Too right! And as someone else has mentioned - it warms you up a bit too! My van takes 5 minutes max! It's a Vauxhall Combo so the windscreen and side windows are tallish.

Failing that, I'd like to see if a hot water bottle wedged between the dash and windscreen base would work at all...

Usually ethylene glycol, which is a type of alcohol. Pour bargain vodka all over it... or if you're a bit posh then a nice 40 year old malt.

Takes me no more than 2 minutes at the most, by which time the car has started to warm up nicely inside. Bet you will spend more time faffing around with cardboard or bin liners. So often the simplest is the best

Gets my vote - cheap too

Will RainX stop them icing up?

Just cover your windscreen with a liberal coating of rock salt......

Buy a monkey (available from most corner shops, just ask the attendant at the front desk). With a little knowledge and some small banana flavoured treats, you should be able to train it quite easily. Once fully trained, probably within around 2-3 years, this monkey can then be used as a 'de-icer monkey'. He can EITHER start the car for you 20 minutes or so before you need to leave work, alternatively, and this would prbably require a little more training, you can teach him how to become a 'wee monkey'. This would involve carrying him round in your pocket for the large majority of the day, complete with small monkey sized bucket, then whenever you need to answer natures call, you can pop your flies down, he'll wriggle into position and bucket your wee for future use on your vehicles solidly frosted windscreen on your behalf (thus negating the risk element usually associated with urinating).

Now you have a fully trained monkey in both starting cars AND catching urine in a bucket, a sort of swiss army monkey if you will. This monkey can then be used, not only at your beck and call to pander to all of your de-icing needs, but to act as a rudimentary portaloo. This monkey will have only cost you around £50 as initial outlay and roughly £3500 in banana flavoured treats with which to train him, so can now be sold on eBay for around £6000 and advertised as 'multi-monkey, the double use simian friend' - should net you a tidy return on investment at the same time. The profit made can then go on a MK2 Mondeo with a heated front windscreen as previosuly mentioned in this thread.

Happy to help, it's just what I do.

For night shift - hot flask left in the boot. Chuck over the screen and be a way in seconds.

Isn't there a high risk of cracking the windscreen with hot water?

Certainly if there are any cracks my understanding was this was one thing you should avoid.

ETA - This is definitely a great feature on Fords... Both my mondeos had them, and my current XJ. 2 mins even a heavy frost is cleared!

I have a double garage and it's already filled with cars and stuff. So, our daily drivers stay outside in front of the garage.

Thirty years ago, we had our kitchen floor covered in a cushion of thick lino. Forget the name of the stuff. There were a few off cuts two of which I retained as they were of similar size to the average car windscreen.

Lost count of the times I've used these to cover the screens of our cars overnight when frost looks likely. I set the wipers in the upright position and there's sufficient length of the Lino to trap each end in the door shuts. That way if it turns windy, less chance of blowing away. Takes a few sedconds to remove and away you go with a perfectly clear screen. Place the stuff over the fence to dry and all dry and ready for next time. very flexible, it easily rolls up into a tidy tube for storage.

Broadsheet newspaper also works well trapped under the wipers and door shuts. Three or four sheet layers work effectively.