3 Cheap and Easy Formulas for Homemade Windshield De-Icer (Plus Bonus Tips) [Wisebread]
]]>Those things are my FAVORITE in PA winters.
]]>Right. I learned that lesson the hard way when I poured a bucket of hot water into a new aquarium filled with cold water in an effort to raise the temperature.
...broken glass and 15 gallons of water all over the floor.
]]>This should be a very expensive and frequent citation, but it's not.
]]>No shoveling, raking, whatever...
]]>I agree with idling the car if it is supposed to be idled, or it doesn't say. However, greenies in many places up North have implemented brilliant laws that make it illegal to idle. Some of them for as short as 10 seconds.
Lucky, while my city is thinking of implementing one, at least they're putting exceptions in for freezing / extreme heat temperatures (Air Conditioning). Of course, then again, they plan to try to enforce the rules in drive thrus. LOL!
]]>Hey and you should also leave a window open so that all the moisture trapped in the car (from snowy shoes and boots) can get out.
For the rest of you... use the garbage bag over the windshield solution... and clean the snow off the rest of the car too, especially the head and turn lights! ... not doing so in most places will get you a 5 minute talk by the cops and a financial incentive too.
]]>Oh yeah, the window totally shattered in that "safety glass" sort of way that we all know and love.
Funny thing - my Mom didn't really care about my intentions only the results. I learned a great life lesson that day.
]]>since when is living in california free?@Snowblind:
]]>whats wrong with this page, it's on the side of the screen i cant read what im tying. anyways, another usful method is to use an old shoe on your hand... keeps your hand warm and the sole of the shoe if good for scraping, and doesn't scratch.
]]>Glad you made it out of there alive and in one piece. Got blinded by the trail of snow falling off the roof of some car a couple of weeks ago myself during rush hour.
]]>Because there are plenty of places in California where it does, and even in San Diego they're not far away. I like to point this out when the locals who think California = Disneyland complain about "California drivers who can't drive in snow."
]]>If the water isn't too hot, you don't have to worry about it causing the glass to break.
I'm not going to put alcohol on my still newish car.
]]>It only takes 5 minutes if there's not much snow and NO ice on the car... and somebody else shovels the driveway for you.
]]>It was good to -30F, unless it froze in the wiper lines first.
The only stuff that worked and didn't freeze was the more pricey green stuff from Sheetz.
How I wish we had a garage...
]]>No, no...that's JELLYFISH stings.
]]>@Shadowfire: Ours is "good to" -20, and it froze in ~15 F.
Never believe that crap.
]]>Now I have to be careful not to park near the orange tree or I'll need to de-juice the windshield in the morning.
]]>Just like the trash bag mentioned above, but strong enough to hold up under the weight of snow/ice.
]]>I know "OMG that's bad for your paint!" but if it's that icy out anyway, you're going to be driving through a lot worse on the way to work, so it's not that bad.
Salt lowers the freezing temperature of the ice, so it turns back to water.
]]>The Levees are bad in some areas, that is true. The worst were fixed in 2006. But most of the outlying residential areas are well protected. It is downtown that is at the most risk. Anyone living down there is very familiar with "Freedom Lake" knows minor flooding is a regular issue.
And it is those same rivers that make this such a great place to live. Where else can you stand in the middle of a river in a major metropolitan area and not see or hear a single sign of human activity? And the fishing is not bad either.
Frost on the windshield is a rare thing where I live, maybe 3 or 4 days a month and it is a fine layer that melts with a hit of wiperfluid. However, Sacramento is famous for it's micro-climates. 20 degree differences are not uncommon just a mile or two from each other. When it gets cold enough to frost we usually get a tule fog instead, which is just as blinding and does not scrape off!
]]>It is nowhere near as bad as the ice I had to deal with when I lived in Tucson; the roads were constantly iced over and the windows got really thick with ice but nowhere sold any scrapers so I had to use my drivers license to scrape the windows.
]]>. . .pretty sure they're joking, anyway.
]]>OK, one last cold weather thing husband and I just discussed at dinner (yes, FIFTEEN years of this) most modern cars should not use the gas-line antifreeze product, "Heet." It was designed to pull moisture out of your carburetor. But you probably don't have one of those, you have fuel injection. The alcohol in the product drys out the seals, gaskets, etc. through the system to the fuel pump, causing them to crack and your parts to fail...not a cheap repair.
