Allow your car time to warm up before you drive away. Even if you scrape your windows clean, if you drive off with a cold car the windows can fog up in a hurry on the inside. Neither fun nor safe, particularly before sunrise.
Be careful scraping the windshield around the wipers. Don’t pull up on the wipers when they’re stuck fast to the windshield. I find that carefully scraping the windshield along the long axis of the wiper with the edges of the scraper just barely touching the wiper blade is the safest.
Allow yourself plenty, and I mean twice as much as you think, room to stop your car.
If you shovel the snow manually, do so slowly with plenty of breaks. Heart attacks while shoveling are a real risk. Depending on your location in MI and the length of your driveway, you might think about getting a snow blower. If you can afford it, 2 stage blowers with 4 cycle engines and electric start are far superior.
If you’re just walking out to the mailbox, don’t put a jacket on. You’ll look like one of us.
This. Also the windshield wiper tips were spot on. Nudge those frozen stuck blades free gently, they will rip-rubber is softer, ice is tougher and more tenacious. If you hear snow/ice/frost is coming, lift the wiper blades up and away from the window. Plop them back down when you return to the car to drive it.
Don’t be embarrassed to waddle like a penguin. Keep a wide foot stance. Always keep your arms and hands free for balance. Carry things in a shoulder bag or backpack. If you are carrying in groceries, carry a bag in both hands, again, for balance.
I forgot: Keep your windshield wiper sprayer tank filled. Do not cut the fluid with water, use it right out of the jug. If you drive along and see light icing starting on the windshield on the outside, you can often fight it off with the wipers and spray until the defroster is fully warmed up. If your windshield is impossible to see out of due to icing when you drive, don’t be afraid to open your window and stick your head out for a clear view as you safely find a place where you can scrape off the ice and/or warm up your car.
Back in the day when I usually parked outside in winter, the wipers would sometimes freeze to the windshield. I found that a couple of firm taps with the ice scraper would dislodge them.
The main thing is, do NOT drive away without checking the wipers and making sure they’re not frozen stuck, because in winter you’re likely to be using them. I did that once. It broke a wiper arm, which was less damage than it could have been, since it could have burned out the motor or broken some part of the internal mechanism.
Apologize if it’s already been posted, but keep a spray bottle of windshield de-icer handy in the car. You can buy de-icer anywhere, or to make your own de-icer, combine one two parts 70% isopropyl alcohol with one part water and add a few drops of dish soap. Works like a charm
They do actually have insulation all around them but if it’s below freezing for much over a day or so they’ll freeze up if not left dripping. It’s annoying but then again we don’t get a lot of cold weather so it’s manageable. Part of the problem is that I live in a converted delivered shed that’s up on pilings so there’s a good sized void space underneath that I haven’t gotten around to covering with skirting so that’s probably the issue. Once I get it closed in it should stay warm enough underneath to keep things from freezing up.
If you have a snowblower, make sure the blown snow doesn’t end up on a neighbor’s sidewalk/in their driveway. It happened regularly to a friend in Wausau. She was mighty irritated.
No there aren’t, or at leat not in sold in recent decades in anywhere semi-modern.
But there are cars that people start up and drive off before the engine has heated up enough to make the defroster effective. The car’s functionally defrosterless, if not physically defrosterless.
Since you’re in Michigan, be prepared for freezing rain and icy sidewalks. It’s going to happen at some point, and wearing crampons will prevent broken bones.
For the ice on the car, just start it turn up the heat, open the vents and let it run for ten minutes. Then take the ice scrapper to it. The ice will pop right off if your heater worked.
Remove all snow and ice from your car as well, and don’t be this guy. Large sheets of ice flying off the tops of cars going 110 km/h kills people.
Have a winter “Oh shit” kit in your car. A small box with an emergency blanket, booster cables, battery, candles, tin foil, flares, vest , blanket, water, power bar.
For clothing and keeping warm its all about staying dry and insulated - layers.
Years ago I got out to my car one morning and there was a light coating of ice on the windows. I could see through it and thought it would be fine so off to work I went. And it was fine. Until I turned onto a busy street and the rising sun hit the windshield. Holy Shit! I slammed on the brakes hoping that no one was behind me. Fortunately, no one was and I sat in the car until the defroster could do its work. I never did that again. Always clear off even the thinnest layer of ice.
I think TheCuse was speaking about wires in the windshield not hot air blowing. No they do not cover the entire windsheild, just the very bottom where the windshield wipers rest at idle. I’ve got that on my 4Runner. Personally, it’s not as great as I thought it would be. Sometimes it seems to make things worse by melting water at the bottom, and then when the wipers move, it freezes to them. In any case, it sometimes seems to make more ice stick to them. It’s weird, but sure seems like a good idea.
Once i got involved in cold country I always thought that having a full set of heater wires embedded in the windshield was such a basic safety feature it should be required, not prohibited. Modern cars have embedded wires in rear windows at about 1/2" intervals. Seems to me a tighter mesh of much finer wires could have both normal vis and prompt deicing & defogging.
Cool. That’s exactly the system used on jet airplanes. The windows are electrically heated by invisibly fine wires. Then again, windshield cost, and replacement cost, is almost immaterial in that business.
That’s exactly the system I’d like to see available on cars in the US.
I seem to remember that you’re in southern Michigan, but close to a great lake (well, at least a darn good one). That means it won’t be as cold as “Da U.P. up nort’ dere, ya hey?”, but you’re going to get Lake Effect Snow…
I’ve dealt with huge snows for a half-dozen decades with no snowblower… just my trusty shovel. But it’s lightweight plastic WITH A METAL EDGE to scrape down to the sidewalk. And as I get older, it’s more important to stretch well beforehand.
And get in good cardiovascular shape… There’s a reason some blizzards are called “Heart Attack Snow”. I do the front walk, come back in for coffee, do the driveway, eat breakfast, go back out to do the patio later. But, hey, I can skip my workout on those days.
The first winter I was in Massachusetts, I drove my truck into town with a pile of snow on the roof. First place I stopped was a gas station, and another customer, an older lady, came over and gave me a lecture on how dangerous that was, and that I should never never never do that again. She told me a relative was in a bad accident on the interstate when a load of snow flew off the car in front of him and hit his windshield.
