I used to live in Alaska and still live where there is ice on car windows in winter--get that spray de-icer--spray it on wait about 20 sec and turn on windshield wipers and it's usually gone. For hard and thick ice--the de-icer softens it up so it's not so hard to scrap off. I haven't scrapped for 7 years!!
I used to live in Alaska and still live where there is ice on car windows in winter--get that spray de-icer--spray it on wait about 20 sec and turn on windshield wipers and it's usually gone. For hard and thick ice--the de-icer softens it up so it's not so hard to scrapE off. I haven't SCRAPED for 7 years!!
I spent most of my life in New England, where it's plenty cold in the winter. Start the car, turn the heat on high, go back in the house for 5 to 10 minutes. Go back out, the underlayer of ice is melted, and it all brushes or scrapes off really easily.
I suppose a spray containing alcohol would work best if it could work its way under the ice. I'd want to spray it on a patch of bare glass above the ice. I suppose it would work much better at 30 F than -20 F.
To have ice stick to a windshield, you need water to freeze *after* hitting the glass. I don't think that's likely in winter in much of Alaska.
I lived near Sijka AK one winter. Ice was a problem in that climate. I rode a motorcycle, and ice doesn't seem to stick to Plexiglas windshields.
Why not use a repellant like Rain-X to keep ice or road spray from sticking?
I lived more than thirty years in New England. Windshield icing was worse on a farm along a creek bottom in the Carolinas. The air tended to be very humid, which resulted in windshield icing if it went below freezing at night. Also, freezing rain was more common there than in New England.
Even in a fairly mild climate, it took time for the heater to warm up and more time to melt the ice. It was a lot more efficient to cover the windshield with polyethylene at night.
I hate to tell you what us "REAL ALASKANS" called all you folks living in THAT part of ALaska--you were REALLY living in "Upper Washington" there is SUCH a difference between the cultures and the needs, etc. I lived from Kodiak to Barrow and over to St. Mary's. Yes, I certainly experienced icy windshields!!!
I truly miss it also!!
Sijka
It just sleeted here and I had to use my spray de-icer-to loosen up the ice. I did have to brush it off.
So you lived in seaside resorts. I lived a few hundred miles inland from St. Mary's at McGrath, where summer was summer and winter was too cold for icing.
There wasn't much at McGrath but a cafe, an airfield, a smoke-jumper camp, and a B-24 that kept the grass mowed by flying low.
For an aerobic workout I'd put insect repellant everywhere except one spot on my neck before leaving the sauna. I tried recreational fishing but the fish were unsportingly aggressive. If I dangled my lure a foot above water six inches deep, a pike would jump and grab it.
If you'd known how many days each week we spent waiting for the next barge of beer, you would know what it was like to be a REAL ALASKAN. In the interest of harmony, I'm not going to say what we used to call the Yup'ik Yuppies of St. Mary's.
Once in a forest fire a couple of hundred miles from McGrath, I caused a helicopter crash. We escaped injury, and I immediately told the pilot it was his fault. Being Alaskan is never having to say you're sorry.
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