Hack for de-icing your car.

I tried the water in the bag again but this time I filled my hot water bottle with very tepid water, it worked great and the water kept warm enough to do all the windows. I must add it was very tepid water.

Baggs

I used this tip (with a cloth inside the zip-seal bag and water poured in) this morning on my frosted over headlights. This meant I could use the high beam lights while driving to work (unlit roads) and that the sensors that activate the car's "pre-crash warning" could work properly.

Thanks for the tip, shysal.

Thanks for the cloth tip Baggs, it made the bag easier to handle. This morning I cleared a very thick layer of ice in moments.

I do the bag hack,it's been a game changer, so quick and effective

We often se people around the village defrosting their cars with the plastic bag full of hot water. It seems to work well.

JaneJudge

welbeck

rosie1959

Tend to start mine leave the heating and blowers on go and do something else usually clear within a few mins.

isn't that a bit risky; someone else might nip in and drive it off.
insurance might not cover it.

it is hardly unusual to do this welbeck

Saw some Ring Doorbell Camera footage recently. There the chap had left his car running to defrost it, and someone drove it away, it really is a thing and does happen!

A friends boyfriend peeed over locks and windscreen to clear the ice 😕

Whatever happened to spreading newspaper or an old rug over the windscreen when you parked the car?

DIY stores sell aliminium foil wind- and rearscreen covers.

Lots of modern cars you can start without leaving a key in now so the car cannot be driven off. My husband starts his car from an app

Ranworth1

It is actually illegal to leave your vehicle running unattended while you de-ice it or warm it up in cold weather. If someone takes it while it's left like this, your insurer won't pay out because you won't be covered.

It's not illegal to leave your engine running on your driveway but you're right about the insurance.

A neighbour used to do this for quite some time each winter morning. She must have started it then gone in to have her breakfast.

It is actually illegal to leave your vehicle running unattended while you de-ice it or warm it up in cold weather. If someone takes it while it's left like this, your insurer won't pay out because you won't be covered.

Just a warning that someone in the town where I work started her car to de-ice it last week. She then went inside to prep her bag for work and in less than three minutes it was stolen!

Chardy

I had frozen locks this morning. A squirt of WD40 opened one, but the other only opened after a few hours. I don't remember this ever happening before in 40+ years of car ownership!

That happened to me the other week but then I realised I couldn’t remember which button unlocked to car and which one locked it. I was running late as well and, because I just unlock it without thinking about it my brain got scrambled. I did use hot’ish water in the end but still think I’d actually locked the car.I’ll never forget when I was working in a pub years ago and my windscreen was frozen up when I left work. One of the guys in the pub poured scalding hot water over it. Thankfully it didn’t damage the windscreen but I was lucky that it didn’t.

My 1st car didn't have working air blowers to clear the ice that formed on the inside of the windscreen, so I used to put 2 hot water bottles on the dashboard for my drive to work.
Many cars later, when the fuel cap on my Berlingo was frozen shut, and I was advise to P!ss on it - but being female, I couldn't figure out how to do that !!

If I am in a rush I am guilty of pouring tepid water on the windscreen.

Otherwise I would use a scraper

I do worry that the screen may crack using the water but the water is very tepid so the shock to the glass shouldn't be that bad. Well, that's my theory.

Would the tepid water in the zip lock bag be equally guilty of possibly causing the screen to crack?

Bluesmum

My car also lives in the garage and all six of my neighbours who live in this little development, some of whom are two car households,, also all keep their cars in their garages!

Our cars live in a garage as well - brilliant.

Apparently, some men just pee in the lock and it's all sorted. I remember this from about 50 years ago when my husband and I had been out with a group of friends. In the car park afterwards the conversation turned to the subject of frozen car locks. Some men were very matter of fact about this. (Not that they actually did it on that occassion)My husband is not someone who would really do this, but I suspect if we were the last two people in the car park, I would encourage him to just get on with it a.s.a.p. so that we could get out of the freezing weather. I am not sure that he would comply though but a cold angry wife might be a good incentive.

That sounds it would work for frost but ice, hiw many bags of water would be needed. On WenesdayI had heaters on front and rear windows, a whole can of de-icer and I still needed to scrape chunks of ice off all windows.

We share a car. Out we go and remove the windscreen cover, I then sit inside, start the engine, put on my heated seat, the front demister which also heats and clears the mirrors, and finally on goes the rear heated screen. Mr C does the rest with a trusty scraper. Works for us .

I used this tip (with a cloth inside the zip-seal bag and water poured in) this morning on my frosted over headlights. This meant I could use the high beam lights while driving to work (unlit roads) and that the sensors that activate the car's "pre-crash warning" could work properly.

Thanks for the tip, shysal.

Thank you Canadian gran. Great tip.

Follow Nancy Birtwhistle on insta who makes her own friendly de Icer and more

Millie22

I knew there was a reason I kept my Sparks card 😂

Certainly not for the m&s offers.

My car also lives in the garage and all six of my neighbours who live in this little development, some of whom are two car households,, also all keep their cars in their garages!

tanith

I happily discovered by chance that my newish (to me) car has heated front and rear windscreens so happy.

My last car had a heated windscreen, I do really miss it!

Germanshepherdsmum

My car lives in a garage.

Sadly most garages are too small for many cars, even mine which is pretty small.