. If you don't coat it beyond belief it makes little or no difference.
But a nice side effect of having the glycerine in the mix is the re-freezing of the ice is much slower.

I keep a couple of 'normal' spray cans in the boot - but they are just utterly !

For the last week I've just taken to having a plant spray bottle filled with meths! Wow! Best thing ever for de-icing!

On the really cold days, ice forms on the inside too - real PITA, been using a PROPER window squeegee to keep it clear.

Last house had a double integral garage with electric doors, talk about the height of decadent luxury! First you knew of an icy morning was when the traction control light flickered at the end of the road! (joke) I never did quite manage to get out of the habit of humming the opening bars to "Thunderbirds" as I waited for the door to open enough to drive out.

Now we've moved the car's are back outside so the tyranny of de-icing is back with us. I've always used a scraper from way back in the days when I used to live in a notorious "ice pocket", as the house I grew up in was in a clearing along a road that skirted the bottom of a hill and was otherwise tree-lined. In certain conditions you could actually see freezing fog funnelling down between the hills and settling on the cars! It used to freeze that hard that de-icer would freeze back onto the windscreen, leaving you worse off than when you started!

I also hate the stuff for the amount of smearing it causes, whereas a couple of vigorous minutes with an ice scraper actually cleans your windscreen of any other residue in the process!

As others have noted, another problem when it gets really cold is your breath freezing onto the inside of the screen. Many's the time I remember driving off with the window open, making a conscious effort to exhale only to the side, as I was inevitably too late for work to ever allow the car to heat up properly!

And aren't heaters efficient these days. My car has a 3 litre engine, yet it is already "airing" the windscreen within half a mile of driving off. In the "good old days" car heaters used to take about 3 or 4 miles, even with an engine of less than half the size that should have warmed up much quicker.

We really don't know we're born these days, do we?

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

My twopenneth. Bring the cans of deicer indoors into the warm. When you take them out to de-ice the car in the morning they seem to work much better than leaving them in the car overnight.

i keep a bottle of salty water handy

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now retired

[weary_old_anecdote]
Many moons ago when I had newly acquired my latest P & J in the form of an Opel Manta, we suffered one of the infamous cold snaps to which I alluded earlier.

Not knowing the history of the car, at the first sign of frost I had dutifully drained the coolant and added the correct proportion of anti-freeze. So I was somewhat startled one bitterly cold morning when I got just two miles from home before it boiled.

I eventually got it home and could find nothing amiss, so my diagnosis was a sticking wax thermostat. I couldn't face going out after work in the dark and cold to fix it, so instead I resolved to get up ten minutes early for work, and to quickly remove it and run without a thermostat at all just to get me to work the next day.

So I shot out of the house the following morning, armed with a 13mm spanner, and whipped off the thermostat housing. I was somewhat surprised to find that it was filled with frozen sludge! In high dudgeon I stomped off to the shed for some more anti-freeze, only to find that the damned stuff was itself frozen in the can!

Thus I discovered that methanol based anti-freeze is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Apparently the alcohol in it evaporates over time, leaving you with a solution of coloured water with minimal ice-repellant properties.

I don't think they actually sell it these days!
[/weary_old_anecdote]

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Put on gloves, rub seat to clear ice so bum doesn't get cold and ride motorbike, battling the whole journey with miting up visor and glasses.

If we have to use the car it normally means that there is a wife and children involved in the journey and they can defrost the car for me

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Former Military Police Officer and accident investigator

Another thing to beware of is places like Halfords selling (in small print) 'ready to use' or 'ready mixed' antifreeze. This is a solution of 30% antifreeze and 70% water intended for topping up, but it isn't usually clearly labelled as such and, in Halfords at least, it's about the same price as concentrate. I bought some last year by mistake, but fortunately realised what it was before relying on it. They are putting people's engines at risk for a quick profit.

Well if I'm at home then it'll be a bottle of water emptied on the windscreen. It's usually not all that warm, but warmer than ice so it melts and once it's all melted I'll use the wipers to get rid of it before it freezes again.

If "warmish" water could crack the window so could a heated front windscreen, right?

Otherwise I will use my second favourite button on the car, second only to "the button that doesn't actually do anything at all". It is the "clear the front windscreen" button and it works very well. I don't know if the car has any electrical heater on the front windscreen but the automatic climate control thingy blows air at full speed on to the front windscreen and has a de-humidifier which I guess does most of the work, that an the air heater.

I really don't like being cold so I don't like air conditioners but I think I've found an occasional use for them now.

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Andrew.

I said bottle of luke warm water, but it's a bit warmer than that really. We keep an empty coke bottle by the kitchen sink, and if the car is frozen it gets filled with water from the hot tap. A coke bottle is plenty for all the glass including door mirrors and from the tap the water isn't hot enough to crack the glass (though for years my mum used to boil a kettle and never cracked the glass either). Takes 30 seconds tops - bit odd that a bloke over the road is halfway through clearing his windscreen with a credit card when we start and only 17/32 done when we've finished think he'd have noticed after the last half dozen winters. Also helps with my car by parking as close to the house as possible, then I only have to do the windscreens and the offside.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Like Gatsobait I use hot ,not boiling out of tap water - a pint jug is usually enough - trickled on it gets rid of the ice without leaving much to re freeze.
Have found that since parking car in drive ( posh term for slabs in front garden), getting front end close to house seems to keep the windscreen a bit clearer.
Works van gets same treatment as being deisel it needs a run to get heater going - slightly off topic - now got stone chip on screen - waiting to see if that radio ad on frozen windscreens and chips is true or just scare tactics till i get it to rac windscreens.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Interesting poll, I was suprised that quite a few use an ice scaper - I hate them myself. Always seems to take ages and my hands would end up numb, even with gloves! At least I'm not alone in the water pouring method but still I know some people who will never dare risk it.

I definately understand how annoying it when it is so cold that your breath is freezing on the screen! Roll on summer!

Been quite a few days now - that chip high up on passenger side hasn't moved or got bigger with the frost and thurs/fri was coooold ( and yes i haven't been able to get it into a windscreen place , as i suspect that from previous history it will need a new screen)

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

You are not trying hard enough.

Our house, built in 1999, standard size, single integrated garage. Fits a Peugeot 807 (large 7 seat MPV) like a glove. Even has room for some shelves at the back.

So I voted other but when I do have to deice it's the scraper followed by a quick spray of de-icer to keep it clear.

Yes, I could probably squeeze my car through the door of the garage, but I doubt that I would be able to get out once it was in.

It's probably due to too many burgers.........

The car will go in, but I won't come out!

I keep mine in a garage as well. But if i go out for an evening during the winter months and the car is left out, its usually a Ice scraper for the excess frost then de-icer

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RoADA Member -GOLD 2008
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.