Frozen windscreen

Dec 11, 2005 50 Replies

The message from Duncanwood contains these words:

Quite. I just use water from the hot tap though, 'cos it's plenty hot enough to do the job. It's a hell of a lot easier than scraping or spraying.

Trick to remember though is to add a drop (and it really only takes a drop) of dishwasher rinse-aid to the water. It's an anti-surfactant and makes the water run off the screen leaving it dry so there's nothing to refreeze.

The message from Johannes contains these words:

Use more water! It'll warm the screen enough to stop it refreezing instantly. And try the rinse-aid trick I mentioned up there ^ somewhere.

your car driving off down the road. Oh and your insurance company will not pay out because you left the keys in the car unattended, seems like a good idea! Better idea is to buy a Webasto Heater press the remote control and 20 minutes later get into a nice warm defrosted car, got one on my Passat great device. Check out

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...and discover someone has nicked the car.

Phil

I was going to say that.. Then I read on and saw it's a 205 diesel. So he's probably quite safe.

Not TPO it doesn't. I mulled about a DIY job for a couple of weeks until the engine let something expensive go and saved me from making a decision.

Amazing how many people don't do this!

I keep pouring the water on until I've run out - about two litres of

40 - 45 degC water can do all the window glass, mostly concentrating on the windscreen in order to get some heat into it.

So I've you to thank!

I've been using this trick since I read it on here, rinsing the car with successive watering-cans of cold water with a little dish-washer rinse aid.

It's surprising a) how quickly the water drains, and b) how long the shine lasts! Ta muchly.

If you throw enough water at it, it won`t ice up again in a hurry - I only use cold water on mine, sure, it takes about 10 litres on a really bad day, but it does it without any risk of damaging the glass.

My big problem is the sodding *inside* misting up !

I usually shy away from companies who do not show the prices of their products. It usually means they are prohibitively expensive. In my case it would probably cost more than my car :)

How much did this nifty product cost you (including installation) if you do not mind me asking?

heheheh. That's my thinking too. If someone was desperate enough to take it, there is always the Cit ZX diesel which also sits unlocked on the drive too. Who is going to nick that ???

-- Stuart (living in hope) ;-)

The message from Colin Wilson contains these words:

The wife's Clio is a bugger for that 'cos of the generic endemic leaking sunroof. I swear one of these days I'm going to weld a plate over the sodding thing and have done with it.

Bimey - I've seen a price of $1800 on a US website for a webasto parking heater (not sure if the same model).

It that is the correct price (around ukp 1100) then a "better idea" for me would be to pay a nice looking bird a small fee to come over every morning, defrost the car and make the tea as well! :)

In message , Adrian writes

Realise that you're standing in the wrong place as the wiper sluices the now-cold water off the screen and all over your trousers. Swear. Lots.

I would certainly like one of those. But the fact they don't show their prices suggests to me I can't afford it, right?

Their "HotShot" system sounds interesting tho. I can find it for approx £160 at some places. Installation seems to be a problem however, it needs it's own control button inside the car, which looks like you need to start drilling holes in the dashboard, which I'm not about to do!

If they had the same thing which had a wireless control I might be interested.

The message from Steve Walker contains these words:

But only the once, unless you're a really slow learner.

Been looking for that kind of thing for ages. Nice one dude.

About 10-15 years ago I tried this on an old mini shell that was about to be scrapped.

The temperature was abouy -3 degrees C and I tipped boiling water down the drivers side of the screen.

Nothing happened (Apart from the ice defrosting!)

I wouldn't advocate doing this however, but it does show that windscreens are quite tough!

(The windscreen was probably a laminated one though..are these stronger than modern day toughened ones?)

sponix

The modern ones are laminated.

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