You can do this legally if the car is on private property, e.g, your driveway. But not if it is on the public highway. It also reduces wear on the engine to put it under load (I.E. drive it) when the car is running at it's optimum operational temperature. Reducing engine wear helps to keep the car more ecologically sound, as it is more efficient, uses less fuel and makes less CO2. It also means the screen, windows and rear window are properly clear of ice making the car safer to drive. It is also a fact that when humans get cold their ability to concentrate is diminished. Therefore a warmed up car is safer to operate.
A bucket of warm tap water is equally effective at removing ice/condensation from windows (or two buckets if you live in the Scottish Highlands). Whilst using boiling water from a kettle may damage a windscreen, a large volume of water at a lower temperature clears car windscreens equally effectively, but reduces the thermal expansion stresses on the windscreen glass.
if you love the life you live then you'll get a lot more done
I'm curious as to exactly how cold the temperature was when this happened. He says:
If it was Siberia, I might understand. But this is Britain we're talking about, even if Lancashire is a bit colder than London, we haven't exactly had a severe winter this year (apart from that cold snap just before Christmas). How long does it take for the engine and car to warm up? A minute or two? So he's clearly a big girl's blouse if it's "too cold" for him to actually sit in the car whilst it warms up.It's not possible to defrost your car and sit inside it because it's too cold and I think they don't take that into consideration.
That was one of the 'selling features' of my car, the fact you don't use 'keys', I press the ignition button and can lock and walk away. Even if someone broke in, they wouldn't be able to drive it, as it will detect if the keys are in the car or not!
Anyway, I'm too impatient for all that malarky, I use a large jug of tepid water!
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
This is true - when I had my TVR it was even more important than in a normal car to allow the engine to warm properly before opening it up. It had an oil temperature gauge as well as a water temperature one and it required at least 60 degrees of oil temp before you coul extend the rev range and use full throttle. It took a surprising amount of time to reach that on a cold morning. Anyway, there were plenty of arguements as to what was the best method of warming it up, but at least in that engine, leaving it idling was not the best way. Idling means low oil pressure so the oil isn't reaching the parts of the engine it needs to, which could cause more harm than good. I always drove away as soon as possible - slow moving traffic was perfect - all the fluids (gearbox, clutch oil etc) get warmed up whilst being used. A quick trickle through town was enough to see 50 degrees of oil temp, enough to start opening it up to get that last 10 degrees.
I had a Focus with a quickclear front screen and it was an absolute boon in the cold weather. I assume Ford must have some sort of patent on it, as I haven't seen it on any other car and you would have thought someone else would do it given how useful it is.
I've got a 'GAV' for all of my de-icing needs.
I think you can buy one on Ebay for peanuts...or a curley wirley.
Likewise I have a SeriouslyAddicted for all my de-icing needs, and she's very good
Getting out of bed 20 mins later than her has its advantages
It's a matter of thermal stress - if you put boiling water on a windscreen, they'll be a high termperature differential between the boiling water and the frozen windscreen, and the stresses induced risk you cracking the windscreen.
However, if you use a large volume of not particularly warm water, the thermal stresses will be reduced, but the window will still be defrosted. Hence the suggested technique of using a bucket of water from the hot water tap. It's less effort than boiling a kettle, and equally effective at melting ice that has formed on the windscreen. It's the most environmentally friendly way of doing it - no nasty organic chemicals such as those used in nasty defrosting sprays.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks