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!

Oh and great thread to find out how many moany, judgy, holier than thou people are on MN!

It has also shown up the odd selfish numpty.

The only time I use water it’s on my own drive - where it can’t run on to the pavement - but that’s in a super Oh crap I m so late emergency. The rest it’s a scrapper ! Never that de icer stuff - it’s so bad for the environment or any animals who walk on the run off - and the lick their paws.

I've said I've only done it the odd time but there's people on saying everyone doing it should be slated! I said it's awful OP fell but a note nagging people into not doing someone into not doing something isn't going to help. Oh and calm down

This thread need freezing and you all need hosing down with a water cannon!!

Years ago, cars had toughened, or 'tempered', screens which could pop in icy weather, BANG! Modern laminated screens have PVB plastic sandwiched between two glass sheets (but side/rear windows are still tempered). Risk of cracking goes up if there's any scratch or stone chip a crack can 'run' from. A hot car heater, suddenly directed at the screen, might shock it as much as warm water IMHO. Screen protectors are very cheap online anyway.

I said it's awful OP fell but a note nagging people into not doing someone into not doing something isn't going to help.

What would help would be you not doing it, now you know it’s dangerous and causes people like OP to fall over.

Sheesh. I get that most people who do this just don’t think about the effect, but to know full well you’re causing a danger to others and not care to stop because you’re in a hurry is utterly selfish.

I’ve always used water. I use a milk bottle full of moderately warm tap water to do front, rear, mirrors and front-side windows, so it’s a few drops on each bit, nothing sloshed on any pavements (I’m on a drive and my nearest neighbour is half a mile away anyhow!) My husband is a mechanic and says always touch the metal above with the water too. No boiling kettles (that would be daft!).

I don’t like to use de-icers unless I have to, they aren’t great for the environment and ruin wiper blades.

They may have poured water to defrost the locks, so they cld open the car - this happened with our car this week, we have a stonechip drive so it’s fine, but tbh if we didn’t it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me re this causing ice. Glad you are ok x

I said it's awful OP fell but a note nagging people into not doing someone into not doing something isn't going to help.

This is why I jump to defcon 1 and never bother with polite notes etc.

Did we also have a thread whete mumsnetters said someone was BU for letting her car run to heat it up....you can't win. I'll keep my quid aerosol de-icer and scraper, thanks

OhDearGod

Q "Do you have a carbon neutral way of heating the water you use to deice your car?"
A I use water from the tap that is already WARM (not HOT) from rinsing the breakfast things. That OK with you?

How did it get warm? Magic?

onegiftedgal
There are actually some sensible people who use tepid water from the tap on their icy cars and don't just flay it around everywhere. Better than using de icer with all of those chemicals surely?

No, because the windshield deicer fluid prevents re-icing as you drive, which can cause your windshield to become opaque, making it impossible to see where you are going.

'Better living with chemistry' as the old ad said..

OhDearGod
Fgs, has someone really objected to this because they "think it's lazy?!"...There might be many arguments in favour of faffing around with a scraper for 10 minutes in the morning but fear of being thought lazy for a faster, more efficient method would not be one of them.

Maybe they are resorting to the hot water because they spent ten minutes in bed instead of getting up to do the defrosting properly?

If so, then lazy is a very appropriate term.

I've got an incredibly old and unsophisticated car. The screen has never gone opaque when driving without anti freeze spray.

Don't people direct fans and heaters to the windscreen to stop this?

Only once have I had the windscreen "go opaque" and that was because I used the windscreen washers and it was smeared all over the windscreen by the wipers where it froze. Never has my windscreen refrozen under normal circumstances having been scraped.

Only once have I had the windscreen "go opaque"

Me two.

In 30 years of driving only happened once. Probably because i finished work at 2am, took the car out of an indoor carpark into sub-zero temps. There must have been moisture on the windscreen that instantly froze.

It’s never ever happened when it’s already been frozen and then defrosted.

*But why don’t they just use the windscreen heater thing?

Becauase their super important jobs mean they are so much busier than the rest of us so it justifies them being selfish dicks.*

You may consider my job super important when your house if burning down or you are stuck upside down in your car and need cut out.

In the winter I have to keep a flask of warm water by the door as i have around 30 seconds to leave the house. Tried using a cover on the windscreen but where I have no driveway i park on the road and it was stolen on night. Also it didn't cover the side windows or the rear one.

No idea why someone would need a bucket of water when my flask will do all the windows on my car.

If so, then lazy is a very appropriate term.

Appropriate? More likely judgmental and lacking insight. You really can't think of any other reason why someone might not wish to waste 10 minutes of their life standing out in the cold scraping their windscreen, other than them having a (possibly earned or much-needed) extra few minutes in bed. And even if so, is that a crime? You think it automatically signals someone who must be lazy?

Or are you on a goady wind-up?

Using air on must be selfish then. You’d surely get more water deposits the night before a big freeze than a jug of water.

How did it get warm? Magic?

Clearly not, but there is a difference between specifically letting a tap run warm 'just' for de-icing, and using water from an already warm tap that has been used for what you might consider a more worthy purpose, such as washing up.

But I suspect I'm wasting my breath here, as you seem determined to quibble.

I have a fab scraper that’s on the end of a fleecy mitt so you can keep your hand warm whilst scraping.

I’ve tried water, de-icer and scraping over the years- scraping is BY FAR THE BEST OPTION as it doesn’t refreeze and impair your vision as you drive off.

Water in jug is effective and works for me on my drive with windscreen heaters going first. Car never ices again

Traffic is dreadful so every minute counts

I tend to call a spade a spade, OhDearGod.

I was amused to see so many posters all the way down the thread admitting exactly what I said - that they would use water because they had overslept, or because they hadn't given themselves enough time to chip off the ice and deal with traffic, and something had to give.

You can check it for yourself.
Twas very funny because you were so forthright.

Clearly not, but there is a difference between specifically letting a tap run warm 'just' for de-icing, and using water from an already warm tap that has been used for what you might consider a more worthy purpose, such as washing up.
OhDearGod

No there isn't. And it isn't the tap that is warm, you know.

The water comes fresh from the hot water tank each time you turn the handle - unless you use old dishwater you are using water that is heated afresh each time.

Makes no difference whether you run the water to warm it up for defrosting and then fill your sink to wash dishes, or run it first to wash dishes and then again to provide water for defrosting.