How do you defrost you car windscreen in the cold weather?

Lounge
62

I use the car app on my phone and do all that sort of thing before evening putting my coat on.

1 Like
63

I agree, but you would be surprised, people still do it.

64

I’m another advocate for a good dousing with warm water. Heard countless people (including motoring organisations) claiming it’ll crack, but never found anyone who could say they’d experienced it (or even knew anyone who had.

I do know someone who once cracked a plastic headlight cover with hot water, but never a tempered glass windscreen.

Mark

1 Like
65

Tend to agree - boiling water no way! Luke warm/tepid water should be ok.

66

Which is the reason for Not using very hot or boiling water. I don’t know at what point it might be an issue, but as long as you can put your hand in the water without scalding I think it unlikely to pose a risk of cracking the glass. For all I know it might be OK hotter, but warm is enough to do the job very effectively so no point taking any risk.

These days and for many years I thing all windscreens are laminated glass, not tempered, though side windows are likely tombe tempered.

2 Likes
67

I have an early Land Rover Defender and it takes longer to defrost the inside of the windscreen, then it does the outside.

I then have to drive with the driver side window open a bit, as it instantly re-freezes if not.

The joys of old cars.

DG…

6 Likes
68

I normally use water from the hot tap and have never had a problem with any car. Warming up the windscreen and wipers is also valuable, since the former minimises any problems with freezing fog and the latter means you have a fighting chance of using them productively!

Mark

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69

My water from the hot tap is 60C, I wouldn’t use water that hot. :hot_face:

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70

if ive forgotten to cover the screen then a bottle of water from hot tap but i dont let it run hot so the water is the temp of the pipes in the house so say 15 degrees ish - works with no risk of cracking.

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71

Interesting, we turned ours to 40, safer and economic.

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72

(Don’t forget if you draw water from a hot water tank, you do need to get your water to 60 degrees every so often to prevent possibilities of legionnaires disease.)

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73

60 works best for us as the shower runs off the combi boiler. Washer and dishwasher are hot fill too.

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74

Hot fill Washer and Dishwasher…? :flushed:

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75

Had the same with a Jeep Grand Cherokee some while back. Didn’t have a scraper but one of my passengers used a credit card. Flexible and effective on a curved surface.

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76

A method I used recently, was to fill a plastic sandwich bag with hand hot water, and then to wipe the screen down with it, following up with a rubber squeegee if required. The heat is normally sufficient. (depending on how heavy the frost is !) This stops you getting splashed with the water.
Next time I will try using a rubber hot water bottle instead. (Less messy than having to untie and empty the plastic bag afterwards !)

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77

Yes, cheaper to heat hot water with gas :slightly_smiling_face:

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78

Ah yes, thanks for the input! I know in scandinavian countries now I think the max is 40 for safety, but I find it interesting your hot washing machine input can be hot. Cheers

Martin

79

Fill a freezer bag with hot wall then move it up and down the windscreen!

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80

Trying to imagine what this would look Like :joy: did you mean hot water by any chance ? :wink:

81

It’s an Ebac hot and cold fill.

1 Like