Icy Car Windows? A Real World Test Of Prestone Ice and Frost Shield and Prestone Windshield De-Icer
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By Bob Gordon
Co-publisher
The Auto Channel
Louisville Bureau
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As many fellow TACH’ers already know, I live in Louisville Kentucky...you know Ice Storm, 0 degrees temps, 6 inches of snow… and I park my “winter car” a 1992 Volvo 940 Turbo outside because one of my loves has her car parked in "her garage" and my other love, a 1990 Mazda RX7 convertible is in hibernation in “my” garage…
Now on to the Testing...the weather co-operated and for the past week I gave the freebie Prestone products a real world test and they passed with flying colors… in fact I have already run out of the Windshield De-Icer (with a handy built on scrapper), and I am still faithfully using the “Ice and Frost Shield” spray every evening, and even during the work day, with our weather being what it is (lousy).
Well the big test came the other morning…"the before I went to sleep" Storm Team weather forecast screamed that a major ice storm was to hit Louisville (and it did- just watch the TV news),so I went outside and followed the Prestone Ice and Frost Shield spray bottle’s label and sprayed the copolymer stuff on all of my trusty steed’s windows before the ice storm...I kinda felt like I was preparing my jetliner for a snowy weather take-off.
In the morning I looked out my kitchen window and saw...a Volvo-cicle my car was covered stem to stern roof to rocker panel in ice thick shiny ice.
By now it was to go to work, so I braved the slippery slope and icy winds to start(not so easy)my cranky old car and let it warm up as I normally have to do before driving this old enough to vote Swedish Bikini Team product...with all the defrosters on "Hot Blast" I went back into the house to check my email.
After a few minutes and the car warmed up, it was time to go back out, this time I carried my unsheathed super-deluxe extra-strength unbreakable steel-like ICE DOZER snow and ice scraper and girded my loins for the oh too familiar battle to come…as usual I planned to attack the ice enemy carefully…first the front windshield and then to the rear window… and then the sides...
Click PLAY to watch Prestone Tips video #1
But guess what…as advertised, no battle, no scrapping, no cursing and no frozen fingers or knuckles (you see wearing gloves, no matter what the temperature is here in Kentucky is a badge of dishonor) and after a light nudge of my trusty anti-ice apparatus, the the one-half inch thick ice coating just slid off both already warmed windows…it just slid right off as large clear ice sheets...after just a nudge...wow!
Unfortunately the side windows did not fare as well(I guess the defrosters are just not cut out to warm side windows), but after spraying-on the provided aerosol de-icer and using some early morning muscle the windows not so quickly became clear of ice, and I was now ready to face Louisville Kentucky’s demolition derby.
I now remember why this 18 year old Volvo is my winter car… not because it can handle the slick roads (because it's lousy in the ice and snow) but because I’d rather be inside a Volvo when all those around me are slipping and sliding…and with Prestone Ice and Frost Shield and the Windshield De-Icer (with a built on scrapper)...I was able to see who and what was coming at me in enough time for evasive maneuvers and under breath praying and cursing…
So my thanks to Prestone for products that really work as advertised, and thanks to Prestone’s lab technician Rebecca Marshall for sticking with her four plus year quest for a product that will help the garage deprived of the world outlast winter …bring it on Mother Nature I’m ready for you now.
Click PLAY to watch Prestone Tips video #2
