Thoughts on reliable de-icing?
 

When the temps were hovering above 0 degrees, the hose worked like a charm, but now that it's dropped below 0, the hose freezes half the time and the other half of the time I'm just adding dangerous amounts of ice to my driveway. Plus, I have to be in a rush to wipe the water off or else it just adds to the layer of ice.

I ordered a 1 gallon garden sprayer and am on the phone with a local chemical manufacturer that sells wholesale 99% isopropyl alcohol, which I think I will mix together in a 3:1 solution and keep in the backseat. I get up at 5 every morning to go to work and isopropyl alcohol solution seemed to be the fastest and most reliable option.

I thought about using a spray bottle but the tops of the windshield (especially the middle) is hard to reach even for a tall bloke like myself and it's a lot of surface area to cover with a tiny spray bottle.

But it's going to be a few days before I get my hands on either the sprayer or the alcohol and I thought I'd survey the crowd to see what you guys usually do for de-icing.

Never heard of spraying my windshield with a de-icer. Wouldn't want to be spraying isopropyl alcohol on my truck.

Have you considered remote start? 2 minutes and it would be melting, 5 and it would be ready to go.

How bout that thing that cleans windshields, I think its called an ice scrapper. Start it up for a few minutes and then scrape it off.

It will be diluted so it should be fine. I've had plenty of good experiences with 99% IPA as I build lots of computers; it's not noxious or toxic (unless you drink it), evaporates quickly and leaves nothing behind. We'll see how it fares.

My truck is 300A, it doesn't have remote start. Last time I tried letting it run for a while it took far longer than 5 minutes for the side windows to start clearing and the ice on the windshield is usually even thicker. And then there's the mirrors (no heat) and rear glass (no heat), which are usually the last ones to be clear of ice, the rear glass being impossible to do by hand alone. The mirrors simply don't care how warm it is inside the truck.

I have one but it hasn't worked well for me in the past. I have a feeling that I'll have to wake up at 4am if I can only use the scraper and truck A/C to get the ice off.

Just an idea! What about throwing a moving blanket or something similar over the top of the cab at nite. If the windows are covered, they shouldn't ice over.

There is a product I use that is a straight de-icer spray.

It's made by the Splash corp.It's called Red Hot De-icer, Same people that made the ww wash fluid. You can get it most anywhere. Works great.

I saw something on a mini van today that strapped to the side mirrors that was meant to keep frost and ice off the wind shield, how well it works I don't know. It looks like it would do its job but I don't know how well it stays in place.

I'd use a windshield cover over some chemical for sure... You just rip it off in the morning and you're good to go!

Starting it 5 minutes will also help warm up the windshield a little, so the ice or whatever's on the external surface will scrape off easily.

I can see that it's widely available in the US; unfortunately that's not the case where I live. You lucky SOBs down in CONUS can get wholesale crates of those sprays for $50 haha

Thanks for the suggestion, i'll look for a cover then. It's not going to solve all the problems as the rear glass and the mirrors are still going to be frozen to a brick but it does take the windshield off the list, which is hard to reach in spots.

As for the moving blanket, it'll have to be HUGE to cover all the windows. U-Haul sells some supplies but their blanket isn't nearly big enough. I'll keep digging.

we have no garage and no carport to park under here in Tennessee. We are in hailstorm country and we use the moving blankets to protect roofs, windows and hoods when we are expecting hail. During storms, I use bungee cords to keep them from blowing off.