To think people can defrost their cars without running their engine all morning?

[shinysnowman]

I start work in a couple of hours. I have been awake since 5am, due to a steady flow of neighbours who have sat in their car with their engine running, one actually revving their engine constantly, waiting for their car to defrost. The first at 5am, each for a good 15 minutes each. It's been the same every day this week.

Don't people scrape their cars anymore? Is it wrong for me to be annoyed and think that they are being inconsiderate?

(Apologies to those with DC who are dragged up with them at this time!)

I need to run the engine with the fans on to sort the inside of mine (de-mist the windows and get them dry etc) I scrape the outside though, and it doesn’t take 15 minutes.

Pretty sure they are heading back inside for a cuppa.

I run my engine to demist the screen although will scrape the ice off the exterior. Takes two minutes.

I scrape mine, and scrape/ wipe it down inside, and then wait as the windscreen finally demists, becuase wiping it with a cloth isn't clearing it. It's a total pain. Trying a new cloth this morning to see if I can speed up the process

YABU. Revving the engine isn't really on though.

It's still annoying whether it's 2 minutes or 15, just get a cloth or some kitchen roll and wipe it

I find I can hear the noise of scraping and it is far more annoying than a car engine running! As others said, for me it is the de-misting of the inside that needs the engine to be running.

I ran my car yesterday morning whilst I had breakfast. I couldn't hear it from inside my house so I cant imagine any of my neighbours could either. I do scrape the outside but i need to demist the windscreen inside.

My old car used to take me ages to defrost in the mornings - wiping the inside with tissue just made it really blurry once I got going which was lethal on sunny winter mornings.

My current car has a heated windscreen so it only takes about 90 seconds from turning the engine on to being able to drive off - it's fantastic and DH has serious envy about it

I tried a new trick the other day - fill a plastic bag (like a sandwich/freezer bag) with hot water and simply drag the bag across the windscreen. It cleared the ice almost instantly, no scraping required.

Suggest that to your.neighbours 😁

You'd hate my car. The inside of the windscreen freezes up with ice (old car) so I have to run the engine. I don't rev the engine though. Deicer and scrape the outside, wipe the inside and wait.

Very quiet residential street, some quite old cars. You can definitely hear it inside, and I was fast asleep before the 5am one!

I know it's "hump day" anyway but I'm really struggling with the loss of 2-3 hrs of sleep each day! I'm even feeling grumpy now at the neighbours doing it now, even though I'm up and dressed!

EmmaGrundyForPM
You mind not have heard it while you had breakfast. You might be distracted, and where is your kitchen situated in the house?
But when you are lying in bed trying to sleep, you are a lot more sensitive to nose.

Jug of warm water over mine, defrosts instantly and dentists the inside. Just don’t go too hot with the water!

If they are leaving the car jump in!

i defrost my car at 6 a.m. so this issue has occurred to me. I have the engine running but it only takes a couple of mins - then again I have heated windscreens. I do wonder if I’m disturbing people but I suppose scraping would be noisy too. 15 mins sounds a bit excessive.

Those of you who do it, spare a thought for us who have to walk through you toxic fumes which linger after your car for minutes in this cold calm weather.

It's awful and it's really bad for young children who are at the height of the exhaust.

Find other ways, please don't let your engine run.

My neighbour wakes me up by scraping the windscreen, I’d rather be put the engine on!
Also some days I have to leave the house at 6am with 3 children. I turn the car on so it’s warm for them to get into as they can’t wear coats in their car seats.

It’s one of those annoying things of this time of year unfortunately. I do mine as quickly as I can but if I want to drive off legally then the engine needs to run with the fan on boost for a few minutes so it is demisted enough to see out clearly.

Some older cars are a real pain to de-mist. My old hatchback (2009) was a nightmare. If you cleared it with a cloth and just drove off you would get 300 yards down the road and not be able to see, and the fans where useless.

My newer car (2016) has lots of fancy setting that actually work so I can just scrape and drive off.

YANBU

It's incredibly wasteful - use a scraper!

YABU. Blame car manufacturers, the weather etc.

There is no other way to get the inside of the car clear enough to safely drive away. It's just 'one of those things'

I have ice on the inside of the car, scraping doesnt work on the inside due to the shape of the window. I also cannot reach most of it. I'm not going to break the window by pouring hot water over it. A kitchen towel doesn't help with ice. Running the engine is what's left.

My car has a heated windscreen so have to run the engine

spare a thought for us who have to walk through you toxic fumes which linger after your car for minutes in this cold calm weather

This as well - those fumes are at child height.

It was so cold on a few mornings here that even with scraping and the engine running it took me over 10 minutes to fully defrost so on that basis YABU.

Must get DH to find the windscreen covers in the garage.

I thought pouring hot water on the windscreen was likely to make it crack.