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!

We have ice regularly from December to March. No-one uses water. Causing ice for others, including anyone using your driveway is stupid and leaves you open to a lawsuit if you cause injury.

Stick on the engine with fans at max while using Scraper / AA membership card. Takes 2 minutes max to do all the windows on my estate car. If it's been snowing it's better to knock off the top layer of snow before starting.

Hate doing the walk of doom with a pushchair but it absolutely petrified me when I was pregnant

I've got some of those rubber things with little metal spikes/wire coils that fit over your shoes. People sometimes look a bit askance, but I don't get to see them for long as I'm off walking normally while they are shuffling tentatively. Would definitely recommend.

I do this. But I also have a quite large sack of salt in my front garden. While I brew up and get warm water for the windscreen (not boiling!) I usually dip a jug in the salt bag and throw it over my drive and any icy patches in can see on the path. My drive doesn't drain in to the path either.

I'm very aware my neighbours both sides are elderly so I do look out for ice patches nearby. Always done this.

Whoops.. I did this yesterday as the ice was so thick from 3 days worth that a scraper and heat from inside wouldn’t touch it and I was late for school run and doc appointment.
There was no ice on floor though yesterday but will think twice .
My old car had Quick Clear and I miss it sooo much!

Why wouldn't they use De icer and a scraper and the heated windscreen thing? Pouring hot water can crack your windscreen and all water turns to ice.
Yanbu. I was very cautious walking back from the car last night. I have osteoarthritis so a fall would possibly mess my birthday on Saturday up!
Don't need extra ice to navigate.

The past three days we haven’t even been able to open the car doors without pouring Luke warm water on.

The cars heaters take an age to heat up and all the de-icer spray we have used recently seems to just add as extra layer of ice. Cars on the road right over a drain. Never any more ice there than normal by the time I leave with the children after dh has done the car.

Hope you're okay OP!

I also pour warm water on the car, I wouldn’t be able to get in it to switch the blowers on otherwise. The door seals are frozen. It runs off into the garden though.

Not that I do it but I would assume the water would run to the gutter where its unlikely people will tread, or wouldn't freeze during the day.

Problem is if it has to run across a pavement to get to the gutter, you end up with an icy strip.

I live at the bottom of a hill on a narrow country lane with no pavement.
Last winter in the middle of the big freeze the man at the top of the hill decided to wash his car. The entire road became a solid sloping ice rink.

Well you learn something new every day. Like most people I didn’t correlate using water to defrost windows could cause ice later and might cause people to slip.

@Ghanagirl No. But if that was being bitchy then a third of the posters on MN are far, far worse than bitchy! Difference between being blunt and incredulous than being bitchy.

Here we have to keep pavements & drives free of ice & snow so that people can walk safely.

Pref before 8am!

The covers are fine if you live in an area where you can leave them on. Many people don't. Some little oik would damage or steal them.

One of my neighbours shovels all the snow off his car and drive and onto the road every fecking time it snows.

So selfish and completely pointless too.

Best way is to fill a plastic freezer bag with hot water and slide it down the windscreen. Melts the ice and no water escapes!

We just place a hot water bottle on the dash board for 15mins before leaving and it's all done beautifully.

Even though we have a driveway we are on a hill so if we used any water it would run down the gulley of the hill and it's not fair on people who are forced to park their own cars on the road below us and other drivers coming up the hill.

Cosy too

I did not know windscreen covers existed!! I suspect that it might get nicked though as my car is on the road so might try the cheap Aldi one that someone mentioned.

We just place a hot water bottle on the dash board for 15mins before leaving and it's all done beautifully.

I tried that but it only cleared a tiny hole.

Or leave it for an hour before you leave. Go back in and have breakfast etc. We only have a hatchback.

This from ClockWatchingLady

However... if we're going down the "that's selfish" route, the use of de-icers is pretty selfish, environmentally, and possibly with wider impact. And driving is incredibly selfish. Just depends on how far we choose to look past our own front doors, and on the immediate impact on us personally...

The use of de-icers personally always worries me at this time of year because the de-icer fluid and slush ends up collection on the pavement and side of the road. It smells incredibly sweet and tasty to animals such as cats and dogs but is highly poisonous.

Even just walking my dogs along the road to the car, I have be insanely careful that they don't even stick their nose in anything that might be hanging around, but the problem is it gets on their paws as well and then they (and cats) lick them and ingest it.

I tend to wash my dogs paws everytime we get in from a walk for that very reason.

All of my neighbours seem to do this on the way to work, and by the time me and DC go out it’s frozen over. We were skidding on the way to the shop this morning, I do think it’s inconsiderate but there’s not much I can do about it because I don’t wsnt to be the nightmare neighbour knocking watching out the window

When it's really bad and a hard frst we use 2 hot water bottles. not a stealth boast

It hadn’t occurred to me either and I use warm water to do mine, never boiling. I live up a hill with a private drive off the road though so mine won’t have affected anyone but me. I will think twice if I stay at a friends with parking on the road tho...