Best De-Icer Product?

[Jonny Z]

I used a can of Prestone De-Icer yellow spray can last year when it sleeted. Did not do a thing, still took me 20 mins to warm up the windows before I would take off.

Any good product you recommend?

 

[Kestas]

Probably denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol. Isn't that what the airplane deicers use?

De-icer will only remove existing accumulation. It won't prevent more precipitation from accumulating on the windshield. Only a warmed-up windshield can do that.

 

[1sttruck]

Rubbing alcohol or rubbing alcohol with some coolant will work well. If you're a 'detail freak' you'll need to commit seppuku after using it though, as some of it may drain off of the windshield and get on the finish. You'll also need to pretend that you don't know what's in windshield wiper fluid.

Best is a warm windshield. I have a 4ft baseboard heater with a low/med/hi setting mounted on a lebgth of 1x12, which enables me to place it on a seat and run a cord out the window. Makes a big difference, and is the best technique for deicing that I've found so far. I'm surprised that they don't provide smaller, say 500 watt heaters, under a seat or something with a plug on the front of the car, at least as an option for cold climates.

 

[Racerjk]

I hate that it's almost that time of year again.

 

[The_Jeff]

I've got what 1sttruck has, an extention cord that I stuffed through a firewall grommet and a little "pelonis" fan forced space heater that sits in the passenger footwell away from flammable stuff. Has 600/900/1500 watt settings. Only use it a couple nights a year... but it's worth it then!

 

[michaelc80]

Best deicer? An ice scraper. The type with brass blades work well.

 

[Kestas]

Brass blades!... are you serious? Glass is relatively soft material. I've seen somebody scrape with aluminum once. It left a lot of aluminum on the glass.

 

[Horatio]

glass is soft and aluminum was left behind? I thought glass was a relatively hard material? man.....I gotta go do some more reading now

I've never seen these metal bladed scrapers - where do you find those?

 

[dwendt44]

Metal blade scrapers were widely availabe a few years ago. Hard to find today.
Brass was the prefered material for these though.
I've got two that I guard carefully so they don't wander off.
Need to keep an eye on the blade for burrs and nicks. Plastic blades don't work as well, sorry to say.

 

[BigAl]

I had a few of those scrapers with brass inserts and they worked very well. After a time though, I did notice some faint scrape marks in the glass even though my brass scrapers had no apparent defects. I went back to using plastic. The molded ones are never very flat though. I usually wind up straightening the scraping edge using 400 grit sandpaper on a very flat surface.

Aircraft are deiced using some sort of glycol.

I used the Prestone windshield spray once. It was a big disappointment. Keep in mind that any ice melter works by depressing the freezing point of the ice. This has a chilling effect . . . like adding rock salt to the ice in an old ice cream maker. There is also some chilling from the evaporation of the alcohol. The one time I used the Prestone stuff, the ice on the outside was pretty heavy. By the time I got the ice off the outside, the glass was so chilled that I had a heavy layer of frost on the inside.

Never again.

 

[ScottB]

My wife with a hair dryer.

 

[deven]

Quote:

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My wife with a hair dryer.

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