]]>I think he was jealous because he didn't have a similar feature installed, he had to leave a key in the ignition with the doors locked if he needed to idle his car while he was away.
But yeah, I believe it's illegal in most places to leave your car running without supervision.
]]>earthquakes arent that bad... shoot we had one two weeks ago
]]>Take the edge of the scraper and scrape just around the edges of the windows.
By the time you get done with all four windows (or two, depending on your style car), start at the window you did first and open the door.
Roll down your window with the door open.
Ice will fall out of the window. If it doesn't (my back windows down roll all of the way down because of the child safety thing), knock the ice out of the window.
And upthread, I commented about getting that sheet of ice off the roof of your car. If you have a sunroof/moonroof, open the cover on the inside of your car. Let your car warm up with your heat on high for a few minutes, and it should make your roof window warm enough that you can just slide the sheet of ice right off. Very important if you have highway driving to do!!
]]>Ahhh, I don't miss the ice. I live in Phoenix now, but spent 30 years living in Philly -
~~~
Let me tell you a really cruel trick to play on your favorite enemy ---
SuperGlue in the keyhole of the car, timed to coincide with an ice/snow storm.
How long does it take to figure out the keyhole is glued and not merely frozen shut? - a long time.
]]>You would think people living in places with that sort of weather would know about tarpaulins. Cover the car and tie it down with bungee cords - next day, lift it off. Worked for me.
Of course, it was always snow where I lived, not ice storms....
]]>I too keep my car ice free by living in California. The SF Bay Area doesn't have issues with wildfires/mudslides; earthquakes...well that is an issue.
]]>That's also how a HUGE number of car thefts occur in the southwest part of the US where that kind of cold is only occasional.
]]>I still, to this day years later, stay very, very far back from cars on the highway after a snowstorm. It's fine while people are driving around town at slow speeds, if the snow falls off it will fall onto the road. But on the highway at high speeds, it will come off at high speeds and fly through the air to hit the car behind it, instead of falling downward as it might at slow speeds.
People sometimes think the ice on the roof of their car is so thick and frozen solid that it wont' come flying off. But then they are in their car with the heat on for a while, and the heat inside the car melts the bottom of the sheet of ice on the roof, creating a liquid layer between the car roof and the ice sheet. A big, slippery surface for the ice to come off in one huge piece!
Ice sheets flying at a car at 60 mph is more dangerous than people realize.
]]>Also, and this is like the common-sense-est idea ever, but ... we have a detached garage now and it took us until the third winter here to realize it's a lot easier to keep a snow shovel IN THE HOUSE so you can just shovel right out instead of trudging to the garage to fetch it. Detached garages are the norm here, and people keep coming over, seeing the shovel and going, "Oh, hey, I never thought of keeping one in the house!" We stick it in the bathtub to try out when it's wet and we store it on some hooks on the basement stairs (which in the summer hold big floppy hats and light overshirts for sun protection).
]]>I used this for two months when I had a job that required me to get up really early and drive some student teacher to their schools. I did not want to spend that long deicing the windows and could not let the van run in a public lot w/o risking it being stolen.
]]>Pour a bottle of it in your windshield washing fluid and then fill the tank, that does the trick too.
I wouldnt go with vinegar either. It smells and its acidic so who knows what it could do to the paint.
]]>@ForrestWhitakersLazyEye: It does!!! I used it on your door handle and the ice came right off :p
]]>@echyone: Agreed. I also wouldn't recommend using alcohol on your vehicle.
]]>Take a rubber mallet and give that ice a tap, and it pops right off! Not only is it effective, it's fun, too! :D
(Of course, make sure you don't leave the mallet inside the car. And take it easy on the windows. Tap the corner lightly.)
]]>But then... it is Sacramento.
]]>After two years of ice storms and killer tornadoes in Missouri, I'd join Snowblind in a heartbeat.
]]>And while people are cleaning their windshields, please, clean the top of the car, too! I was once almost killed on the highway when the person in front of me had a sheet of ice fly off their roof and crash into my windshield, shattering it so bad like a giant opaque spiderweb that I couldn't see a foot in front of me, and skidding all over the road trying to pull over from 60 mph to zero without hitting other cars!
]]>So hows those earthquakes, wildfires, and mudslides working for ya?
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