Winter weather brings beautiful snow-covered scenery, but it also can bring icy weather and low temperatures.
This unfriendly weather can cause your car doors to freeze pretty quickly. These tips below will help you to unfreeze your car and keep your spirits warm.
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What Can You Use To Unfreeze Car Doors?
There are multiple different methods that you can use to unfreeze a car door.
Some products that will unfreeze car doors include:
- Rubbing Alcohol
- De-icer wiper fluid
- Vinegar
- Warm water
- Hand sanitizer
Keep reading to learn about in-depth tips and tricks to get into your frozen car quickly and prevent it from freezing in the first place.
How To Unfreeze Car Doors With Vinegar?
Vinegar is an easy and efficient way to unfreeze a car door handle due to the acidity in the liquid.
You need to be cautious with vinegar because it can stain your windows and leave a distinct smell, especially if used too often.
You do not want simply to pour vinegar onto your frozen door lock; instead, you need to grab a spray bottle. Fill the spray bottle with two parts vinegar and one part water.
Using a spray bottle will allow you to control better where the vinegar ends up. After a few minutes, the vinegar should melt the ice on the door handle, and the door will easily be opened.
How To Unfreeze Car Doors With Rubbing Alcohol?
Rubbing alcohol mixed with water is a fantastic and straightforward way to unfreeze a frozen car door. Mix equal parts of rubbing alcohol with water in a spray bottle to make the solution.
It is important to remember that you will need to use high-proof rubbing alcohol (90% isopropyl or higher) to get the fastest and quickest results.
You also do not want to continually rely on this method to unfreeze your door because it might eventually cause some damage to the rubber in the door.
Using Cooking Spray on Frozen Car Doors
Cooking spray is an ideal preventive method to help keep your car doors from freezing in the cold months.
Car doors freeze because the rubber in the door absorbs water, and then the rubber gets hard when it freezes, causing the door to stick.
Applying some standard home cooking spray to the door’s rubber before an expected deep freeze or ice storm will prevent the water from sticking to the rubber caskets in the doors.
Wd40 for Frozen Car Doors
WD40 is beneficial for preventing a car door from freezing and unfreezing it.
Since WD40 works as a grease, you can spray it on the door’s rubber part the night before a deep freeze to keep the car door from sticking; if you forget and your door freezes, no worries there too.
WD40 also contains an alcohol base so that you can spray a small amount around the door, and the door should be de-iced in a few minutes.
How Do You Unfreeze a Car Door Fast?
There are several methods to unfreeze a car door, but the fastest way would be to use a chemical de-icer.
De-icer solutions can be found at most any stores and are made from an active polypropylene glycol compound. This mixture will melt the ice almost immediately.
Then just use a towel to wipe away the melted ice.
How To Unfreeze Car Door Handles?
If your door handle is frozen over, you can take a few steps to get the handle unfrozen. First, you should scrape away any ice covering the handle to remove as much as possible.
Make sure to use a non-metal-based object to scrape so you do not chip your car paint. Next, you can pour lukewarm water over the frozen door handle.
It is crucial to use lukewarm water, not hot or boiling water since that might shatter your car window. You can even sometimes use cold water as it would still be warmer than the ice on your car door handle.
How To Unfreeze a Car Door Latch?
One easy method to unfreeze a car door latch is to use a hairdryer. You will need to be close to an electrical outlet for this method to work.
You should keep the hairdryer around six to eight inches away from the latch and move it back and forth.
This process might take several minutes for the ice to melt. Once it does, you should be able to pull the door latch open gently. Be mindful of using anything electrical in a wet environment.
How To Unfreeze a Car Door Lock?
Using hand sanitizer is a fast and effortless way to defrost your car door lock. You can coat your car key with hand sanitizer and gently try to push the key into the lock.
Be very careful and do not force too hard with the key; you do not want to accidentally break the key apart and get it stuck in your lock.
Try gently wiggling the key into the lock instead. Once you get the key into the lock, let it stay there for around a minute. The alcohol base in the hand sanitizer will unfreeze the lock.
How To Unfreeze a Car Door Window?
If you can get into your car, the easiest way to unfreeze a car window is to turn your car on and let the heater melt the ice.
Using this method can be a bit of a time-consuming option, depending on how much ice has accumulated on the window. You can also use a water-diluted Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol solution or a hair dryer set on a low setting.
Make sure you have melted all the ice from your car windows before you drive.
How Long Does It Take for a Car Door To Unfreeze?
The method you use to unfreeze your car door and how much ice is on the door will determine how long it will take.
If you use a remote car starter, it might take between ten and twenty minutes to unfreeze. If you use a chemical de-icer, the de-icer can completely unfreeze your door in less than five minutes.
How To Prevent Your Car Door From Freezing
To prevent your car door from freezing in the first place, you can take proactive steps:
- If you know icy weather is coming, you can coat your door with household cooking spray or even a bit of a water/rubbing alcohol solution.
- You can also place a towel on the door. Place it above the window between the door and the car frame. Having the towel in the door will help to give you another place to try and pull your door open instead of an iced-over door latch.
