As the winter gets colder, the likelihood of having to de-ice your car increases. De-icing your car is a process most of us dread having to do. After all, it’s freezing cold, your hands hurt and it can take a long time. What can you do to speed up the process? How should you defrost your windscreen, and what common pieces of advice should you actually ignore?
Do
Plan Ahead –
Windscreen covers can prevent your windscreen from being covered in ice in the first place. More importantly though, they represent the importance of planning ahead. It is much easier to have an ice-free windscreen if you never allow the ice to form.
Get the Right Equipment –
You might have seen people using a credit card to scrape ice. This is a sure fire way to damage your card and your screen. Invest in a proper ice scraper. This is the only way to easily scrape ice off your windscreen, without doing any damage to anything.
Do it Right –
It is easy to think that the easiest way to defrost your windscreen is with heat. However, this is not necessarily the best way to go ahead. If you heat your car too quickly, you will likely cause the windscreen to mist up, even if the ice clears. You are best off starting the air cool – because this will still be warmer than the ice, and will not cause misting.
Don’t
Use boiling water –
You might have seen suggestions online that a kettle is the best way to clear your windscreen. However, the difference between the temperatures of boiling water and frozen water are too great for glass to withstand. Even room temperature water is much hotter than ice, and is easily enough to make clearing your windscreen easier, without risking damage.
Leave your Car –
Although it can take a while to demist or defrost your windscreen, you should not give in to the temptation to leave your car while you wait. This does raise the risk of your car being stolen though, so should not be done.