Defrosting Car Windscreen/Windows - What do you do?

[Welton]

Tried a search for similar past discussions but thought it would be interesting to canvas members for their preferred method of De-Icing or Defrosting frozen glass on winter mornings.

My personal method of some 30 years use is hot water!

Domestic hot water straight from the Kitchen Sink (50 to 60 Deg.C ish) into a watering can and poured straight onto the glass - works perfect every time.

(works best with CLEAN glass though - the water runs straight off and can't freeze over again).

[SwissXC90]

i use a combination of

1. De-Icer
2. Parking Heater

Hot water on frozen windscreen has potential to crack the glass, as you subject it to a sudden 50°C to 100°C temperature shock (depending on how hot the water is)

I used to do this when I was young but I made sure it was only every warm water that I could put my hand in.

[Thekilt]

I agree with not using the hot water method, especially if you have any chips present in the window.
One i heard of but have never used is hot water in a rubber glove and wipe accross the windscreen?
I use deicer and heating the cabin method. Tends to work pretty well.

[Whyman]

Option 1, Go back inside and have a cup of tea or coffee until it warms up a bit.

Option 2. Start the car, max defrost and scape the windows.

Never use hot water or defrost spray.

Now I am retired option 1 is used the most.

Strangely I usually find that the front and rear windows remain frozen a lot longer than the side windows. Note sure why this is?

[Kev0607]

I start the car, put the seat heaters on, select rear window defrost, put the heater on (set to max defrost mode for the front windscreen), which engages the air con & then I leave the car idling. Now you may say why put the air con on when the glass is frozen, but it gets rid of the mist quickly. My car is parked on a drive, so I understand that leaving it running on a road could be tricky. On P3 models, you can remove the grey part of the key whilst its in the ignition & use that to lock the car whilst its still running.

Then outside the vehicle, I pour warm (not hot) water on the glass itself & tend not to do any scraping as such (unless the ice build-up is really bad & it'll take the heater too long to melt it). I don't use de-icer, as I've heard (not sure whether its true) that it perishes rubber.

I wouldn't recommend using hot water. As mentioned earlier, it could crack the windscreen.

[Welton]

Originally Posted by Whyman

Strangely I usually find that the front and rear windows remain frozen a lot longer than the side windows. Note sure why this is?

Two things can create this, firstly the front and rear glass is thicker than the sides so can 'store' cold temperature longer and secondly those windows largely face the sky so suffer the effects of 'radiation freezing' as they face the low temperatures of the upper atmosphere during any clear skies over night.

Interesting the fears over cracking glass with hot water, our hot water is about 58 deg C and goes straight on the glass (all over not one spot) and I've not had one issue even with existing chips/stars/cracks on screens and I've been doing this for many years.

[EssexExile]

One parks one's car in one's garage, it doesn't get icy in there.

[Whippy]

Stay in bed till the sun come out?

[Dancake]

I normally use a discount card to scrape it but you only get about 20% off

[tofufi]

Originally Posted by EssexExile

One parks one's car in one's garage, it doesn't get icy in there.

Pretty much this. Car last much longer if stored at least partly protected from the elements!