Best ice scraper?

[cra1gy1989]

I found a good technique, stand by drivers side front wing, put arms out like zombie, tilt fingers into rake position, lean as far forward as possible, place nails firmly on frozen windscreen, stick arse out, take 6 inch dragged steps backwards till you reach other end of windscreen, repeat till windscreen is clear of ice or full of blood. It's free, easy and cleans your finger nails.

[carreauchompeur]

The past couple of nights I've laid a blanket over the windscreen and front windows when it's been parked outside at work. It's utterly joyous to come out after a long night shift, knackered, and just whip the blanket off to reveal completely clear screen.

[MarkRSi]

TheHeretic said:

Tell you what. When you get a foot of snow on your car, I'm sure your cup of cold water will do swimmingly. I use one of these for a reason.



Mongs indeed.

I'd completely forgot I'd got one of those tucked away. Useful for clearing all the snow from the windows/roof of my old Discovery.

I've got one of these in the MR2 - electrically heated.

[Oily Nails]

Slightly OT:


I have a folding hardtop and when you open the door the glass drops down an inch, but in cold temps the glass/mechanism freezes and therefoe I cannot get into the vehicle.

Anyone know a simple way of stopping the door glass in a convertible from freezing? Pre-icer? silicone grease?

Any hel would be much apreciated

[TobyLaRohne]

simple solution, fill kettle with cold water from tap, pour over windscreen while the wipers are on, it wipes off the water and prevents any re-freezing, works every time takes about 10 seconds and you wont crack your windshield.

[jamoor]

TheHeretic said:

Tell you what. When you get a foot of snow on your car, I'm sure your cup of cold water will do swimmingly. I use one of these for a reason.



Mongs indeed.

I got one of these for 80p from home bargains last week

[Captain Muppet]

Oily Nails said:

Slightly OT:


I have a folding hardtop and when you open the door the glass drops down an inch, but in cold temps the glass/mechanism freezes and therefoe I cannot get into the vehicle.

Anyone know a simple way of stopping the door glass in a convertible from freezing? Pre-icer? silicone grease?

Any hel would be much apreciated

I've used silicone grease to stop the doors freezing shut on several cars with frameless windows. It seems to work.

[Blown2CV]

i'm shocked by how many people are saying hot or even warm water. This melts well because of temperature, however quickly changing the temperature of glass is an excellent way to shatter it, and I feel sure your windscreen insurance has a clause preventing payout in these situations. On really cold days the water will just freeze again, and hot water freezes faster than cold!!

[JimmyTheHand]

Blown2CV said:

i'm shocked by how many people are saying hot or even warm water. This melts well because of temperature, however quickly changing the temperature of glass is an excellent way to shatter it

If the water is very hot and/or the windscreen very cold (well below freezing) - yes you could shatter toughen glass screens/crack laminated ones, but if it is lukewarm and don't put a huge amount on in one go and evenly across a large area, then the heat energy will be taken up by melting the ice and the screen won't heat up very quickly.

Blown2CV said:

On really cold days the water will just freeze again

Yes it will - which is why you try to clear with wipers/repeat exercise a second time.

Blown2CV said:

and hot water freezes faster than cold!!

You mean the Mpemba effect

[andy-xr]

I've done the kettle thing loads of times, have I just been lucky that I've never got close to cracking my screen, even when it had all sorts of chips, marks and other things in it?

I do miss having a Ford at the moment for the heated front screen

[Pesty]

There was something in a car magazine years ago about this

IIRC as long as there was lower than 80 degree celcius difference between screen and water there wont be an issue.

When i used to use a kettle I just turned it off before it boiled maybe added a bit of cold so it was around 60 degrees total guess work addmitedly.

never had an issue. in fact before reading that I used to boil teh thing and poor it on. never had a problem

[r1ch]

Pesty said:

There was something in a car magazine years ago about this

IIRC as long as there was lower than 80 degree celcius difference between screen and water there wont be an issue.

When i used to use a kettle I just turned it off before it boiled maybe added a bit of cold so it was around 60 degrees total guess work addmitedly.

never had an issue. in fact before reading that I used to boil teh thing and poor it on. never had a problem

Same here. Although I do favour de icer these days. I've never heard of anyone breaking their screen with warm water.

[Bohally]

Mondeo Heated Windscreen... Scraping ice is for plebs

[northandy]

Blown2CV said:

and I feel sure your windscreen insurance has a clause preventing payout in these situations

Really?, i suggest thats something you just thought of and is a figment of your imagination.

[Pesty]

Bohally said:

Mondeo Heated Windscreen... Scraping ice is for plebs

Nah hot wires in a freezing windscreen will shatter it. stupid idea

[Dixie68]

Bohally said:

Mondeo Heated Windscreen... Scraping ice is for plebs

Focus for me - along with the heated door mirrors I'm ready to go in minutes with my heated windscreen as my neighbours are furiously scraping ice off their cars

[Baryonyx]

r1ch said:

Same here. Although I do favour de icer these days. I've never heard of anyone breaking their screen with warm water.

I used to favour de-icer, until I started getting ice on the inside of my car! Now I see that it does well for the outside of the screen due to it's chemical composition but does nothing for the inside! The past few days I've been taking a Sigg flask and a pop bottle of warm water to the screens. Works a treat. The ice and snow on the outside is melted away, and the ice on the inside is warmed through to water much quicker. Wipe the inside of the screen down and drive on!

[RWD cossie wil]

Blown2CV said:

i'm shocked by how many people are saying hot or even warm water. This melts well because of temperature, however quickly changing the temperature of glass is an excellent way to shatter it, and I feel sure your windscreen insurance has a clause preventing payout in these situations. On really cold days the water will just freeze again, and hot water freezes faster than cold!!

Been doing it 15 years, never broke a single window yet over a vast amount of cars...

[Hoofy]

Deals with even the toughest ice:

[22rgt B Squadron]

Have never used a scraper in my life, simplest answer to all of this, just start up with the heater and blower on max and leave running for a few minutes of if worried about leaving the car idling stick a brick on the pedal, also aids in a faster warm up..