How to open a frozen car door?

Nothing, no dry weather can guarantee that our car doors will not freeze. However, often severe freezing of doors is caused by washing the car the day before, or when after warm weather, when everything outside is melting, frost sets in, and everything that had previously turned into water and flowed into the most unexpected places, including the seals of the doors and trunk of the car, turns into into ice, which acts as glue. Frozen car doors are often difficult to open, but there are a number of ways to do so without damaging them. Follow these steps to open a frozen car door.

First of all, you don’t need to pull the door too hard when trying to open it, otherwise you can tear off the rubber seals, between which ice most likely has formed. It is very important to calculate the force!

Sometimes not all car doors freeze up equally. If you cannot open the driver's door, try opening the passenger door, and then the rear doors. If you manage to open at least one door, you will thus be able to start the car and warm up its interior, after which all the doors will open.

If you still fail to open any of the doors, try instead of pulling it towards yourself, on the contrary, push the car door. Press down while leaning on the frozen door. Press as hard as you can. The pressure can break down the ice structure (in simple terms, crack it) around the door, allowing you to open the door much easier.

If this does not help, use warm (never hot) water to melt the ice on the car door. Fill a kettle, bucket or other container with warm water. Then pour water into the gaps between the door and the car body. This will melt some of the ice. Depending on the thickness of the ice, you may need to add several containers of warm water. After pouring, take a short break (depending on the temperature, 3-5 minutes) and try opening the frozen door again.

Ideally, instead of water, use de-icing mixtures to open your car door. Anti-icer spray contains chemicals that help melt ice. On average, this takes about 10 minutes. If you don’t have such a spray on hand, then it’s likely that you have some windshield washer fluid on hand. The fact is that it contains ethyl alcohol, which also melts ice well.

If you have a hair dryer (however, a regular hair dryer is also suitable), use it to open frozen car doors. Direct the hot air from the hair dryer onto the frozen areas. In this case, you do not need to heat the hair dryer to a very high temperature, and if the temperature of the supplied air flow is not regulated, then you will have to play with the distance of the hair dryer from the car so as not to damage the paintwork of the latter.

After the above procedures, there is a 90% chance that a frozen car door will open.