How to De-Ice Your Car Quickly

How many times during cold months do you get in the car needing to be on your way quickly, and find you’re stuck with iced-up windows?

The scourge of every motorist before the morning commute, the scraping, the heating, and the waiting all become very frustrating.

With a current cold snap gripping the country, there’s a clear strategy to save time and reduce the time spent thawing your vehicle.

Get the blowers on

The first thing to do when switching on the engine is to get the warm blowers on the windscreen and the rear windscreen. This heats up the surface and melts the ice that will be on the outside of the screen.

Many may think turning the air conditioning on is a bad idea and only used to cool things down in summer. But having it on removes moisture from the air and prevents the dreaded mist from descending onto your windscreen interiors.

Multi-task – Scrape those windows

While your car is warming up with the blowers on, get out and scrape the external surfaces of windows and windscreens. That way you are working on the external and internal at the same time, reducing the time taken to get them cleared.

It’s always handy to have a can of de-icer in your car. The spray cuts through ice quickly and effectively.

Avoid the potato wiper

There are many myths floating around and ‘life hacks’ which simply aren’t as effective as you might think or are as silly as you might suspect!

Using onions, sticks or potatoes to clear your windscreen – no, no, and no.

Pouring hot water on the windscreen is one to avoid as you may cause extensive damage with the potential for cracks appearing that can grow in size and lead to an unsafe windscreen.

Only start driving when safe to do so

The temptation may be to get started and let the blowers continue doing their work but you should only begin driving if you can see through the windscreen and have clear visibility. Driving with a partially iced over windscreen, or one that is misted up, can be extremely dangerous and leave you more vulnerable to an accident taking place.

Don’t risk it. Wait until it’s all clear before setting off.

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