The frozen car door lock is certainly one of those irritating situations you often face in winter. Though most of us like cold weather, we don’t want these things to happen every day. We get annoyed when we are standing next to our car in the morning, knowing the car door has frozen, and we can’t get into the car to reach our destination in time. But, it’s natural to happen when the temperature drops down. Therefore, you can’t prevent this from happening, but you can use the following useful methods to unlock a frozen car lock.
1. Heat Your Key
To open a frozen car door, you have to unlock it first. If the ice forms within or around the door lock, it won’t let you open the lock easily. To resolve this, you can use a hotkey method as it will melt the ice away and help to unlock the door.
Heat the metal part of your car key and then insert it into the lock. You have to repeat this process several times to let the ice melt completely. Keep turning the keys slowly in both directions for a few minutes until the ice melts.
2. Use De-icer
De-icer is a commercial spray product that helps dissolve ice and prevents moisture that can cause ice to build again. In winter, you must keep them in your kitchen cabinet or garage, as keeping them in a car won’t help when the car door is shut. You can easily buy it from an auto shop or hardware store.
3. Alternate To De-icer
Though commercial de-icers are usually kept by many car owners to instantly resolve the frozen lock problems, you shouldn’t worry about it if you don’t have one. There is a common household item everyone must have and works as an alternative to de-icer spray. It is a hand sanitizer. Therefore, if you don’t have de-icer spray, this hand sanitizer will come in handy to help you unlock a frozen car door lock. Most sanitizers contain 65-70% alcohol which can lower the melting point of water. The method to use it is, cover both sides of your key with sanitizer and then enter it into the lock. After a few minutes, your car lock will open.
4. Keep An Ice Scraper
An ice scraper can also be a useful tool to break apart a huge chunk of ice formed outside your car door. Therefore, carrying it in your winter coat can save you from any trouble caused due to ice formation around the car door.
5. Pour Warm Water
In this method, we pour a bucket of hot water around the area of the door lock and then try to push on the door. It will help remove most of the ice from the car door lock.
The warm water method is generally not suggested in the first place. There are some consequences of pouring hot water. Hence, some preventive measures must be taken to avoid any damage occurring. They are:
● Don’t use boiling water
● Don’t pour the water on the window or lock; instead, pour it around the doorframe.
6. Alternative Heat Source
If you don’t want to take risks using hot water, you can adopt this method to melt the ice. Use a hairdryer to melt the ice with hot air. However, keep it at a distance of 6-inches from the door lock.
Final Words
All of the above methods we discussed are often used to melt ice from the car door lock. However, you can also take some measures to prevent ice formation from the beginning. The most common practice is covering your vehicle when winter starts, and you will be saved from making all efforts to melt the ice. If you need some extra help, you can always call locksmith professionals, such as Speedez Locksmith.
