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An Object Designed to Free You from Scraping Ice and Snow Off Your Windshield

Urban Transit's FrostGuard Plus

By Rain Noe - October 17, 2022

in Cars

For those living in northern climes, scraping ice and snow off of one's windshield in the mornings can be a weekly or even daily routine. A company called Urban Transit has designed a prophylactic measure that allows you to avoid this ritual. Their $30 FrostGuard Plus, which comes in two sizes, is a piece of polyester lined with PVC and with two PVC internal poles on either vertical side.

You shut one of the little flaps inside one of your car doors, pull the fabric over the windshield, then shut the flap in the other door. The flaps prevent the wind from blowing the cover off, while the poles sit tight against the edges of the windshield.

A deluxe version adds elastic straps that go around the sideview mirrors.

It also comes with two mirror covers, large enough, the company says, to cover even trailering mirrors.

After you pull the cover off, it goes into a storage pouch that I assume is waterproof (the company doesn't say).

"This product completely frees you from scraping frost off your windshield and waiting for the defrosters to work," the company writes.

I admire the solution-seeking, but one question I have is: How on earth do you shut the second flap into the door and make it tight? I realize this adds material, cost and user hassle, but I might want a cord or bungie that connects the two flaps inside the car. I also wonder how tight you can really get the seal at the top.

Lastly, I'd love to see a solution for the rear window, which would admittedly be tricky given the variety of rear window types: Sedans, hatchbacks and pickup trucks all have different glass configurations back there. I'd be curious to see what they come up with.

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Jason Pokines

2 years ago

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I don't want to come across as overly negative, but to use this product you'd have to first convince me that going through the trouble of installing, removing, and stowing away - along with whatever ice and snow is stuck to it - this cover every time I *think* it might snow is better than only pulling out a scraper *when* it snows and stowing away a much smaller, mostly dry/clean tool.

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Jim Lewis

2 years ago

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you leave one of these on when it gets higher than freezing and drops, and you will have a devil of a time scraping it off.

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Jacob H-R

2 years ago

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Is this a paid post? Aren't you suppose to be transparent that this is a paid post and has affiliate links?

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- Stuart Constantine
  
  Jacob H-R
  
  2 years ago
  
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  This is not a paid post. If it were it would be labeled as 'sponsored'
  
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Jeremiah Andrick

2 years ago

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Don’t get me wrong this is a decent idea. But growing up in ND right by the Canadian border we had what I think is a more elegant solution. A couple of pieces of cardboard. Tuck an edge underneath the windshield wiper. It works just as well and takes two seconds to pull off

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- Rain Noe
  
  Jeremiah Andrick
  
  2 years ago
  
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  I'm digging your solution! If you can send me some before/after photos, I'll write it up as a counterpoint.
  
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- Bob Bob
  
  Jeremiah Andrick
  
  2 years ago
  
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  You misspelled 'elegant'. In the context you used it, it should have been spelled 'redneck'. Plus cardboard is not going to last more than a few nights.
  
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