Denver, CO (KUSA) - You can puff, and risk getting a ticket as your car takes five minutes to warm its windshield.
You can also scrape, and get an unintended shoulder workout while getting your suit covered in snow.
You can also buy a $3 bottle of rubbing alcohol and accomplish both in as little as a minute.
According to 9NEWS science guy Steve Spangler, by mixing equal parts water and 70 percent or above isopropyl rubbing alcohol, you can make your own deicer companies sell for far more money.
Spangler says rubbing alcohol has a freezing temperature of -128 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning it takes a whole lot of cold to make it freeze.
By adding it to water, you reduce the freezing point of the ice, causing it to melt quickly.
"You really are making like windshield wiper fluid. This helps to melt the ice, and in order to melt ice you have to rob energy away from something else," Spangler said. "Normally that would be water and it would just cause it to freeze again, but in this case it robs the energy away from the rubbing alcohol so it won't freeze and that's why it melts that ice. It's just a better solution."
Some people believe that adding a white vinegar/water solution has the same effect, thinking the acidity from the vinegar will break the ice.
Spangler says that's not true, as vinegar will lower the freezing point of water, but only by a small amount. Not nearly enough to have an effect on ice build up overnight.
Spangler also says not to throw boiling, or even lukewarm water on your windshield. The extreme temperature change can cause it to crack, only making problems before your morning commute worse.
