Homemade de-icer - edited

Ok, so I've become a fan of alcohol. No, not the kind you drink! Sorry 'bout that. No, this is the plane old Isopropyl alcohol aka rubbing alcohol that you find in the "drugstore" section of any grocery store, pharmacy or Wallyworld type business.

Remember my alcohol instead of deodorant? It worked well all summer long. When I worked inside or outside. Still using it with no complications. 2 or 3 squirts under each arm still does the trick.

Well, my daughter was running late one morning, and wouldn't you know, we got up and there was frost on the windshield. What to do? The de-icer can was empty. ($1.00 for 2 or three rounds of window clearing.) Then I thought, hummm...alcohol? So I got my trusty deodorant bottle out and commenced spraying the windows with it. Yes, windows in the plural. Squirt the first section and away went the ice. So, around the car I went squirting. It was rather hard on the hands - little bitty squirt bottle.

Today we went to the store and for 97 cents for a trigger spray bottle and $2.68 for 32 ounces of 91% isopropyl alcohol I'm in business. I'm trying 1/2 alcohol and 1/2 water. Since the alcohol is stronger than the normal 50%-70% that you normally buy, I think I can water it that much and it still work. Of course, now it's about 50 degrees out and raining, so I can't try it until the rain passes and it gets cold again. So for less than the cost of 3 cans of the spray stuff, I have a eight 8oz bottles of spray. It only took me about 1 oz to de-ice the car. A little went a long way and that was pure alcohol. It will last longer mixed with the water.

Correction:
Ok, a really bad frost hit. The watered down alcohol did not work very well. It did melt the frost, but then immediately re-froze. We were in a hurry (she was late - AGAIN). So I dumped out the watered stuff and used just straight alcohol and it worked like a charm. And it's still cheaper than the stuff in the spray can. Also, the straight 70% alcohol that sells for $1.00 for 32ozs. works just fine.