Ice - scrape or spray ?

[xantia_v6]

The A/C isn't going to remove any moisture if the outside temperature is below about 3 degrees, and is likely to throw moisture from the previous day at the windscreen , so I turn it off till the weather gets warmer again. The mk1 xantia A/C does not come on with defrost, but neither (I think) does the mk2 below 5 degrees.

I have a scraper with. thin brass blade which shifts the ice that a plastic scraper just wont touch (no scratches after 2 years use). The problem is that on a cold morning the scraper leaves a film of water that immediately re-freezes. A couple of minutes with the V6 idling and the fan on full speed seems to warm the screen enough that it doesn't re-freeze.

[Hell Razor5543]

I got (from Poundland) an ice-scraper/snow brush, and what I do (after starting the engine and getting the glass warming up) is to scrape the ice and then brush off the residue (if there is snow than that gets brushed off first). That usually works well.

[qprdude]

Bit late for work. 3L S type Jag window solid ice. Too impatient to wait for heated screen to clear the ice. Bucket of tap water from the cold tap. Whoosh, over the screen.......CRAAAACK...right along the bottom of the screen the whole way.
Never again will water be poured, thrown, dribbled or sprayed onto my windscreen. Insurance paid for it, less the £60 excess.
That would have bought a lot of litres of fuel to let the car idle and thaw.
Noticed the comment about starting the car then locking it with the spare key. Can that be done? Not on the C5 X7 it can't , nor on the Saab 9-3, nor on the Rover 75 unless it is fitted with the "Bathrobe option".
In Germany, I believe it's now illegal to leave your car idling.
In Uk, if you leave your car idling and unlocked and it gets nicked (popular pastime these days), your insurance won't cover the loss.

Personally, I scrape the worst off, then use a de-icer spray.

The wife simply opens the garage and drives off in her Clio.

[xantia_v6]

I have thought of a better solution...



Next week I am off to New Zealand for 4 months

[Northern_Mike]

Bit late for work. 3L S type Jag window solid ice. Too impatient to wait for heated screen to clear the ice. Bucket of tap water from the cold tap. Whoosh, over the screen.......CRAAAACK...right along the bottom of the screen the whole way.
Never again will water be poured, thrown, dribbled or sprayed onto my windscreen. Insurance paid for it, less the £60 excess.
That would have bought a lot of litres of fuel to let the car idle and thaw.

If you want to look at it monetary terms, I could break a windscreen every week and still be better off. My 2 mins per day - or 10 mins per working week, rather than 15-20 mins a day letting it idle and waste fuel (or 2 hours plus per week at my pay rate - about £60!) I'll take the risk I've taken for 20-odd years. I have much better things to do than spend two hours or more a week scraping ice off cars (As I start at 7am or 7pm, and leave work at either 7am or 7pm, I usually have to de-ice twice a day)

That, plus the fact that if I'm on days I leave for work about 6am. I'm not sure my neighbours would appreciate my car and it's loud diesel idle outside their windows at 5:45am for 15 mins.

[Hell Razor5543]

How many smug bar stewards are there here? KP with his park heater and xantia_V6 off to New Zealand!

[Old-Guy]

Last year I watched a neighbour pour (presumably boiling) water from a kettle on her screen.


CraaaaK!

ooops

Many years ago, driving cautiously to work on a frosty morning (local gritters had concentrated their efforts on the M5) I watched a bloke approaching his car with a steaming kettle. Thought "Not a good idea - a good way to crack the screen!" As I drew level, his 'toughened' screen exploded spectacularly - he was so surprised he dropped the kettle through the gaping hole spraying the interior with near-boiling water!

My new personal technique starts by covering the (warm) screen on frosty evenings with a large Lidl screen cover (£2.99 ). In the morning, set air to recirculate and defrost, start engine and turn on HRW, let car warm up until the screen vents are blowing warm enough to defrost the inside of the screen (assuming it is cold enough) and only then remove the screen cover. While waiting for the engine to warm up, scrape side windows. I don't like sprays as the glycol rots 'rubber' seals and makes a horrible smeary mess to pear through. Rain-X is great stuff but does get scratched by the wiper blades and is then a pig to remove.

[myglaren]

I think I will invest in a screen cover too, almost bought one on Sunday in Aldi, only a couple of quid but Ebeneezer mode took over. Naturally the blower packed in right after that.
Pleased to see the outside temperature has increased a bit, my son will be coming for the car in about twenty minutes.

[KP]

Same rule really. If you cant keep your hand in the water then its far too hot for a screen. Ideally a little bit cooler on the first run and then do a second run if you wish with slightly warmer water. Getting the heat into the screen is the biggest thing as it helps prevent it icing up again while driving and waiting for the engine to warm up as idling engines aren't great long term.

