Quick, easy ways to de-ice a windshield
If you opt for a blanket covering, make sure you remember to put it on the night before
Face it — few of us are good at planning our snowy morning exits, especially when it comes to safely getting out of our driveway and onto our daily commute. If we were, our vehicles would greet us with warm seats, toasty cabins, and every square inch of glass crystal clear. How many porthole-pilots do you see the morning after snow falls, trying to navigate winter roads with only a sliver of their windows cleared?
COVER YOUR WINDSHIELD
What’s the fastest way to get a clear, frost-free windshield (not to mention the rest of your windows) when you are in a hurry? The absolutely foolproof and speediest method is to use a windshield blanket. At around $20 to $25, they’re relatively cheap, reusable, and take less than a minute to fasten. They also work great, but have one major drawback — you need to remember to put them on the night before.
MAKE YOUR OWN DE-ICER
You can purchase a spray-on de-icer for about $10, but depending on the size of the glass surfaces you treat, it may last for fewer than a dozen applications. But because the active ingredient is alcohol, you can easily make your own for a few bucks; simply fill a spray bottle with two parts 70 per cent rubbing alcohol and one part water — and spritz away.
Within seconds, the mix will clear the glass of a normal layer of thin frost; this also brings the added benefit of clearing door windows, which seldom have their own defrost systems. Alcohol is also a fantastic drying agent, so avoid drenching rubber window seals or wiper blades with this mix, as it’ll shorten their lifespan substantially.
WATCH WHERE YOU PARK
By parking in the right spot and using any available cover to reduce ice buildup, it’s possible to lessen the amount of frost that builds up on your windshield. You don’t have to park totally under a cover, such as a carport roof, but try to get as close as possible to the eaves of your home or garage, especially if your spot is sheltered from prevalent winds. This, combined with the amount of heat that leaks out of our homes, can drastically reduce the frost on your car.
SHOULD FLUID BE WARM?
Remember those heated windshield fluid gizmos? There’s a reason you hardly see them anymore. Those add-on heating systems required a substantial amount of fluid to be pumped before the warm stuff got to the washer nozzles, so users found themselves going through fluid by the caseload. One of the best things carmakers could do would be to relocate the washer fluid reservoirs to a warmer spot in the engine bay. That way, the fluid would be slightly prewarmed within a few minutes, guaranteeing a clear view ahead.