De-Ice Your Windscreen Like A Pro!

Car care

4 min read

Winter’s pretty and all, but it kinda sucks too. Especially when you wake up in the morning and open the curtains to see the windscreen of your car frozen solid under a thick sheet of ice.

We’ve already had a couple of frosty mornings here in Northern Ireland, and you can expect more throughout the rest of the year as the temperatures keep dropping.

So what to do if you’re in a rush and you’ve got an iced-up windscreen? Here’s some top tips for beating the frost and ice!

Do NOT use boiling water! 

DON’T USE BOILING WATER! Yes, I know we just repeated ourselves but dear God if there’s one thing you should NOT do, PLEASE do not put boiling water on your windscreen!

Why? Well, while you might have correctly figured out that it’s the quickest way to get rid of ice it’s also the quickest way to crack or even completely shatter your windscreen. 

Instead, use lukewarm water from your tap and then wipe the slush off with a cloth or an ice scraper.

You could get handy with hand sanitiser…

There is a quicker way to get rid of ice on your windscreen than using water, though, and that’s by using alcohol! Now, while you could  reach for the nearest bottle of gin, a more cost-effective way is by using a bottle of hand sanitiser.

Most hand sanitisers will contain small amounts of alcohol, which you can use to de-ice your windscreen in a pinch and also clear door locks which have become frozen over. If the gel is too thick, you can dilute it with water to stop it smudging up your windows.

…But de-icer is better!

The best way to get rid of ice is to use a proper de-icer, though. It’s a good idea to keep a bottle or spray can of de-icer in your boot throughout the whole of the winter period, so it’s always there if you need it.

If you’re seriously in a rush and the de-icer is taking its sweet time, you can help it out by scraping off the melting ice with an ice scraper or with a standard credit card if you don’t have anything else!

Paws off your windscreen

While it can be tempting to wipe the mist and fog off the inside of your windscreen with your hands, in the long run this will leave your car covered in smudges and smears.

Not only does this make your car look pretty grubby, it can make it more dangerous when driving at night time by amplifying the glare caused by other cars’ headlights. Instead, chuck the heater on full blast or buy a demisting pad to tackle it!

Make sure your car is totally snow-free.

If it snows, it’s actually illegal to drive your car with snow on top of the roof or the bonnet, as it can unexpectedly fall off, block your vision and cause a big nasty accident.

It’s important, then, to get all the snow off your car. The best way to do this is with a soft brush, and make sure that you clear any snow from around the front grille of your car as that’ll stop the engine from overheating!

If you can’t be bothered dealing with the ice and snow, you can cover your windscreen up with a towel, a sheet or even a big bit of cardboard. That way the ice and snow won’t form on it and you can wake up, peel the cover off and simply drive away!