A frosty problem

[bimbleuk]

Already mentioned several times by the sensible peeps but in our winters luke warm water is sufficient. I improved the method a bit to a pump sprayer and a rubber blade. Spray and wipe immediately so no water left to refreeze. The car would be running during this but the front defrost and rear screen heater should be sufficient for good visibility. Clean glass helps a lot with reducing misting inside etc.

I fitted a heated screen to my 25 year old RX7 as old cars are definitely worse with weak HVAC and lesser weathering materials.

For the last couple of years though I've just had my EVs set to 07:00 am departure and left the rest up to the car (i3 & Tesla) and was a big appeal for me to switch once I learnt they could do that very well! Awesome to step out the door and straight into a fully defrosted and nicely warmed car each day.

 

[andy_mk3]

Not every vehicle has this feature, though.

I think pretty much anything built in the past 20 years has this feature, and probably older. I've never come across a car without it.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Consider this story..

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ibute-incredible-doctor-30-killed-driver.html

Now, the details of the story are not in issue.

The problem is how do you ensure that your car is defrosted and safe to drive on a cold morning?

You cant warm it up by the roadside. It is a finable offense to leave the engine running on a stationary vehicle unnecessarily and I am pretty sure I have read of cases where "Warming up the engine" has not been considered legal justification and fines have been issued.

Spray de-icer may melt the ice and it can then be wiped or scraped off. But frequently the ice will rapidly reform as one drives away unless the engine is already warm

Neat screen wash will allow this ice to be washed away, but you almost literally have to have the wash/wiping running continuously since the screen will often flash freeze again within seconds untill the engine warms up enough for the blowers to work.

And none of this addresses the problems associated with ones breath freezing on the inside of the windscreen until the hot air vents are able to overwhelm the ice formation.

Now, obviously on fancy high end cars or ones that people have paid for options for. Heated windscreens are the thing. But Most people do not have these.

So how do you legally ensure that your car is safe to drive in frosty weather??

It is a finable offense to leave the engine running on a stationary vehicle unnecessarily and I am pretty sure I have read of cases where "Warming up the engine" has not been considered legal justification and fines have been issued.

show me cases of this?

It's fine to warm the engine up. it's not fine to just park up and leave the engine running waiting on someone for 5+ mins.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I think pretty much anything built in the past 20 years has this feature, and probably older. I've never come across a car without it.

Our Merc didn't and the wife's CR-V doesn't. With the latter, it merely says A/C is 'suitable' for all conditions above 0ºC. Below that, it will still try and operate.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Works perfectly for me. I see everyone scraping on the street, I just pour luke warm over the car, wipers to dry the screen and drive off. If it's really cold a quick spray of deicer to stop it refeeezing.

Same here, though if you put the wipers on immediately to clear the glass you shoudn't have anything left on it to refreeze. By the time theres enough moisture in the air to start the ice creeping across the heater has kicked in anyhow in my experience.

In anycase whereabouts are you lot living to actually get a frost? We've had about one maybe two frosty mornings this entire winter and temperatues look to hit the teens in the next few days

 

[Conscript]

Same here, though if you put the wipers on immediately to clear the glass you shoudn't have anything left on it to refreeze. By the time theres enough moisture in the air to start the ice creeping across the heater has kicked in anyhow in my experience.

In anycase whereabouts are you lot living to actually get a frost? We've had about one maybe two frosty mornings this entire winter and temperatues look to hit the teens in the next few days

We had 3 days in a row of hard frosts back in November in north Kent. Since then, nothing of note - been very mild, even more so than last year, and the forecast is for more mile weather to come. Winter seems to have been cancelled this year.

 

[ttaskmaster]

In anycase whereabouts are you lot living to actually get a frost?

We're about 10 minutes from the town centre. It's cold enough that temps are a good 4-5º lower. So far it's been as low as -3º when I've gone to work on an early shift.
TBH, I much prefer heavy fog to frost.

 

[Scania]

I have never had ice reform after using [decent] deicer and a quick scrape in this country before the car is warmed up from driving - I've seen it happen in places like Canada but not the UK.

You’ve never driven overnight to Inverness in the mid winter! - used to happen frequently when I was up there regularly.

Love my Ford Focus, jump in , hit the heated screen button by the time I’m strapped in a flick of the wipers has the screen clear , such a thing should be mandatory on all cars imo, every car has a heated rear screen yet few have front, I’m assuming something to do with a patent, never mind safety eh!

 

[Rroff]

You’ve never driven overnight to Inverness in the mid winter! - used to happen frequently when I was up there regularly.

