When I was a kid, a friend of mine taught me a technique for taking care of thick layers of ice on the windshield.
Basically, as far as I remember it, he used the ice scraper to chip the ice off a corner of the windshield, and then somehow gave it a good whack with the scraper, which cracked the ice so that you could peel it off the windshield in pieces instead of having to actually scrape it off. The hell of it is, I remember chipping out the corner, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what to do next.
Does anyone use this technique, and if so, what am I forgetting?
I’ve never heard of that method. And it sounds like an excellent way to crack your windshield. And I seriously doubt it would work.
I live in snow country. 6 months out of the year I have ice and snow on the windshield.
Nothing beats a good scraper and brush. And if you can, just pre-heat your car, get the defrosters working on it.
I’ve been scraping serious snow and ice off my car for a long, long time. And so has everyone else I work and play with. If there was a magic way to do it, I would really, really like to know.
I did this during the recent ice storm in Oregon. As near as I can tell, it only works when it’s something like freezing rain that develops a thick sheet of ice. When it’s just frost that’s formed overnight, you still have to scrape.
The technique is just like you described. Whack the ice with the butt of the scraper, and it cracks into shards. A little sideways force, and they fall right off.
Yes, but be careful: I’ve broken a couple scrapers being a little too aggressive whacking the ice lke this, and while they are cheap, if you don’t have another scraper handy it’s incredibly inconvenient to not have one when you really need it.
PS CD cases (the clear plastic front part) work great as frost scrapers in the event you break your scraper. Just sayin’
It will work as long as the temp is close to 33(f). Or freezing rain with the ambient close to 32f.
I have needed to roll ASAP and had very heavy frost/ice. In those cases a pitcher of hot tap water cleared the ice nicely.
And there are additive for the washer for ice removal. If it isn’t a strong enough mix it will frost over immediately, causing many rounds of washer cycles to get to the fire hall.
Best is parking in the garage, next is to cover windshield over with cardboard or something simular.
Also when the ice is heavy, the back of many scrapers is serrated, and can be used to groove the ice making scraping much easier. A hard frost on a -20(f) night like we are prepared for tonight makes for very hard scraping. Some times a scraper as Sharpe as a knife is all that will remove this hard frost short of a good warm-up.
If there is any chance that I will have to use a vehicle that is not under cover, I put in a small electrical space heater, the $18.00 kind with 3 fan speeds and a Temp control set to keep the interior warm. (60 to 70) No ice or frost at all and it is warm to boot. On the 4X4 I also have an oil pan heater and if the battery is questionable I put a trickle charger on that. Cost of electricity, less than $2.00. Less than 30 times a year at most… here and I usually get by with 4-5 times a year.
Anyone who is silly enough to live North of 40 degrees North Latitude deserves all the problems they get.
The most magical way is what you said above… get the defroster working on it. One you heat heat the windshield up, you form a thin layer of water between the windshield and the ice. Sometimes this can even enable you to ‘slide’ big chunks of ice off the windshield. If it’s snow and ice, then you get the ice scraper and brush going.
The news this morning was recommending to us non-ice-familiar Dallasites a mixture of water and vinegar as a de-icer. I have not tested this theory (never heard of it in 21 years living in Illinois and especially Michigan, where it certainly could have come in handy!), but I should get a chance to this afternoon.
Around here (SE Louisiana), it almost never gets below 25 degrees F. Sometimes, when the temps fall below 35 F or so, we get a thinnish layer of ice on the windshield. I fill a gallon jug full of hot tap water (north of 160 F), run outside, and pour most of it over the icy windshield. The windshield has never cracked doing this, and the water only refreezes if I get interrupted and don’t end up starting the car for a bit.
I imagine in colder climes, even that hot water would refreeze fairly quickly. I have noticed that people from truly cold areas never recommend using hot water this way. About how far down in temperature can hot water be safely used as a de-icer?
Uh, never. The problem isn’t refreezing, it’s that you’re rapidly heating cold glass. Just because you haven’t seen a problem yet doesn’t mean one day you won’t see your windshield crack or shatter.
I don’t think the glass actually gets hot, though. It’s still quite cool to the touch after the ice is melted off. And again, I’m not doing it in -30 F weather, either.
EDIT: I missed that Gbro has tried this method successfully, as well. I am wondering if the true risk of windshield damage is lower than commonly thought?
