You’ve already got everything you need to defrost a frozen car lock

It’s very cold in a lot of places around the world at the moment. During the night, the temperatures often fall below zero, which means there’s a thin layer of ice on our cars in the morning. It’s annoying enough when you have to scrape your windshield clean, but what if your car lock has frozen shut? That’s much worse! Having to wait until the lock has defrosted on its own will take way too much time – perhaps even days – so we’re here to provide you with some solutions. 

There are multiple easy tricks that can help you de-ice a frozen car lock.

1. Hand sanitiser

This trick is very handy because it’s easy to always have a bottle of hand sanitiser with you in your bag or purse. Of course, it’s useful to clean your hands with, but it also comes in very handy when your car lock is frozen. Drip some of the sanitiser onto your key and then put it into the lock. Try to turn the key. Don’t force it because your key might break if you do! The high alcohol percentage in the hand sanitiser lowers the freezing point of the water, which causes the ice in the lock to melt pretty much right away. If the key won’t turn, you have to take it out of the lock again and drip some more hand sanitiser on it.

2. Vaseline / petroleum jelly

Don’t have any hand sanitiser at hand? Vaseline works very well against a frozen lock as well. Slather a nice thick layer of Vaseline or petroleum jelly onto the key and try opening the lock with this. Again, don’t force it or you might break the key. You might have to repeat the process a couple of time before you’re successful. The Vaseline will make the ice in the lock melt which will make it possible for you to get into your car.

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