Front screen continues to ice once you drive off until the surface temperature exceeds 0°C. You need more heat, captain, or she's gonna freeze!
HF, your screen is icing on the inside as the interior of the car is slightly damp or you have moisture in the vents. Try getting the car up to temperature and running with heaters on screen and footwell setting with the window down a crack to expel the warm damp air.
Anyway, I thought you were off shopping?
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Ah, the lure of the Back Room, Alan.
Actually, just trying to think of a way to persuade Da Boss that he'd far rather take me out to lunch than go Christmas shopping. :D
Ta for the tip though.
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I would have thought that Da Boss would prefer to spend his time eating rather than Christmas shopping!
On a thread related note - try defrosting classic cars with a wheezing heater. Nigh on impossible.
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Tell him to take you to lunch - after all, you can go shopping any time, but you need to lunch now !
Bora - what Bora ?
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Da Boss is in da house!
I thought my ears were burning before...
To return to the matter in hand, though. I am getting a tad fed up of de-icing the car at 3.30am. It is not nice. I seem to recall seeing a product in the motoring section of the Daily Telegraph that prevents icing up of windows. Apparently you wipe it on with a cloth and it forms a protective layer that ice will not stick to. Trouble is, I can't remember what it's called, or even who makes it.
I'll trawl the Telegraph website later, but in the meantime does anyone know anything about this marvellous product???
Right, I believe we're off to the pub....
Cheers
Rob
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Yo Boss
electronic telegraph, motoring home page, there is a column of blue rectangular ads - one is 'clear thinking - Ombrello' - is this what you are recalling. I think it's been the subject of discussion in the BR before
There are also the sprays like 'magic ice stop', which you are supposed to spray on the night before and are supposed to stop ice forming. My experience this week is that you get prettier ice crystals on the windscreen, but they are just as difficult to shift.
now are you taking your good lady to lunch or not ?
Bora - what Bora ?
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Ice? Problem? what problem.
you are all gooing to castigate me here, but this is real life in RF land.
Due to leave home at 8. Go to car at 7:45, start it up, put heater on defrost and turn on HRW. Return to kitchen, munch toast that has just popped up, sip freshly brewed blue mountain.
Climb into nice warm car with clear windows, drive off
What could be simpler?
Engine wear? dont care, Environment? dont care. When its -5 the dont care's are valid in my book.
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There were at least two cars nicked whilst left to defrost on monday morning alone in just one local village.
I hope i't doesnt happen to you RF - I beleive your insurance company may well not pay out in such circumstances
Bora - what Bora ?
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Rob; Halfords sold a Night Before de icer at one time, though I also recall the pretty crystals. It was also pretty difficult ot completely remove the smeary mess it left on the screen.
Commend RF's solution though I think insurer might get a bit snotty in the event of a driveaway. Third answer is to run out an extension lead and leave a fan heater, no more than 1kw to avoid risk of excess heat damaging the glass, runnig on the seat for 10 mins. Remove heater, flick wipers and drive away.
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>>now are you taking your good lady to lunch or not ?
Nah - she wasn't about. I took HF instead.....
Thanks for naming that product - I'll investigate buying some and report back.
We went into Bromley today, ostensibly to do a little Christmas shopping but it was so busy and crowded we decided to repair to a local hostelry (Slug and Lettuce - very nice food) and get home asap. Yeah, right. We took the bus as I'd been at work since 4 this morning and couldn't be bothered to drive. HF wanted a glass of wine with her meal, so we took the bus. Big mistake. It was absolutely impossible to get out of Bromley as the traffic was gridlocked. Then, when we finally managed to break free of the traffic, the 'pfd' bus broke down. Tch! Blimmin' public transport...
So, yes, it definitely is 'that' time of year again!!!!
Cheers
Rob
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Halfords have the spray on stuff. I have used it but it leaves a nasty residue which smears on the window. I used it for a while but got fed up of the oily residue. Those car covers which cover the windows might help.