Over here (Germany) we are always discouraged from running the engine or iddling, of the car while standing still (that’s what you mean with pre-heating, yes?) for the two reasons: 1) It’s bad for the enviroment, since the catalysator isn’t heated up and doesn’t work, also, because the engine isn’t running optimally, more dangerous compounds are created (That’s why police will give you a ticket for pollution if you iddle the engine)
2) it’s bad for the engine, which is not designed to idle, but to run at high speeds. Esp. in winter, when oil is thickly viscous, this may damage the engine, when the oil can’t get everywhere because the optimum (heat etc) of the engine is only reached during driving, not during standing.
Unless your car engines are designed differently?
The best way if you are a lantern-parker beforehand is to put one of those alufoil-covered blankets they sell at car shops on the windshield during the night, I’d think.
That surprises me, because I’ve heard (not a car expert myself) that that method - esp. with hot water instead of only room temp. - is a great way to crack your windshield due to the stresses of the temp. diff. between ice-cold windshield and hot water.
Also, unless you put additives into the water (Which are then dangerous for the enviroment) don’t you run the risk of having a pure sheet of ice once the water cools down to ambient?
I was talking about doing it in temps close to 0 Celsius. Sometimes, the “overnight” ice will still be there even when the morning air temp is around 2 or 3 C.
I don’t think either of those make any sense, but especially the latter. If your oil is viscous, you probably don’t want to be running the engine fast until it thins out. A car will heat up to optimum temperatures just fine while idling. But if you use the right oil for the weather conditions, you don’t * have * to idle the car to warm it up.
In my state, we have to do annual emission inspections which are typically done while the car is idling. I’ve seen the emission analysis and the pollutants coming out of the tailpipe are pretty minimal.
The real reason to not idle a car is that you’re using up gas (or diesel) for no good purpose. However, “getting the defroster hot enough to get the ice off the windshield” counts as a good purpose, especially given that it’s dangerous to go driving around with frost accumulating on the windshield.
Sorry, I tried to remember what they said on TV several days ago why it’s still not a good idea to idle the car while standing even for a few minutes, and they talked about the viscosity of the oil, and how while it would seem that running the engine = making the oil thin is wrong for idling while standing.
I don’t know who does your inspections - over here, it’s the TÜV (technical control club), but they put the cars on rubber rollers (similar to that belt loop Dopers want to put airplanes on :)) which the car moves against, so normal driving is simulated, not running the engine while standing still.
But you don’t need to run the engine to get ice off! You use a bit of your muscle and the ice scraper! Like I said, if you idle your car for a few minutes, police will give you ticket, or your neighbours will treat you like the worst polluter on Earth because everybody knows you don’t idle, yet we all manage to scrape off the ice from our windshields. (Because driving around with a frosted-over windshield and only a tiny peep-hole scraped free is dangerous and therefore, gets you a even more serious ticket.)
The warnings by police and car clubs start in November to get up 10 min. earlier than usual so you have enough time to scrape your car free, to scrape all windows (including sides) and brush snow off the roof (so there’s no avalanche when you brake). And to get winter tires and drive according to conditions. Every year they tell people anew, so everybody should know it.
As posted, I have poured HOT tap water over my windshield many times over nearly 30 years of responding to the fire hall of ambulance garage. The layout of my home and garage made for a slower response so all those cold winters my 4X4 trucks would be parked outdoors and plugged in whenever the temps would be expected to go below 0(f). I always use a good synthetic oil and had a jug set out for hot tap water as I would head out the door.
When the hot water is applied the whippers are turned on as soon as they are freed up and although I never beliver I wouldn’t at some point crack the glass I was told many years before that the window wouldn’t and It just never has. Furthermore, i have had cracks in my window from road debris, and the hot water just didn’t even increase these. And I am talking about cracks that can be pushed with the thumb and watch grow.
My question to you, Is safety glass like we have in USA autos the same as glass in your autos?
I know that years ago there were restrictions on cars brought into the US from abroad because of safety glass.
There is no concern about tickets, neighbors or car theft where I live. And -20 f is not unusual. Idling to help clear the ice is one of the reasons I do it. Another is I want my cab to start to heat up before I drive.
I often have to scrape some as well and of course brush the snow off my car.
