Sounds like your car is damp and the air con doesn’t work….

The air con was probably disabled due to the low temperature.

@johndoh: ‘Utter rubbish – spray comes out in a trickle, needs loads to actually melt the ice and left my hands bloody freezing.’

The aerosol de-icers are rubbish if they get really cold (e.g. they’ve been left in the car overnight) as the propellant doesn’t work properly when it’s very cold and the spray becomes weak. The trigger spray ones are the best in this respect.

I find the auto glym de icer works well, though not as good as a heated front screen, which I don’t have but have seen used to great effect on a friend’s Land Rover Discovery.

Re Webasto /eberspacher – roughly how much does it cost to retrofit to a car?

[Re Webasto /eberspacher – roughly how much does it cost to retrofit to a car?] lots of diesels have them already fitted as auxilary heaters(look on the webasto site) if its already there upgrade with a kit yourself for 100 – £150 or get installed for 3- £500

for a complete install £700 – 1,500

highly variable depends on car + control options (timmer, basic remote (1km range), fancy remote, GSM enabled with phone Apps + if you need to get anything re-coded in the car

and the air con doesn’t work….

It works, it was just that the misting was really heavy and it took an age to clear.

But yes the car is slightly damp after all the recent snow getting walked in by my kids.

The aerosol de-icers are rubbish if they get really cold (e.g. they’ve been left in the car overnight) as the propellant doesn’t work properly when it’s very cold and the spray becomes weak. The trigger spray ones are the best in this respect.

I did wonder that – I never use them and they were stored in the garage so pretty much the same temperature as outside. I will bring them inside the house and see if they work better with my next experiment.

My 1991 ex military Winterised Landrover Defender has a heated screen, it did have 6 additional heater radiators plumbed into the engine cooling system and an Webasto but it was too warm!

My Transit has a Eberspacher on a 24/7 timer and its great for de frosting/heating the cab/crew area. I also have a long hose for it which attaches and blows hot air into our tent when we go camping.