Temperatures have plummeted considerably over recent days, and it's finally starting to feel genuinely wintry. With snow and ice blanketing various regions across the UK, abandoning your motor on the drive overnight can leave it exposed and susceptible to freezing.
And there's nothing more frustrating than frantically attempting to clear ice from your car when you're running late. You should have met your mate five minutes earlier, yet you're still standing there, frantically clawing at your windscreen with a scraper or, in certain instances, a credit card. On Reddit's "Ask UK" forum, someone enquired about the most effective method to de-ice a vehicle.
They posted: "On icy mornings, I am always surprised to see my neighbours chiselling away at ice on their windows for up to 10 to 15 minutes with their plastic scrapers.
"I, on the other hand, fill up a jug of hot tap water, pour it over the windows and turn on the wipers. Job done in less than 2 minutes. I have been doing this for over 25 years. Am I missing something? Why do people scrape away when there is such an obvious, more efficient option?
"Edit: Just to be clear, when I said water from the hot tap, I meant warm, not hot, hot, and never boiling. Warm enough to melt the ice. Never cracked/shattered a window in 25 years, and I will still do it".
While scraping at your car windscreen isn't recommended, particularly not with a credit card or something like a CD case, under no circumstances should you use boiling hot water.
Green Flag advises: "Firstly, ignore all the advice about boiling kettles. It may seem logical that hot water will melt the ice, but if the water's too hot, it could cause your windscreen to crack. Also, the water may spill on the ground and freeze, forming a dangerous patch of ice".
Consumer watchdog Which? also cautions against using boiling water under any circumstances for the same reason. You wouldn't know the water was too hot until it was too late, and your windscreen had cracked. Even if it doesn't crack immediately, it can weaken it.
Which? suggests doing it the right way by getting in your car, turning on the warm air blowers to the windscreen and the rear window, and activating a defrost setting if you have one. Then "crank up that heat".
They also recommend using de-icer on the outside of the windscreen. Trade Price Cars revealed that a bag filled with hot to lukewarm water - not boiling - can do the trick, but you should never, under any circumstances, use kettle temperature water in a bag, or straight onto the windscreen, as this is dangerous.
Green Flag also discourages "sitting in your car with the engine running and fan on (while you wait for the heat of your car to de-ice the windows)" because it "takes a long time" and "wastes fuel and increases wear on the engine".
Instead, they suggested using a de-icing spray, spraying it all over your windscreen, and letting it work its magic. Most sprays take effect immediately, allowing you to drive off without worrying about being stopped by the police for an unclear windscreen.
In a Reddit thread, one user warned: "Using boiling/hot water can crack/shatter the glass, plus if you don't get in the car and put the wipers on quickly enough, the water you just poured can freeze into an even tougher ice sheet than the natural condensation ice covering.
"I don't know how big your neighbours' cars are if it takes them 10-15 minutes to scrape off the ice, mine is done in under 5 minutes".
An organised driver shared their own method: "I put the windscreen cover on the night before," which means that any ice will form on the cover, not directly on the windscreen of your car.
Another motorist shared their routine, adding: "Put the engine on, put the rear de-mister on and direct the heat to the windscreen. I use de-icer if it's bad or if I don't have time, I scrape otherwise."
One person added a word of caution: "By the way, using hot water on icy glass is a terrible idea; any small chip or stress in the glass could cause a crack when exposed to sudden high temperatures".
