Ooops!

Depends whether you prefer to scrape ice or get up 5 mins earlier...

You can, but rapid temp changes can shock the glass, and it has been known to shatter side windows, or crack windscreens severaly, even with cold water if the outside temp is sufficiently below zero.

'None of the above'

sorry i meant later ;-)

Nah, surely you did mean earlier, n'est-ce pas? If it takes 5 minutes to melt the ice from inside then you *would* need to get out of bed 5 minutes earlier.

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in its lifetime."

Certainly using cold water is correct, boiling would crack some glass.

I still prefer the strategy of putting a mains powered fan heater on the back seat of the car for five minutes while I have a cup of tea in front of breakfast TV, heats up the car just fine, including the seats, etc.

Then the aircon on full to remove moisture from the air.

Another good idea, that a bloke at work mentioned, is to get a ciggy-lighter powered hair dryer to do the windscreen. Useless at drying hair, but apparently quite effective at windscreen demisting. It'd probably have a go at melting the outside ice from the inside as well I'd guess.

-- Peter

"The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in its lifetime."

de-icer spray and a cloth or scraper gets the stuff melted VERY quickly, always carry a can in the car incase it ices over at a mates house but try to avoid using it as i think it can be nasty to paintwork

or wake up, hit remote start while getting ready and come out to warm car + clear windows :)

how i do it now :-P

What I meant was, you either get up 5 minutes earlier, and then spend 5 minutes scraping/heating, OR you just pour some water on and drive off.

And the first strategy means you have to get up 5 minutes earlier every day, just to check whether it's icy and you need to get up 5 minutes earlier :-D

What I need is some sort of CCTV camera I can just have linked up to the house so I can check.

In any case, it still takes time to fill the neccessary receptacles with the right temperature water, carry them down to the car/van.

Mind you, I could fill a 2L bottle with water, chuck it in the microwave for about 1 minute (maybe less) and bingo, job done.

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in its lifetime."

but then it's back to the "hot water may crack the glass" people to have a go i mix the taps so that i get warm water but before i do that i go out and turn the car one, with full blower to the screen and front and rear screen heaters on by the time i get back out again the electrics have done their job and the water just washes the ice away then it's out with the squeedgee to wipe the water away (because otherwise it leaves white streaks all down the windows)

I'd microwave it so it's only a bit warm!

My method takes the same time and all I do is sit on my fat arse. :-)

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in its lifetime."

Ya, I can imagine. Although my Mondeo was remarkably quiet outside (the undertray helped a lot), at quarter past four on a very cold morning I'm sure you could hear the windows rattling across the street.

Mind you, as we all know, diesels take three hours to warm up too :) so it's annoying!

You can knacker it.

LOL!!! my method works fine, assuming you live in a neighbourhood that is safe enough to leave your car idleing outside your house for a few minutes in the morning :) with the estate, i wake the sourrunding houses up (for abot 100 yards radius) so they dno't like me, but for everythg else, it's fine :) and besides, you can get into a warm car, and boot it away with all the knowledge that you've got everything up to temp first :)

Hot water tap before it gets proper hot?

Heh. Where we park, it has to be really, really cold for all four sides to get frosty. Usually, the glass nearest the house is clear. Sixty seconds of QuickClear is usually enough to see the front windscreen clear, the rear clearing, and I can power down the window to see sideways for a bit.

When it's proper cold, like in early 2004 it reached seven below with a hard frost, you can maybe double the above time.

Heh! I suspect that having the estate idling for several minutes, then with over five thousand revs on the clock, doesn't make many friend! :)

Oh, DOJJ, FSOC stuff arrived Friday about membership expiring at the end of last year... :-( Will get it sorted!

that's the good thing bout remote start, engine runs with no keys and cuts if someone sets the alarm off or releases the handbrake :)

not really no :)

just blame royal fail then :)