I have a car port so my car hardly ices up . But I have found that warm water poured over the icy bits to defrost with a rubber window squeedgy to dry it off prevents most of the re-icing problem. I have a scraper which has a rubber blade on the other side so that is handy for getting the wet residue off when I occasionally use de-icer. I get icing on the inside of the screen too and that is a real pain.
By the time I have got round the car with a scraper with the engine running and the demister going the car is usually pretty clear.
teabelly
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Or how about not bothering with a de-icer at all, just put a nylon(i think) sheet over the windscreen after you've finished using the car for the day?
Left house at 7.50am this morning, removed sheet, put it in the porch, gave the other windows a token scrape then drove off. Windscreen was no problem at all once the blowers got warm.
Alternatively, you can get a full-car cover for about £30, should mean no icing-up at all, full-stop.
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Beware plastic car covers. I used one once and it lasted just one night! The problem being you place the sheet on the car, the temperature drops, dew forms, sheet clings to dew, dew freezes, sheet sticks to car. Result you can't get it off without ripping it.
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Oh well, im using it on my mums N reg 1.1 Fiesta at the mo coz my cars a bit 'pfd'ed, so if it sticks to the windscreen i'll get back to you, if not i'll 'stick' with the sheet idea.
Thanks for the hint anyway davey
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You could get rid of all the rubbish in the garage and put the car in there. A bit radical these days I know but just a thought. And have you noticed that regardless of how much garage space you have, it's never quite enough. I built a triple width and double depth garage (a sextuple?) and yet I still have cars outside.
(My wife has said it's my fault for buying them but I don't agree, I blame the 2 bicycles in there)
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I'm with teabelly, get a largish container fill it with water from the hot tap.
Squeegee with a splash of hot water. Quick, simple and it's only water.
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Just buy a Ford with front screen de-icer.. best thing I ever did..
madf
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Yup
As a friend of mine from the states said who came over. Gee you Brits, you spend 40 thousand dollars on an automobile and then use your garage to keep 10 bucks worth of junk dry.
you can see his point.
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The usual de-icers contain a volatile alcohol, usually IPA. The idea is that this dissolves the ice and can be wiped off. Unfortunately this needs quite a lot of fluid, more than a few squirts. So the IPA evaporates first, leaving much of the ice to refreeze on the screen.
In Canada 35 years ago, where it *really* freezes, I pinched some higher-boiling alcohol from the lab (think it was decanol) and smeared it on the inside of the screen. It stayed there for hours and did the job. The ice on the outside had to be chipped off, as usual.
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Evening!
We've got some of that Night Before Deicer. The first time I used it I jumped the gun a bit and it wasn't actually cold enough to be icy the next day. Cue a trip to the jetwash for Polo to get rid of the residue.
Last night I used it and it worked like a dream. The stuff is water soluble so as long as it does actually get icy, there shouldn't be so much sticky gunk.
I don't know if it's just my warped sense of logic, but the screen seems not to refreeze if you just scrape the ice off, rather than leaving a layer of deicer to refreeze. (Does that make sense?)
I remember the days of having to de-ice the inside of my Fiat Uno.... and the joys of having the engine die every time I stopped because it was too cold! Touch wood, Polo is made of better stuff :)
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Without going through all the physics again, and giving you an experiment to try with a glass of icy water and salt as I once did on another post, chemical de-icers reduce the temperature of the glass by as much as 20 deg c, so they may melt the frost, but after a minute it will return with vengence, often on both sides of the screen.
What Renault Man says is OK if you live in the sticks, but not OK for most folks in Blair's Britain. However, I am tempted by this device which the Police, van drivers etc... use. You can leave the engine running with no keys, . If anyone tries anything the engine stops.
www.secure-idle.com/productinfo.htm
They are about £99
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I second the 'buy a Ford with a heated front screen' theory!
;-)
PP
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I seem to recall seeing a product in the motoring section of the Daily Telegraph that prevents icing up of windows. Apparently you wipe it on with a cloth and it forms a protective layer that ice will not stick to. Trouble is, I can't remember what it's called, or even who makes it.
Alternately just cut a potato in half and smear over the windscreen. You can also use the remainder of the spud to make chips with. It'll save you having to take HF out for a meal ;o)
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