You carry out your checks in the cold dark morning, frost all around, lo and behold, your screen washers are frozen solid! (We all check them every day…don’t we?)
Quite simply, what do you do? Defect the wagon until the fitters can fix them, or what?
i spray de icer on them. or wipe across them with a small brush.
Spray de-icer on them ,
let the truck warm up and heater blowing to de-ice/ defrost.
make sure the washer bottle has been filled with screen wash additive in strong strenth or neat additive (depends how cold it gets and wind chill factor), Not plain water.
Never throw warm or hot water onto windscreen/windows – laminated glass will crack and toughened will shatter/burst if the glass is frosted/cold.
Personally, I Carry a squeegy bottle or 2 (soft squeezy washing up liquid bottle) in the cab filled with diluted screen wash + water to spray onto screen from drivers windows ( or passenger if your double mannned) during the winter months. 
Sometimes in winter the windchill is that cold the washer jets hardly get chance to thaw sometimes, all depends.
The washing up bottle works wonders though 
If you want to cover nether regions and just incase there is a true defect with washers — Attempt reasonable methods of getting them to work 1st, then if not :-
If Vosa catch you though , it could be a PG9 for a defect - unable to make safe visual clear screen .
At the end of the day, it will fall back to you, as the driver of that vehicle.
I’ve put near-boiling water in the washer bottle before now (not for the faint harted 
) because it’s only had water (a big block of ice) in it, Trouble is, there’s no space to add fluid (adding fluid to ice just results in the addition of blue ice) then so you’ve got the choice of getting the screen nice and warm with the heater and using as much water up as you can so you can add some or (as is usually the case) live with it because you’re pushed for time - which I did twice last year and both times the bottle froze/stayed frozen 
So I found a new game (having no water with me)
With the screen relatively warm, throw snowballs at it (not hard icy ones) while having a ■■■ in a layby and as it melts you can clear the screen
Think I’ll save a few washing up liquid bottles this year though 
So I found a new game (having no water with me)
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Good idea on the washing up bottle though
I’ve got tears running down my face watching that
…if I tried peeing on the windscreen, you can garantee the wind would get hold of it and I’d have a rather unfortunate incident
kinda ontopic and offtopic 
If your washers are frozen or you have no water, don’t use the wipers It just makes it worse smearing it allover the screen.
vosa tossers pulled me in start of the year and said not to worry about them being frozen up. It was like -10 or something that day. Truck was so bogin they never spied the big ■■■■ off crack in the screen lol
darkseeker:
:lol: I’ve got tears running down my face watching that…if I tried peeing on the windscreen, you can garantee the wind would get hold of it and I’d have a rather unfortunate incident
definately a case of getting your own back,
Lycanthrope:
kinda ontopic and offtopic
Trouble is, if you operate the washer control, most wipers these days do a couple or three passes anyway 
i even resorted to chucking a cup of tea out of the window and onto the screen last year, made a right mess but at least i could see where i was going
■■■■■■■ on it works, trust me.
Get a lighter and use it for a couple of seconds. Works a treat on Scanny door locks.
■■ me if we have a winter like last time…
chaversdad:
i even resorted to chucking a cup of tea out of the window and onto the screen last year, made a right mess but at least i could see where i was going
I would rather drink mine
I set my night heater for 30 mins before shift in winter and when I get in the cab is lovely and warm and screen clear as a whistle
You do have to have a regular motor to do this though obviously, I would just carry de-icer with me otherwise.
As im the only one to drive my vehicle (OD) I dont have the luxury
of defecting the vehicle then waiting for someone else to sort it.
My solution is quite simple,after 1st November i only put undiluted
screenwash in the bottle. I promise you this works, although i can
hear the moans now from transport managers and other tightarses
about the cost. My answer is quite simple if you dilute the mixture
it freezes,dont dilute it,it works!! not rocket science is it? To my
mind the cost is only wasted if it doesnt work. I also accept that
some firms will not buy screenwash at all, in this scenario defect the
vehicle and wait until it thaws out. I am still using screenwash that I
bouhgt last year for £10 at macro (20 litres) so if you drive the
same vehicle all the time you know the answer.
This is the difference between working for a UK haulier or those pesky foreigners. at the last 4 foreign companies, they have all had a winter service programme where new wiper blades are fitted, washer bottles topped up and a ready made strong mix placed near the fuel pump or in the workshops.
Meanwhile the UK operator whines until Spring about you paying for a bottle of Halfords screen-wash and then having the audacity to try and reclaim the cost on expenses
kevmac47:
As im the only one to drive my vehicle (OD) I dont have the luxury
of defecting the vehicle then waiting for someone else to sort it.
My solution is quite simple,after 1st November i only put undiluted
screenwash in the bottle. I promise you this works, although i can
hear the moans now from transport managers and other tightarses
about the cost. My answer is quite simple if you dilute the mixture
it freezes,dont dilute it,it works!! not rocket science is it? To my
mind the cost is only wasted if it doesnt work. I also accept that
some firms will not buy screenwash at all, in this scenario defect the
vehicle and wait until it thaws out. I am still using screenwash that I
bouhgt last year for £10 at macro (20 litres) so if you drive the
same vehicle all the time you know the answer.
This ^.
I used to be one of the ‘use as little concentrate as I can get away with’ brigade and it really does you no favours at all when you’re driving eastbound on the M62 at 7.30am Monday morning when the road is damp and it’s -5 outside. The road isn’t wet enough to warrant even flip wipe so you’re constantly on the squirters to clear all the gritty spray that’s being thrown up, but the problem is that the sun is 2cm above the horizon and your washer pipes and nozzles are frozen because you could tried to save yourself a couple of quid on screen wash by diluting it down. End result is that you have to drive 2mm behind trucks all the time in order to get enough spray on the screen to make it wet it for the wipers to clear without turning it opaque 
.
Screen wash is peanuts these days if you go to the right places and it really is one of those things not to be scrimped on come the winter. As soon as I see the gritters out my washer bottles on my 2 motors get neat screen wash in them until May next year. Like Kev, never had any problem with the frozen pipes or nozzles since doing that.
If it’s not your regular motor then use a squeezy bottle like Trux says above. Not an ideal solution, but it does the job.
stagedriver:
■■■■■■■ on it works, trust me.I wont be trying that
chaversdad:
i even resorted to chucking a cup of tea out of the window and onto the screen last year, made a right mess but at least i could see where i was going
i did that the tea did a great job ,shame the cup left a big spiders web when it hit the screen
Wheel Nut:
Meanwhile the UK operator whines until Spring about you paying for a bottle of Halfords screen-wash and then having the audacity to try and reclaim the cost on expenses
The UK operator wont buy screenwash, anti freeze or grit for the yard, then moans when you can get in your motor, and if you do why it aint moving out of the yard.
The joys of having a non transport type as your boss.