I LOVE my garage!!!!

I love my garage too. No garage at work and last night when I went home I thought for sure my doors would be frozen shut. Today it's even colder so not looking forward to going out...which I have to do shortly.

It was -10 degrees when we went to bed last night, I’m so glad we have a garage too. We store our bottled water in the garage and usually they stay nice and cold in the winter but this morning, the bottles are solid ice.

I went out a few minutes early today, to start my truck. The unlocked driver's door was actually frozen shut, and that was at 11:30 this morning. I tried the passenger side door, and the lock was frozen. I have two other vehicles--same result, frozen doors and locks. I had to take a pitcher of warm water out to pour along the seal on the truck door, then call my 11:45 appointment to tell him I'd be a few minutes late.

The good news--I was taking a pot of soup to my father, since I had to be out in the cold anyway, and it didn't need refrigeration while I was at the appointment.

Don't you worry that pouring water in the lock would refreeze at a later time? Like say, you get to your dad's and it was frozen again?

Don't have to worry about it too much in the South :)

No, but it is still a good tip to know. We were in Oregon early in January 2017, and got to see our first ice encapsulated car. We managed to make it to the airport in time, which was a good thing, because the flights were booked full and later flights got canceled.

In a suburb near me a 10 year old girl was hit by a car a couple of days ago because the driver couldn't be bothered to clear his windshield of frost and so didn't see her. Fortunately she wasn't seriously hurt.

I hadn't driven or even started my nearly 16yr. old Chevy Cavalier for two/three days. Late this afternoon I had to make a quick trip to the grocery - Cavalier popped right off. It's kept in a garage tho, but not a heated garage.

There is a difference between iced doors and frozen locks. But for those whose doors are not iced and have automatic locks on the doors is to lock and unlock the latch several times if iced. I find if I back into the door with my body it provides more force than if I pound on the door with my arms.

With no desire to get your goat, maifleur but ... should your procedure to deal with an iced-up door be referred to as a "butt-butt"?

Little squirt bottles of lock deicer are standard wintertime equipment in this part of the country/world.

No problem with frozen keyway in my fairly recently acquired car, in the shed - but I have back-up by pushing a tab on the fob.

BUT ... this cold weather is hard on batteries, especially weak ones, as I found mine to be, as told here, when being stuck on a country road near home one night a month or so ago.

So I thought it wise to put it on trickle charge for a few hours, last night, and it's on again this evening ...

... and it's supposed to "warm up" some tomorrow, tuesday.

ole joyful

Joy, this car is so old, there is no electronic key or lock, so no fob. Luckily, brand new battery.

The first year I drove to Maine in January by myself (dog had had a litter of puppies 2 weeks earlier, so couldn't drive up with husband), I had a vinyl coated carrier on top of my car. It was on top of a wire 4 ft square puppy play pen, that was folded flat and resting on the car top bars. I drove that first day all the way to CT as I could stay with a dog breeder friend - in-laws did NOT welcome me traveling with 3 cats, 4 dogs and a litter of 3 puppies! To my breeder friend, it was just another day! It was below zero the entire drive there. I had mum and pups in a VariKennel with a stadium seat warming pad that had been heated in the microwave before leaving. The crate was then wrapped in a "space blanket". I opened it up twice for mum to go out and potty - she had to be forced to leave her puppies. It was toasty warm in there! Getting these tiny puppies into the house was interesting. I had thrown in an old wicker Easter basket. I put a towel in it, puppies in towel, and another on top and my breeder-friend's husband race them into the warm house and a waiting heating pad for them and heat light.

The next day, about 30 minutes after leaving, I got hit by an ice storm - freezing rain. My Volvo defroster for both front and back were not up to the task and I kept spraying the solvent in the washer fluid (contains anti-freeze) to keep the windshield clear. When I could, I stopped under a bridge and scrapped all windows.

I could not make it all the way to Maine as planned, so that night I found a place in Nashua NH. It was an old motel where the rooms open directly out to the parking. No way could I get that puppy playpen down! But this old motel, still had an actual chest of drawers. I took out a drawer and put it on top of the 2nd bed in the room. I lined it with a plastic trash bag and then multiple layers of newspapers (yes, I WAS traveling with these!), then several synthetic "fuzzy" pads. At one end was the heating pad (yes, I did bring an extension cord!) and a clip-on lamp with a heat light in it. Puppies were safe, sound and warm in that drawer and it was easy for their mum to get in and out.

The next morning, I went through the drive through line at McDonalds and begged them to "reheat" my stadium seat pad for the puppies in the crate. They were very nice and did so. Back in the crated with the pad, re-wrapped with the space blanket, and we were on our way to Maine.

When I got there, it took my husband the entire next morning to take kettle after kettle of hot water out there to unthaw what had become a gigantic ice cube on top of my car!!! He finally was able to open the soft carrier and extract my luggage, and then with more hot water, get it off the puppy playpen, and then unthaw that and bring it in and set it up for the puppies.

It was quite an adventure and when I think back on that time in Jan 1994, I am in awe of what I was once able to do. Don't want to do it again, but geez I'd love to have that kind of stamina again...

Quite an adventure, anglo-friendly!

My ex-, Iowa-born and raised, used to use the term, "unthaw" - but she didn't really mean the literal "freeze"! She could have dropped the "un-" ... 'cause she really meant "thaw": don't know whether she ever did; died over 13 years ago.

ole joyful

Ole joyful the term I use would not be allowed here. Few people here ever have a problem with their locks freezing up just the doors icing shut. Tomorrow were are supposed to have two rounds of freezing crud. Drizzle in the morning. Rain changing to something freezing in the afternoon/evening. Either freezing rain or rain mixed with snow. We had our January thaw toward the first part of the month instead of our normal third week of the month. Winter blooming trees and shrubs are blooming.

Oh my gosh Anglo! Not sure I could have gone through that.

Will never have a car without auto start again! We have a heated garage, but at work that baby is thawed, de-iced, and warm before I get into it.

A couple of weeks ago, my driver's door was frozen shut, but I was able to open the passenger side. I had to climb over the console and then I used my feet/legs to get the driver door open. My next car is going to be like Angela's car - thawed, de-iced and warm before I get into it!

Well until you do Dawn, now you have an easier solution, especially if the passenger side doesn't help. With the added benefit of no climbing over!

Good suggestion for thawing frozen door. This is exactly what I was telling DH yesterday. Did he listen? No. :)

Another suggestion I have heard is, placing a plastic bag between the car door and frame. Haven't tried either one.

Yes, good to know, rob. Getting into a car that's all ice up like that is like crawling into a snow cave!

If you're gonna pour boiling water over it, better plan to drive long enough to get things well warmed up ...

... or better count on prob'ly needing a larger bucket o' boiling water next time ya need to open it.

o j