Tips for removing snow and ice from your car without damaging it

For those who have enjoyed the snow as much as they have been surprised to find their vehicles parked, covered, and nearly hidden under it, once it was no longer possible to cover the car beforehand with a tarpaulin, apply an anti-rain solution to the windows, or at least cover them with the traditional cardboard or the same sunshade used in summer, for those for whom the task of removing snow and ice from the car is something new, we warn you that the good news is that this arduous job ahead of you can be carried out with just two fundamental tools; the bad news is that those tools are patience and effort.

There are no tricks for removing snow and ice that the combined action of storm Filomena and the sharp drop in temperature has made us endure, and given that the traffic collapse means that, in the days ahead, many users who park their vehicles outdoors will need to clear all that dangerous weight from their cars, it demands a good while of dedication.

Whatever the case, we are going to review what to do to remove snow and ice from the car, but also what should not be done when clearing away the remains of water in solid form, in order to preserve the vehicle and avoid generating more damage than the storm and the sheer harshness of winter may already have caused.

How to remove snow from a car

To remove snow from the bodywork of a car, you need to arm yourself with tools that, when they strike or make contact with the vehicle’s surface, whether bodywork, glass, rims or wheels, will not damage them, and these are rubber tools.

Given the shortage of snow shovels that has been experienced in some areas, we know that when necessity presses, ingenuity hurries, and the rubber or soft plastic tools you have on hand to remove snow from your car will be the best tools for removing the snow or ice resting on our cars.

Area by area, from the top to the bottom of the vehicle, from the roof down to the wheels, we recommend using brooms with rubber bristles, never plastic ones, or floor-cleaning dustpans, and even, when necessity presses and however ridiculous or surreal it may seem, the shovels from children’s sand-play sets prove functional.

Household dustpans or small children’s shovels can effectively help remove the most superficial snow and, given their size, weight and strength, in small amounts they can serve as an effective tool for removing, through endless repetitions, the snow packed onto the car’s surface.

Once the bulk of this now-solid material has been removed, it is time to take off what is closest to the car’s surface. At this point, it is more advisable than ever to use any tool that will not damage the bodywork, such as plastic spatulas or a rubber squeegee, the kind used to remove water after washing the car, for example, though always gently and without scraping, since besides damaging the rubber itself, it could do the same to the sheet metal.

How to remove ice from a car’s windows

Once the snow has been cleared from the car but there is still work to do to remove the ice from the windows, after the first glass surfaces have been cleared, it is first necessary to introduce and warn against what must never be done for this purpose, provided you have at least some regard for your vehicle, so as not to cause greater damage to it.

The most logical remedies, such as pouring hot water, spreading salt or spraying alcohol or vinegar, given that the first can cause the glass to crack, and sudden changes in temperature, whether for living beings or inert objects, are not beneficial; nor is receiving baths of products that, although necessary in small amounts for life, in moderate or high doses can cause irreparable damage such as, in the case of cars, corrosion or erosion of the paintwork.

In any case, to remove ice from a car’s windows, once the ice is understood to be surface-level and of low density, it can be removed using a specific ice scraper, and you should never resort to the ‘inventions’ or ‘genius ideas’ that popular wisdom has spread as urban myths passed along through contact groups, such as using a credit card, which, let it be said, can be damaged and even broken, or, even less so, the now almost extinct compact discs, whose edges can be tremendously harmful to the windows.

Likewise, once it is clear that the water still frozen on the glass surface can be diluted, one could resort to a low-concentration solution of the reagent of one of the products mentioned (salt, alcohol or vinegar) whose chemical action makes it possible to remove the ice from the car’s glass.

For that reason, a weak mixture of small amounts of salt, alcohol or vinegar in water could ease the task of removing ice from the car’s glass, and even make it possible without actively intervening.

We warn here, as before, that both salt and vinegar can act as abrasive agents on the bodywork and even on the rubbers or silicones that serve as fastening and sealing elements, so if you apply these remedies, they should be applied as directly as possible to the glass, avoiding not only their spreading beyond the glass surface but also their reaching its edges.

Finally, whenever possible, you should remove the remains of both the original solution used to clear the ice and the waste the mixture itself has produced, if possible, by giving the car a good wash, which, after the bad days it has been suffering outdoors, it surely deserves and will appreciate.