Coffee Break with Liz and Kate » Handy Dandy Tips, Headline » Betcha Didn’t Know – these easy winter tips
Betcha Didn’t Know – these easy winter tips
Betcha didn’t know…
how to ice proof your car windows. Expecting frost overnight? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water and spray on your car windows at night. In the morning, they should be clear of the icy mess. How does it work? Vinegar contains acetic acid, which lowers the melting point of water – preventing water from freezing. What to do if you wake up to an already frozen car? Just spray the mixture on your window to start the melting process. This should loosen up the ice to make scrapping easier.
Here’s a handy dandy Youtube video from Howcast with de-icing tips.
Betcha didn’t know…
how to prevent your car doors from freezing shut using cooking spray. Spray cooking spray on the rubber seals around car doors and rub it in with a paper towel, “Doors freeze when snow melts into the seals during the day, and then freezes at night,” says Robert Sinclair Jr. of AAA, The oils in the cooking spray prevent water from melting into the rubber in the first place.
Betcha didn’t know…
this trick for de-icing your frozen car door lock. Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key and the lock to solve the problem. Why does this work? Because hand sanitizers contain alcohol, the main ingredient in most commercial de-icers. Just make sure to use a hand sanitizer that’s 60% alcohol. Sanitizers with less alcohol than that won’t work. (And guess what…with less than 60% alcohol they won’t sanitize your hands, either!)
Related articles
- Prevent Car Doors From Freezing Shut with Cooking Spray [Clever Uses] (lifehacker.com)
- Are Hand Sanitizers Better Than Washing Your Hands? (self.com)
- You: Use Hand Sanitizer as Emergency Deodorant [Clever Uses] (lifehacker.com)
- Useful Object of the Day: Hand Sanitizer (benjisimon.blogspot.com)
Filed under: Handy Dandy Tips, Headline · Tags: coffee break, icy car windows, natrual de-icer, tips, using vinegar on car windows, vinegar deicer, winter
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Will the vinegar hurt the paint?
Emily, I wasn’t sure about the answer to whether or not the vinegar mixture would hurt the paint on your car so I did some research. I found this great site with tips on cleaning your car which says that the vinegar is safe for car paint and actually recommends using it to clean hard water spots from cars. In fact, some auto places charge $60 for this “acid wash” which is really just vinegar and water. I’ve never had a problem with my car paint and vinegar, however, I am not an expert in this area.
Thanks for stopping by,
Kate
Check out this site for more info…http://www.autopia.org/forum/guide-detailing/80224-paint-clinic.html
FYI, if you leave vinegar sitting on your car, it can corrode any exposed metal including windshield wipers. Scraping is better to protect your car from rust.
thank you these are great tips!
Did not work on my car. ” What to do if you wake up to an already frozen car? Just spray the mixture on your window and watch it melt.” Actually made a thicker ice, and then my kid was late to school b/c we had to scrape even more ice off. And the car stunk all day.
Love these tips,great to know
Use a fertilizer spreader to put an even coating of ice melt or salt on walkways. It holds a lot and your hands stay clean.
[...] Amazing Natural De-icer [...]
My husband is a chemist dealing with water chemistry and has been for nearly 50 years. He says most of these tips are sound and he would use them. However the vinegar spray for window ice is not a good one to use if you have chrome around your windows … the vinegar (being an acid) will corrode it. The science is sound … just not the bad effects that go with it (if there is metal around the window and also it will eventually damage the paint). This might be an ok solution for areas where ice is only a very occasional occurrence but not where it happens often.
[...] This tip on how to ice proof your car windows so that when you wake up in the morning your car is frost free is great. So helpful! All you do is fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water and spray the mixture on your car windows at night. It will also remove any ice that is already on the car! [...]
[...] kind of here. Sort of… soon. But winter is close behind it! Some invaluable tips from Coffee Break With Liz & Kate can keep you relatively on time during those icy, snow packed winters! Ice on windows as well as [...]
Great advise, I will have to try these when the bad weather comes.
Good ideas
[...] An easy winter tip….find more here. [...]
[...] Windshield De-Icer – I actually tried this pin this morning! We had a little snow fall yesterday so I knew that [...]
I tried this today on our frosty 15 passenger van. Thank the Lord it was a practice run. IT DID NOT WORK!
off to AutoZone
Vinegar trick didn’t work? Here’s a likely reason why… you probably used the vinegar you have in your pantry, like white distilled or apple cider. Check the bottle’s acid levels. 3% or thereabouts you say? Well no wonder! Most vinegars in the kitchen are primarily water. Now industrial grade vinegar is another story. It usually hits about 90-99% acid, far more effective for de-icing, and other handy applications. Just don’t use it on your next salad or marinade, it can be lethal if ingested.
vinegar is an acid so be careful to keep it away from rubber gaskets and blades
“Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water”
It actually lowers the melting point. The melting/freezing point is 32F. If you were to raise it, it might freeze at 40F or 50F. Lowering it makes it not freeze until 20F or maybe lower, just like salt on the roads.
[...] tip that I found on Pinterest last year is to use vinegar and water to help keep your car free of ice and frost overnight, or to help melt the ice off easily in the [...]
Vinegar will eat little holes in your windshield and cause pits in your glass. Don’t do that, and stop recommending it!
Amy, people have been using vinegar to clean windows for YEARS. It’s a safe green alternative to commercial window cleaners and De-icers. As long as your windshield is not coated (like a motorcycle windshield) I see no reason why vinegar should harm your glass windshield. Of course, I’m not a scientist, just a mom trying to keep the ice off my windows so I can take my kids to school in the mornings. I’ve Googled the topic like crazy and the only nay-sayer I can find is ONE oft quoted source calling himself the Glass Doctor, as opposed to hundreds of others recommending a mix of vinegar and water for de-icing (and cleaning). If any scientist out there would like to offer sound reasoning why vinegar is dangerous to car windows, I’d love to hear it.
A little late for this year but …….