• Question: Most effective way to get ice off the windshield

    Asked by richieshea to Adam, Eleanor, Sinead on 21 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Hi Richie,
      So you should never pour boiling water on your windshield because the sudden change in temperature could cause it to crack. So pouring luke warm or even cold water on your windshield works best. And always have some ice scrappers handy just incase. There are also some sprays you can get now, to have in your car if you don’t have access to water at the time.

      Hope this helps 🙂

    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Hey, Sinead’s right, don’t put boiling water on your windshield, it could kerplode!

      What should work better than luke-warm water, is luke-warm water mixed with salt.

      The salt will lower the freezing point of the ice, meaning it will need to be colder than 0 degrees to freeze, so it should melt fast.

      Or grab a scraper and get going!

    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      OK so from Sinéad we have the luke-warm water. From Adam we have adding salt to lower the freezing point. Let’s put it all together with using a blunted scraping device (like a library card) to score lines into the ice before you pour your luke-warm, salty water on your windshield. This gives the water a larger surface area to interact with and will make the melting process quicker. Did you ever notice how the ice always melts from the edge of the windscreen in?

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