Also leaving a car running unattended is illegal in the UK and while you could lock an older Citroen while still running if someone walks past they can easily pop the window, unlock it and drive off before you get out of the house to stop them and then its another car marked for the write off pile

TBH i think the UK is now getting to the point where manufacturers of lower end vehicles need to start offering park heat functions as so many now have aux fuel heaters to help with warm up it makes a lot of sense and a nice extra option to put on the options list with very little design effort required.

[Mandrake]

Lots of interesting ideas and conflicting opinions.

Scrape, don't scrape! Pour water, don't pour water!

Two suggestions I can rule out - turning the heat up in the garage - I don't have a garage

Fan heater in the car to thaw it out - good idea, but nowhere to plug it in! (The car is parked on the street some distance from the house..)

Funnily enough the same day I started this thread I came home to a surprise present of one of those covers you put over the windscreen that has already been mentioned here...

The first night I put it on I didn't check the weather report and the night was extremely windy and rainy and almost tore it right off...

Last night was the first night I got a chance to test it properly with a good -3 frost this morning, and it certainly did the trick for the windscreen, no need to scrape or do anything for that. If your windscreen is clear that's half the battle!

For the other windows I thought I'd try Mike's suggestion of WARM water, so I poured a couple of litres of luke warm water over the windows (probably about 35-40 degrees) and it did the trick nicely. Sorta. I forgot to add the suggested squirt of detergent to the water, so after I'd driven a few minutes up the road the water on the side windows had re-frozen into intriguing patterns that looked like fresnal lenses

Next time I'll try the squirt of detergent too

[Mandrake]

The A/C isn't going to remove any moisture if the outside temperature is below about 3 degrees, and is likely to throw moisture from the previous day at the windscreen , so I turn it off till the weather gets warmer again.

That's what I thought - at least with the flap on fresh, you're bringing in air with a very low dew point, so the A/C can't reduce the dew point any lower and will refuse to run anyway because the evaporator is too cold and risks icing up.

On recirculate on an already warmed up cabin with people breathing moisture into the air in theory the A/C could still help a little bit, but you could just set it to fresh and turn off the A/C and get the same result. (and fresher air to breathe)

So is it best to have the flap on fresh or recirculate during the initial warm up ? In theory recirculate means that as the cabin warms up the heater has less work to do because its drawing in partially warmed cabin air and heating it up rather than drawing in freezing outside air, and I fixed my recirculate flap specifically to try this but I didn't really notice any difference in the warm up time over the fresh setting.

Is there ever a time to use recirculate for demisting ? Or is recirculate only for use when you drive past the meat works or through dusty road works...

The mk1 xantia A/C does not come on with defrost, but neither (I think) does the mk2 below 5 degrees.

Yes I remember this debate well from another thread. My Mk1 certainly never turned the A/C on automatically with demist, but I haven't seen my Mk2 do it either. If the decision is based upon a temperature reading that could explain the conflicting results different people were reporting.

[Northern_Mike]

Lots of interesting ideas and conflicting opinions.

Scrape, don't scrape! Pour water, don't pour water!

Two suggestions I can rule out - turning the heat up in the garage - I don't have a garage

Fan heater in the car to thaw it out - good idea, but nowhere to plug it in! (The car is parked on the street some distance from the house..)

Funnily enough the same day I started this thread I came home to a surprise present of one of those covers you put over the windscreen that has already been mentioned here...

The first night I put it on I didn't check the weather report and the night was extremely windy and rainy and almost tore it right off...

Last night was the first night I got a chance to test it properly with a good -3 frost this morning, and it certainly did the trick for the windscreen, no need to scrape or do anything for that. If your windscreen is clear that's half the battle!

For the other windows I thought I'd try Mike's suggestion of WARM water, so I poured a couple of litres of luke warm water over the windows (probably about 35-40 degrees) and it did the trick nicely. Sorta. I forgot to add the suggested squirt of detergent to the water, so after I'd driven a few minutes up the road the water on the side windows had re-frozen into intriguing patterns that looked like fresnal lenses

Next time I'll try the squirt of detergent too

You can, if you are really keen, get a cheapo squegee rubber blade thing and simply get rid of the water once the ice has been washed away so it cannot refreeze.

[Mandrake]

You can, if you are really keen, get a cheapo squegee rubber blade thing and simply get rid of the water once the ice has been washed away so it cannot refreeze.

Good idea - my ice scraper has a squegee as well, so I'll try that next time.

[addo]

I'd imagine that peeing on the ice should melt it. Won't be too hot and the additives should help stop re-freezing.

Of course, this might get you some odd looks!

[Northern_Mike]

I can confirm addo's idea works. Well, at least it does on boot locks.