Frozen Shut

This morning I got up for work, saw all the snow outside and realized that I needed to get out there a little early in order to clear off and dig out my car so I could get to work on time. So, 20 minutes before I usually leave, I put on some boots and gloves and began chipping away at all the ice.

This challenge proved to be more than I was bargaining for. First of all, the locks on my car doors were frozen. Trying to unlock the driver's side door, I bent my key. Oops. Well, I got the lock undone at least. But then the door was frozen shut. And I mean really frozen shut. As in I was afraid of breaking the door handle off by trying to get the door open. Since my ice scraper was inside the car, I couldn't use it to chip away the ice around the door. I tried the trunk. Surprisingly, this lock was relatively easy to unlock and the trunk opened with only a little bit of force. Fortunately, my little civic has seats that can be folded down so I could crawl through to the cab and open the door from the inside. (This works really nicely if your doors are frozen shut!) I had to make several trips in and out of the trunk as the doors were so solidly frozen that I had to chip away ice from the outside and then try pushing from the inside. The ice was very thick so once I got the door open, I finally started sweeping off the snow and chipping at the ice.

Then my car wouldn't start because my key was bent so badly that it didn't quite go into the ignition all of the way. Go back inside, find a hammer, flatten the key, hope it works because it's the only one I've got. Come back outside, get the car to start. Whew! This extravaganza made me 15 minutes late for work, so it was a good thing I went out there as early as I did.

In the heat of the moment I was thinking to myself, "there has to be a trick. An easier way to get into your car when the locks and doors are frozen." I found out that one trick for frozen locks is to use a lighter or a match to heat the key (make sure you wear a glove when holding the key...don't burn your fingers). When the heated key is inserted into the lock, in warms up the lock and melts the ice crystals. Usually this only needs to be done once, but if the lock is really frozen, try it a couple of times in a row. I'll have to give this one a try and spare my key from bending so much. Another way is to just press your thumb up against the lock. The heat from your body is usually just enough to transfer in the lock and get some of the ice inside to loosen up.

There were several different ways that I found to get frozen doors open from bringing out a blow dryer to buying a commercial deicer. I think my original way, though a bit labor intensive, was the most eco-and-wallet-friendly. Another suggestion that I found is to get inside your car and turn on the defrost. Apparently the heater will loosen the ice on the rubber lining connecting your door to the rest of the car. I'm too much of a fan of this one either because with all of the air quality problems we have in this valley, I try not to let my car idle and "warm up" while I'm scraping off ice. It's bad for the environment and I don't think it's all that good for your car either. And honestly, my car never warms up that fast. My car warms up at the same distance from my home if I start it when I'm scraping or if I start it when I'm leaving. So, my advice is if you can get into you car through any door or through the trunk, open the frozen door from the inside and use the leverage of your body to crack the ice, rather than pulling on the door handle.

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