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De-icing Cars

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Home, Law & Money
my first thread in months and its all set to be an exciting one :D

recently with the cold weather snap obviously most people have been deicing their cars in the morning, its just what has to be done. the only thing is, mine takes AGES! the outside windows are fine, bit of deicer and a scraper and they're done in minutes but what takes ages is the inside of my windscreen. it freezes up to to the point where i could scrape it with an ice scraper and it comes off in huge scrapings of ice. i just wanted to know if this is normal?!

i dont have a heated front window so i just have to turn my fans on full blast and hope it melts it but it takes too long, this morning i was waiting for 15 minutes, i'd just finished a nightshift and i wanted to go home! i can scrape it with a scraper which is a lot faster but then the ice shavings go all over the front of my car/cd player/dashboard which surely cant be good to get all water near the electrics? basically what can i doooo or do i have to just sit and wait :) i have a new style ford ka if that makes any difference...

thankyou.x

ps feel free to move this mods wasnt sure where to put it.

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There are some good de-icing sprays you can buy. Cant remember the name of it (i'll go check later) but I use one when I need to. A quick spray on the icey bits is enough.

    You can also buy window covers. They are fairly cheap. Just put it on the window the night before and it shouldnt get iced up in the morning :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I dont think its a good thing that the inside of your car is getting really iced up - that implies that there is a lot of moisture hanging around on the inside of your car which could lead to problems - rust etc.

    How old is the car?

    Might be worth trying to dry your car out, not sure how! maybe if you can stand it keep the windows open for a while on dry days, try to avoid keeping damp stuff in the car - coats, clothes, brollys etc.

    My old polo didnt get iced up inside but his underside ended up rusty with holes in so he failed the MOT.

    You can get sachet things and a special tray thing from pound shops that draw moisture out of the air - you end up with a tray full of water so it might be worth trying those on the car overnight, just empty them outside the car in the morning?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have a battered old van that ices up inside like that.
    The water near the electrics will at some point give you problems.
    I have a carrier bag of newspapers in the van.
    Takes a few seconds to spread some of them out across the dash before deicing inside ... catches the bits and soaks up the rest screw it up bin it.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whoops, didn't read this properly. Ignore my above post! :p
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    it's only 3 years old! :( thanks for the tips though, dont really fancy the newspapers trick but I could try the drying out thing. so annoying, I thought it just happened to everyone :(
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    A 3 year old car shouldn't ice up on the inside. You have a leak somewhere.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Is the air circulation stuck on "recycle" or something? Do you have a window slightly open? You shouldn't be getting ice inside, really.

    It may seem bonkers, but you could try the air-con if you need to dry out moisture.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Just going to move this into Home, Law and Money as it's best suited there I reckon and that way it won't get lost :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It depends on the car. In very cold weather my Toyota Aygo ices up on the inside, mostly due to the lack of insulation in the roof and door panels as far as I can tell. It's the condensation from breathing that doesn't leave the car. And the last day or two has been pretty cold; all the windows on my bus this morning were frozen solid both inside and out.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Mist wrote: »
    Is the air circulation stuck on "recycle" or something? Do you have a window slightly open? You shouldn't be getting ice inside, really.

    It may seem bonkers, but you could try the air-con if you need to dry out moisture.

    how would I know if it was on recycle? my boyfriend mentioned the window thing so I'm going to double check they're closed all the way up every time now. I don't have air con :-/ thanks though!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    there should be a switch on the dash thing somewhere - mine has a pic of a car and an arrow - one goes in a circle through the car and the other is just an arrow into the car.

    have you had the windscreen replaced at all? I think problems with that if its not been sealed properly can lead to the inside of the car getting moist.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Car_dashboard_with_MEX-BT2500_head_unit_and_BCT-15_radio_scanner_installed_and_illuminated.jpeg/450px-Car_dashboard_with_MEX-BT2500_head_unit_and_BCT-15_radio_scanner_installed_and_illuminated.jpeg

    ^theres a button on this one that has a pic of a car above the A/C switch which is probably for the airflow.

    have you got your cars manual? they make quite interesting reading ;)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My car windscreen ices up on the inside, but there's nothing wrong with the car.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Stick an open plastic tub of rice in it over night for a few nights. That will help suck some of the moisture out of the air, which will reduce the condensation on the inside of your windows, meaning there's nothing there to freeze.
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