I woke up to temperatures in the teens yesterday, here in cold and windy New England. It was time to get out the very basic ingredients (vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and water) to make a de-icer for the windshields.
We make two each, one for both cars so it’s on hand for both of us on the cold evenings/mornings. I also like to spray it on our front steps so I don’t slip on the way out carrying my toddler. This isn’t a miracle, melt-all type concoction. Once you spray it on it just makes it easy to push the ice off (or just turn on your wipers) without any scraping involved.
To prevent, you can spray a quick mix of vinegar and water on your car windshield, wipers, windows, etc. the evening before. Vinegar does have a very low freezing point. So if you are in an extremely cold area where temps are going below 0, this won’t work. For the majority, it will work just fine.
To treat, day of, you can use a mix of 70% rubbing alcohol and water. You can use 50% alcohol too, it really just doesn’t work as well though. Just spray on liberally and it will come right off with little to no fight. Reminder, the rubbing alcohol is flammable, so don’t light a match or something around it.
This will save you a lot of money on expensive de-icer’s. If you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot you will probably spend around $8-$10 on a bottle, while this costs mere cents and the spray bottle you need to store it in.
You also save on gas since you won’t have to leave your car idle while you wait for all the ice to melt with your defroster. Another huge perk? You are helping rid the world of more toxic chemicals that would have been sprayed on your car and eventually gone into the soil and water system. Here are the recipes…
Prevention:
1 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup water
Mix and add to a spray bottle.
Treatment Day-of:
3 cups 70% Isopropyl (Rubbing) Alcohol
1 1/2 cups water
Mix and add to a spray bottle.
Don’t forget to label!
