De - icer or plastic scraper?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sat 14 Jan 2006 21:42
De - icer or plastic scraper? - Navara Van man
What is your preferance? personaly I use an offcut of polycarbonate as this has far more scraping power than a credit card.

I have always found deeiceing sprays to ree freaze or leave a dirt atracting residue on the bonnet not to mention slower than scrapeing.

Paul
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Sat 14 Jan 2006 21:55
De - icer or plastic scraper? - turbo11
I am lucky enough to be able to de frost my car using the car heater.I just fire the car up,put the rear screen heater on,blowers set to windscreen.Lock the car with my spare set(Yes- i know the immobiliser is not then working) watch my car warming up from the warmth of my hallway with a mug of tea.Only had to do this half dozen times so far,this winter.Been quite mild so far.
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Sat 14 Jan 2006 22:10
De - icer or plastic scraper? - AlastairW
Scraper every time - de-icer is bad for the paint if it dribbles off i think.
My routine:
1. Start engine. Turn on front and rear screen heat.
2. Scrape side windows.
3. Scrape melting ice of rear.
4. Wipe molten ice (ie: water!) off front.
5. Drive away just as first breaths of hot air are emerging from the heater.
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Sat 14 Jan 2006 23:39
De - icer or plastic scraper? - Vansboy
If you use your credit card, guess there's a good chance of damaging the chip in it - se best use a 'proper' scraper, or spray.

I actually did a comparison test, along with another listener, on our local BBC consumer prog, a week ago, to see which (of only 4) de icers worked best.

You'd think all would be similar, but for interested Broomers....applying 5 seconds spray, to 12'' square deeply frozen screen.....

Halfords = a good spray patern, but very watery fluid & re froze in less than a minute.Only one to not declare contents as irritant.

B&Q = again good spraying nozzle, lowest price & re froze took nearly 2 minutes. Also cheapest.So this was best, as far as I was concerned.

CarPlan & CarLube - appeared to be same product, powerful jet, but NOT as a spray, so you'd use more & re froze in just over a minute.

WARNING - this is just the sort of thing you get involved with, if you've too much time on your hands!!!

VB
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Sat 14 Jan 2006 23:42
De - icer or plastic scraper? - MichaelR
I just.. press the heated front screen button.
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 00:28
De - icer or plastic scraper? - Stuartli
I just use tepid water...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 01:09
De - icer or plastic scraper? - Dynamic Dave
Scraper for me. Used de-icer once and it left stain marks in the paintwork.

But apart from that I find my garage quite good as well ;o)
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 09:11
De - icer or plastic scraper? - ubidenmark
De-icer and plastic scraper and soft edged wiper for removing large dumps of snow !
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 09:16
De - icer or plastic scraper? - Oz
If you use your credit card, guess there's a good chance of
damaging the chip in it


Remember also that the plastic card at sub-zero temperatures will become extremely brittle and will easily snap.

Oz (as was)
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 10:22
De - icer or plastic scraper? - SlidingPillar
Never had a problem with de-icer and paint, but then I do spray the windows. Sorry, could not resist :o)

Actually, if the ice will come off cleanly, I much prefer to scrape as use of de-icer spray is liable to cause problems with condensation inside the car. (As de-icer works by lowering the melting point of the ice, heat has to be aborbed in doing so).

May not be a problem with air con, but my normal wagon is a Landrover whose heater takes up underbonnet space, but does little else for at least the first three miles.
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 16:02
De - icer or plastic scraper? - MW
I gave up with all this years ago. I kettle of tepid water is superb. It puts 5 degrees of heat into the glass and there is no misting, or refreezing. Apart from the energy used, environmentally OK, with no chemicals. Perfect.
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 16:15
De - icer or plastic scraper? - henry k
I gave up with all this years ago. I kettle of tepid water is superb..... Perfect.

>>
I take the same approach but....
This does not work when starting from the station carpark.
I use de-icer, plenty of it, as it is better than pushing abrasive road grime n grit n salt all over the screen with the risk of scratches.
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Sun 15 Jan 2006 16:20
De - icer or plastic scraper? - Roberson
Prefer a scraper. Have plenty of de-icer on standby (bought in bulk from Costco for next to nothing), but only use this on stubborn ice. Not a one for leaving the car idling, so once the cars had a brief going over with the scraper, the engine is started, blowers on max (with window cracked open sometimes), seatbelt on, and away you go!
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