DIY homemade ways to melt snow and ice from your car, driveway and frosty windshield
With freezing rain coating North Texas, you’ll need to clear that ice on your car and driveway if you intend to drive anywhere in the next day or two.
Common snow melt solutions can damage outdoor surfaces, and harm animals and pets.
Here are several homemade solutions, with ingredients you may already have on hand, to melt ice and add traction to surfaces around your home. Plus, find some natural ways to defrost an icy windshield if you need to drive during the storm.
Homemade ways to melt ice around your home
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, there are four natural ways to de-ice:
- Salt: Salt is a well-known and easy way to melt ice, but you should use it with caution. It can damage your car, clothing and carpeting. It can also dry out or injure skin, as well as harm pets and plants.
- Urea fertilizer: Natural fertilizer urea is a safer alternative to salt. Because it’s a liquid, less cleanup is needed. But it can over-fertilize plants in some cases.
- Alfalfa fertilizer: Like urea, alfalfa meal is used as a commercial fertilizer. It’s dry and grainy, which creates traction while melting ice. You can buy a bag of alfalfa meal at most hardware and gardening stores.
- Sugar beet juice: Juice from sugar beets can help melt ice on slippery roads, driveways and sidewalks. The odorless and colorless liquid is harmless to humans, animals, plants, cars, fabrics and water systems. No, you can’t pour a jar of beets on the ice, you have to purchase the juice from garden centers, or online.
Don’t have a melting solution? Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take long for ice to melt on its own.
Homemade ways to make icy areas safer to walk or drive
While you’re waiting for the ice to melt, you can make icy areas safer to walk or drive by adding traction to slick surfaces. Try these household methods, says the Farmers’ Almanac:
Sand: If you have any kind of sand on hand, like play sand from your child’s sandbox, you can use it to add some grit to your driveway.
Wood ash: If you have a fireplace, you can use the powdery residue from burning wood to make surfaces less slippery.
Kitty litter: Do you have a cat? Use kitty litter to add traction to walkways.
Used coffee grounds: Your coffee habit will come in handy this winter. You can sprinkle leftover coffee on your freshly shoveled walk or driveway to help melt the ice and add more traction underfoot.
Sawdust
Cover your entire driveway and walkway in one of these substances, or create small footpaths where you need to walk.
How to defrost your windshield
You’re running late for work, and your windshield is covered in ice. What now?
You don’t have to wait for your car to defrost. There are four effective DIY methods from the Farmers’ Almanac for de-icing your windshield. Also, if you don’t have an ice scraper, use an old card in your wallet in a pinch. Be careful using any cards you currently use — scraping ice with it can easily break it.
You may have heard that spraying vinegar and water can melt ice on your windshield, but the almanac recommends against that. Not only is it fairly ineffective at melting ice, vinegar can be corrosive to your car’s finish and paint.
- Vodka: Mix one part water to two parts vodka. Spray or pour vodka on the windshield. Then scrape. You might want to go with a less expensive bottle for this.
- Alcohol: Fill a spray bottle with one part water and two parts rubbing alcohol. Spray it on your frosted windshield and windows to make scraping easier.
- Windshield wiper fluid: Apply it to the windshield to help soften the ice, then scrape.
- Pickle juice: The salt in pickle juice makes it effective at getting rid of ice. Apply it to the windshield. But be sure to wash your car as soon as the weather warms up to get rid of damaging leftover salt.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 10:19 AM.
