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Windshield wipers and de-icing
- Thread starter Soflauthor
- Start date
No that's us in Florida
I remember my old Acura legend used to have a button to change wiper setting to not 'hide under hood. It can't be that hard to modify I would think.
from my Samsung galaxy s3
When there's an ice day in Texas, I'm not taking my Model S on the road, many drivers in Texas can barely drive in the rain, yet alone ice or snow. Way too risky
Back in the UK, if there was ice on the screen, the most effective way of releasing the wipers (aside from a kettle of hot water - yikes!) was to run the car with the internal screen vents on full tilt. I assume that at some point in the very near future this will be an option from the mobile app, so, maybe this won't be such a big deal then?
ddenboer
MODEL X #1770
Growing up in Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta, I have experienced many forms of Canadian winter. Granted I never had a car this expensive, but they were all expensive to me at the time, and my solution to ice on the windscreen was always a damn good scraper (or failing that, a CD case). Second to that was turning the car on and leave it running for 30 minutes
Johan
Ex got M3 in the divorce, waiting for EU Model Y!
The point of view of a native Swede, living in Norway: unprepared: front window hot air at full effect for a few mins while you scraping the windshield manually. Prepared/planning ahead: program diesel warmer to have the car worm and de-iced in the morning. Model S: turn on pre-heating and de-icing from phone as needed, while drinking morning cofee
NigelM
Recovering Member
Dawn dish soap diluted in a spray bottle. (Make sure you use one of the versions without bleach.). Melts ice.
Growing up in Tampa it froze one day (very rare occurrence) and there was moderate frost on the windshield of my car. I was dumbfounded about how to get rid of it, as all my outdoor ice experience was from 2 ski trips, or ice cubes from the freezer. So after trying to wipe it off unsuccessfully by hand and windshield wiper I got the cold water solution in my head. I went inside and filled a pitcher with water. Went outside and poured it all over. Worked like a charm clean and clear windshield. I went back inside to put the pitcher away only to come back and see that most of the new water was now frozen in a sheet. Well it took a phone call to my dad to understand that I just needed to turn the heat on in the car and wait 20 minutes.
Needless to say I was almost an hour late to school that day. Now I carry an industrial grade scraper with me during the winter months, even in Atlanta.
Right, the sequence is:
- Get into car (this can be a challenge depending on whether the door seals have iced over -- I have crawled in through the hatch of my A3 at least twice.
- Start car and get heat/defrost pumping at maximum.
- Remove loose snow/ice mechanically.
- Pour cool water on remaining windshield ice. (By now, the cabin temp should be high enough to keep the water from re-freezing, at least in New England. If you live in Manitoba, more extreme measures may be needed!)
W.Petefish
Active Member
IF ice = I don't go out.
IF ice and NEED to go out = Brass Scraper and defrost/defog vents in the old truck.
IF ice and NEED to go out = Brass Scraper and defrost/defog vents in the old truck.
sublimaze1
8Dec2012 / Leeroy Jenkins
Word of warning from pseudo-experience (e.g. I didn't do it and glad it was my associate who did): Use the side of the CD jewel box that does NOT have the ridges. It will scratch many brands of glass.
Isn't Tesla suppose to release an app that will allow cabin pre-conditioning? This should allow us to set the defroster on full blast at the comfort of our home or office, avoiding the need to do the above.
Set and forget. Go to the car 15 minutes later and the snow/ice should be mostly gone. Even, if it is not all gone, it should be "soft" enough to be removed easily. No need to pour cold water. Not even a need for a car cover.
I like to get the loose snow off the car before it warms up -- it's much easier to brush light, fluffy snow off a car than soggy, wet snow. But, yes, in practice, I think we'll just crank up the heat on the Model S and solve these problems. Another way Tesla will make my life better!
Nice thought, but I would be trapped in my house for months.
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"Loose snow" assumes it's dry. We get all kinds of weather here. Sometimes the snow is loose and dry, sometimes it's wet and soggy. Sometimes the winds are howling; other times snow wafts down gently. And then there's freezing rain, which can coat your car in a thick layer of hard ice - on occasion I've had significant difficulty even getting into the car to get at my scraper.
Yes, heating up the car should work as long as the wipers themselves get some heat. The remote app will be a wonderful tool for that.
Be warned, though, if you blow hot air at full power against a cold windshield covered with ice you may have some risk of breaking the glass. I know someone that happened to.
KBF
Model X owner (formerly Cdn Signature Model S)
Well, since you mentioned Manitoba, I'll add my 2 cents. Thankfully we don't have much freezing rain here, but if a car is left outside from basically October to April your windshield will be frosted or covered in snow. The best thing is to park in a garage, but if you can't and it's going to be a rush in the morning, park facing East (the sun is a great defroster, although if you leave before the sun rises it obviously doesn't help). If it's cloudy, when I turn the car on 15 min's early I do a quick scrape with our deluxe scrapers, but avoid water. If I don't have time to fully warm up and it frosts up while driving, I simply spray winter windshield wiper fluid on, as it has antifreeze in it (it's supposed to be fine for paint).
I was assuming that the S's instant heat would be an advantage, but it might be beneficial for a defrosting routine that would "ramp up" the heat slowly for the air blowing on glass (don't we all love that term :wink
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I don't understand this whole pouring water on the windows thing. Here in Ottawa that most likely would result in thicker ice on your windshield...
kevincwelch
Active Member
Coming most recently from Baltimore and Philadelphia, pouring water on the wipers did momentarily melt enough ice to get things moving. When I first moved to Chicago and tried that, the situation (as you pointed out) got worse. Never again. I have a small chisel and mallet now if needed.
Depends critically on the ambient temperature. Here on the Atlantic coast, we tend to stay pretty warm relatively to inland points, such as Ottawa and Manitoba! The water trick works great if it's only a few degrees below freezing.
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