Top Tips: How to Defrost Your Windscreen

We’ve all been there: it’s a miserable winter’s morning, you’re already late for work, you stumble out to your car in the pitch black only to find that your windscreen is covered in a thick layer of frost. There’s nothing worse. If this scenario sounds painfully familiar, don’t worry, we’ve compiled some tips on how to defrost your windscreen below, just for you.

Check your wipers

If your wipers are on when you turn the car’s engine on, you could end up damaging the wiper motor or tearing the rubber, so before you look at how to defrost your windscreen, make sure to check your wipers are turned off first.

Turn on the engine

Once you’ve made sure that your wipers are turned off, it’s time to turn on the engine and the warm air blower to get some heat on the windscreen. You should turn on the rear windscreen heater and heated mirrors too, if you have them.

While this isn’t the quickest method in our list of top tips on how to defrost your windscreen, it’s the one that carries the least risk. If you try and rush the process by pouring hot water over the glass, you’re only going to end up with a big crack and a bigger problem, so it’s always better to be patient.

Once your engine has been on for a while, you can use an absorbent or microfibre cloth to clear up misted windows – anything but your hands!

Get scraping

Now your car has had a little bit of time to warm up, it’s time to put that ice scraper to use. We recommend using your ice scraper in tandem with a de-icer, any brand from your local petrol station will do.

However, if you would rather save some money, or you’ve found the store-bought deicers to be lacking, you can always make your own. If you have an empty spray bottle lying around somewhere, fill it with three parts vinegar and one part water and, boom, there’s your deicer.

Don’t chance it

Even if you’re running late, don’t chance it and start driving before the ice has gone completely, this will only put you in danger. Your best bet: leave the engine on, wait a little longer and make sure you put some preventative measures in place for tomorrow. And what might they be, you ask?

Preventative measures to avoid defrosting your windscreen

If you had a garage, you would probably be parking your car in there, so we won’t dwell on that. Here are some simple tricks for those without the luxury of a separate house for their car:

• A windscreen cover will help stop ice from settling on the glass. If you can’t afford one, even a rubber bath mat or some cardboard will do the trick.
• You can also use a night-before deicer. Remember that homemade deicer from earlier? That will do just fine. Try spraying the solution on your windscreen nightly. If you would prefer to go with a trusted brand, that’s fine too.
• Try to park facing east, this will give you a bit of extra help from the sun as it rises. This works particularly well towards the end of winter.

Having trouble with your vehicle this winter? 1st Call Windscreens have a wealth of experience providing both domestic and commercial vehicles with windscreen repairs and replacements. Our team offers their services throughout a variety of locations, including Maidstone, Sittingbourne and the rest of Kent. If you would like to get in touch for more information, please give us a call today.