It was frosty this morning.
I passed somebody chiseling the ice off their car windscreen with a scraper.
Now, IMHO, using a scraper to get ice off your windscreen is a very bad idea. For two reasons.
One, it's a lot of work.
Two, it puts microscopic scratches into your windscreen that make it easier for ice crystals to form, therefore increasing the amount of frost you'll have and making it harder to scrape off.
So I thought I'd start this thread - devoted to the best ways of getting your car de-iced.
IMHO, the quickest, easiest, and best way to remove ice from your car is:
Start your car. Set the heating to maximum and direct it at the windscreen (and door windows if necessary). Turn on the rear heating elements too.
Now, go and get a large jug or kettle and fill it with cold water. COLD water, NOT warm and ABSOLUTELY not hot. Too great a temperature leap will make your windscreen crack. You want COLD water from the COLD tap.
Pour the water over the windscreen and it will melt the ice off. Hit the windscreen wipers and they will remove the water. You will now have a dry, iceless windscreen.
With no effort at all.
See? Good, isn't it.
You don't actually NEED the heater, it just helps to stop the ice re-forming. Plus it gets rid of condensation inside. And it involves no effort and does no damage to the screen.
On the other hand, you don't always have a big jug of water available. So, method two. It's very important that you notice the subtle differences between this method and the above whinge. What you do is this:
Remove the ice with a scraper
Hypocrisy? Moi?
No. What you do is this:
Start the car as above with the heater on full. Wait until the ice starts to melt - won't take long, little melt patches will appear at the bottom of the screen (or wherever your heater directs the air.)
Using a RUBBER-EDGED scraper, usually marketed as a squeegee-type water remover, slide the ice off the screen.
What's important here is that the ice will have started to melt where it touches the warm screen - it should slide off effortlessly. Do NOT chisel away at stubborn ice. Wait until the underside melts. This should be an effort-free sliding removal of ice. NEVER scrape, and NEVER use a hard scraper.
Oh, and those de-icer sprays - don't use them either. These will dissolve the ice, but they also dissolve rubber. That includes your wiper blades and the seal around your screen.
So, that's my contribution. We've got plenty of people here who live in colder places than I do. Any additions or rebuttals..? Advice on removing snow from the car..? etc