Don't think I've had experience of below -7C in this kind of scenario in this country and the deicer I use holds up long enough at those kind of temps it isn't an issue. I've experienced it abroad but it was more like -27C than -7C LOL.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Only time i have ever had deicer freeze is when I used it and drove off without clearing it. Now thats seriously hard to get off if you get that to happen.

I have had warm water partially refreeze, so reverted to a scraper.
My issue is that if its that cold I may well suffer the audi frameless frozen window nightmare which even though I have had them "fixed" still manage to freeze so you can open but not close the door

 

[Conscript]

My issue is that if its that cold I may well suffer the audi frameless frozen window nightmare which even though I have had them "fixed" still manage to freeze so you can open but not close the door

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gummi-Pflege-Rubber-Stick-Postage/dp/B007TNOQDI

Apply this to all the rubber seals on your doors. Keeps them supple and helps a little with preventing them stick when it gets cold.

 

[Bug One]

About the only thing I miss about the Fiesta was that heated front windscreen. The remote heating on the Leaf is a handy compromise though, although I rarely remember to do it. Fortunately, it heats up pretty quick.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gummi-Pflege-Rubber-Stick-Postage/dp/B007TNOQDI

Apply this to all the rubber seals on your doors. Keeps them supple and helps a little with preventing them stick when it gets cold.

Nah its not that, its an internal seal issue. Water inside the door freezes something, when the windows try to drop properly they dont, the leverage when opening the door means it will open fine, but when trying to close it the trim which teh window slides up into stops the door shutting properly

 

[Amp34]

I've never experienced screens 'refreezing', as once whatever was frozen is wiped off, there's nothing to freeze, so I'm not sure if that's a legitimate concern. If you do squirt something which starts to freeze again, then surely logic dictates that you stop using it and revert to scraping the screen instead. You don't just accept that it's inevitable and keep spraying the screen.

No matter what the conditions, it's always going to be possible to ensure your screens are clear. It just might take more effort sometimes.

“Refreezing” actually happens quite a lot in cold locations. I doubt it happens much in the UK except on exceptionally cold days of if you’re using completely the wrong “tools” for the job.

It’s particularly annoying when you're on a main road and need to clean your windscreen due to crud sprayed up from the road. You spray your windscreen with screen wash and within seconds of the wipers stopping everything freezes. The main solution is to keep the windscreen warm but it’s not always possible.

There’s also those situations where the windscreen wipers freeze in snowy conditions...

That said, OP is making a mountain out of a molehill. It’s not difficult to make sure you’re clear before you start off.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

“Refreezing” actually happens quite a lot in cold locations. I doubt it happens much in the UK except on exceptionally cold days of if you’re using completely the wrong “tools” for the job.

It’s particularly annoying when you're on a main road and need to clean your windscreen due to crud sprayed up from the road. You spray your windscreen with screen wash and within seconds of the wipers stopping everything freezes. The main solution is to keep the windscreen warm but it’s not always possible.

There’s also those situations where the windscreen wipers freeze in snowy conditions...

That said, OP is making a mountain out of a molehill. It’s not difficult to make sure you’re clear before you start off.

Actually in the UK from my experience the wiper blades and the washer jets freezing happens semi often
I've had heated jets on last few cars but all have failed to operate when we get properly cold weather

 

[ShiWarrior]

After 2 minutes, is your blower moving enough hot air to clear frost on the outside?

it does it quickly

 

[jpaul]

I doubt it happens much in the UK except on exceptionally cold days of if you’re using completely the wrong “tools” for the job.

yep happens often in the UK, just depends how mean you are with the screen wash concentration - after I clear all windows with warm water and run the blades a couple of times, and then turn on & drive off, if I then used the wash wipe before the screen had been warmed up from interior blower heat it will typically freeze.

you'd never unfrost a side window in two minutes from ignition on ... and, in that respect, a heated screen is a bit of a half solution.

 

[JonnyT]

Ford heated front screen FTW!

One top tip though; if it has been a hard frost, take a moment to manually un-stick your front and rear wipers from the windscreens before using the wipers. A former colleague neglected to do this on his Xantia many years ago and ended up blowing the electrics (it may have been the French electrics though!)

 

[Amp34]

Actually in the UK from my experience the wiper blades and the washer jets freezing happens semi often
I've had heated jets on last few cars but all have failed to operate when we get properly cold weather

What concentrate are you using though. In the Uk most people use water, or at least water with some antifreeze in. That’s why I said the wrong tools. Of course neat water will freeze.

Here you use -40C concentrate with no water and it still freezes.