To think pouring water on your icy car is just selfish?

[7hup]

Just fell on my face outside a neighbour who must have done this early morning.

So a stream of ice running across the pavement to the road which I didn't see

I fell hard. Am OK but if I were elderly or more fragile I could have bad injuries.

At least salt the pavement after!

One of my elderly neighbours does this because he can't park directly outside his house so at 6am on a Saturday (sometimes earlier) he pours water all over the car to deice it and revs the engine as hard as he can to warm it up - it ends up screaming it's nuts off!!! The worst thing he does though is he is obsessed with a clean car so he washes it on the road - all the water runs down the road and ices over - he has been told bit can't see the problem - knobhead!

Honestly, the best overall option is a couple of hot water bottles left on the front screen (outside) for a couple of minutes - that'll clear it.

You should be able to do this whilst the engine is idling for the same couple of minutes (as opposed to 10 mins). Just don't switch your wipers on.

Once you set off, your engine will heat rapidly (much faster than idling) and will clear the rest. Side windows you'll have to scrape.

Strictly speaking you can get in trouble for idling unnecessarily, but you can also get in trouble for running out of windscreen wash, so live a little and risk it ;-)

I do this too and just didn't think. Won't now. @shatnerswig - do one. None of us are paragons of virtue.

I grew up in an area which gets feet of snow in the winter and never heard of pouring water to de-ice windshields - probably because the water would soon turn to ice and double the pourer's problems.

Scraper and brush were standard, or, in my case with loads of private land surrounding my drive, turn the car on 15 minutes prior to leaving and enter a warm car with no ice on the windows.

I can't wait for all the 'my neighbour is out scraping their windscreen at 7am AIBU to tell them they're selfish bastards??' Threads

I have a drive, I'm careful that the water doesn't cause a hazard to anybody since I broke my leg badly years ago slipping on ice (NOT from defrosting a car!) I assure you I'm extra safety conscious about ice hazards! It's better for the environment, and I'm not stupid enough to use boiling hot water that will crack a windscreen.

Surely just a polite note through their door will suffice. Say you realise they probably hadn't realised it would cause a hazard, but that you have fallen over on the ice there this morning and don't want an elderly person doing the same, and would they mind please using another method of car de-icing on/near the road and pavement in the future.

Apart from the warm water trick sometimes if the ice is really bad I leave the engine running while I have a quick coffee but it's no more than about 5 minutes and on really bad days I don't risk driving at all so it balances out on those rare few days in the year when it's really bad.

I think Pinkbells is teasing us!

That will be why I nearly went arse over tit this morning on my own driveway (shared with neighbours and their bit is higher than ours.) Ironically I was on my way to physio!

I always use a manual scraper for mine. De-icer is bad for the environment, stinks to high heaven, and is toxic to cats. Water is too much hassle (and creates more ice unless you sweep it up.) Just start the engine, blowers on max, start on the side windows and by the time you get to the back and front windows the majority will have been cleared by the blowers/de-misters.

I think it’s unfair to do it if you are leaving water on the pavement. I know I do this but I have my own flat level on my own driveway (which used to be a garage) and the only person I’d send flying is myself 😂 in saying that if you had a look at my driveway this morning you’d have thought that I had chucked water down it and my stairs (I haven’t) it was just from the snow/ice defrosting and icing over to the point I had to walk down said driveway with three dogs whilst clinging to the fence. I have consequently went out and gritted the path right down to the neighbours either side so that people can walk on it and my drive way.

We have stairs leading up to our house (with steep driveways). The bloody neighbours can access their house via our steps too. Yesterday morning I thought it would be safer going down the stairs vs the steep slope of the drive. Guess what? The bastards next door only went and used water on the stairs which had since frozen over into an icy death trap! The stairs were more dangerous than the bloody steep driveway!

Another guilty party, but I have a long drive so it impacts no one else.
But never hot - I may be seen with a kettle, cos it’s the easiest thing to carry water in and apply it just where needed, but the water in it is always out of the cold tap - cold water is sufficient to defrost a screen

another who grew up where its so cold the car would turn into a icebloke if you did this.
here is an option works great on locks too
we used an old electric one but we had outlets to plug into outside the house.

www.amazon.co.uk/BATTERY-RECHARGEABLE-HAIRDRYER/s?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABATTERY%20RECHARGEABLE%20HAIRDRYER&page=1&tag=mumsnetforum-21

I can't believe you're drying your hair while you get someone else to defrost the car ;-)

Yes it’s lethal!!

Also even for people with a drive, where you may not think anyone else will be affected, remember the postie etc!

How the hell are we supposed to defrost the postie?

Scraper.

Mominatrix and CanuckDuck - agree.
I live in an area that gets harsh winters and nobody ever uses water as a means of de-icing a windshield.

It would double the thickness of the ice in seconds.

I spent half an hour scraping a thick coating of ice off my windshield after work on Tuesday - we had freezing drizzle all day. I finished the job with my de-icer windshield fluid.

Yes indeed, RedPanda. I often wake up to the sound of people hacking ice off their cars, and the very welcome sound at about 5am of the landscaping and snow removal service man digging out the sidewalk, the gangway to the back and the back stairs to my apartment, along with the drone of snowblowers and the sound of neighbours' snow shovels making the sidewalk safe to walk on. If it snows on a weekend I take my own shovel out early in the morning.

I have no objection at all to Ice Melt for a drive or a path or steps (sodium chloride with magnesium and calcium and other minerals mixed in) or to de-icer windshield washing fluid, which I put in the car when winter starts.

I saw references to antifreeze upthread in the context of windshield fluid. De-icer is not anti-freeze - these are two separate things though both are poisons health.uconn.edu/poison-control/about-poisons/garage-items/antifreeze-and-windshield-wiper-fluid/

7hup Tell her she's a thoughtless selfish sod. As you said, you or someone more vulnerable could very easily have been seriously injured. The consequences of just spraining a wrist or ankle would make your life very difficult let alone that much worse injury could have happened.

Tell her, Mumsnet says she's a Stupid, lazy, selfish, thoughtless, horrible woman.

The point is that water like this freezes in a thin sheet of smooth ice. It is virtually impossible to see. When my neighbour broke his ankle, I knew there was ice there but still couldn't see it and kept sliding as I scattered grit salt on it to make it safe for the ambulance crew and others.
Couldn't agree more - just what happened when I broke my ankle on the carpark at work. The security men who ran out to pick me up joined me on the floor. They hadn't seen the ice either..!

For those that use a kettle - you realise this can shatter your windscreen? Use de-icer and a scraper! Way safer!

OrangeSunsets: ffs, RTFT! This has been pointed out a gazillion times already and every single poster who says they do it, has made it very clear that they're not using a kettle full of boiling water, but tepid/lukewarm water from the tap. Not one single one amongst us has ever shattered their windscreen through this practice.

Only in the UK would people chuck hot water over their cars....you'd get died in the US for causing people to fall. Turn the car on. Scrape while it heats up. Works a treat.

My cousin used to clear about a small matchbox sized area of his windshield and drive me 20 miles to school peering through this tiny very slowly enlarging area.

Sorry but I just use defrosting spray. If I scrape and use water it merely freezes over again as I drive along the first mile or so.