There are few things more irritating on a cold frosty morning when you're running late for work than realising you still have to de-ice your car windscreen. Freezing your fingers off scraping away at the ice is never a pleasant task, so drivers like to invent clever ways to get round this problem.
One hack that has appeared this year as December frosts are in full swing is to rub an onion on your windscreen the night before you need to drive to prevent it frosting over. Mirror reporter Danni Scott put the hack to the test by smearing onion on her car windscreen so you don't have to - although with these results you might want to.
On a dark December evening I trudged outside to the car, half an onion in hand, to rub the vegetable all over my windscreen.
I won't lie, I felt a bit crazy doing this and got some funny looks from a dog walker passing by. The onion reportedly stops the frost forming in the first place, making your morning a bit quicker and easier.
For this little science experiment, I decided a patch test over the passenger side of the windscreen was the best approach in case I ended up with frozen onion layers blocking my vision.
As expected the onion was a bit smelly but the method itself was super quick and easy - even in the dark. The downside of this is remembering to sort it the night before - once you're tucked up in your warm house, going outside isn't an appealing thought but needs must.
After trying the hack, I realised you only need a small amount of onion to get the job done - so don't waste any more than you need to. Chopping the top off will give you plenty to work with, I was surprised at how far the humble vegetable went. I used a red onion but any onion is fine, even just the off-cuts from dinner will do the job.
Would you try this hack? Let us know in the comments...
In the morning, I was surprised to find that my scruffy patch of onion smears had prevented any ice from forming - although the frost overnight was minimal anyway.
There was a clear difference between the area of the windscreen that I had onion-ified and the areas that I missed. Had the frost been worse, this definitely would have saved me from tedious scraping.
The science behind this is that the sugar from the vegetable creates a barrier on the glass and helps break down the molecules, preventing ice from forming.
I definitely would use this hack again, especially if I had to rush off in the morning. It's best to do this when you've already used onions, so have some scraps to hand.
Interestingly, potatoes will also work under the same concept, so anyone who can't bear the thought of an onion smell in their car might want to give that a go instead.
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