Winter Is Coming. What's the Best Ice Scraper for Your Car?
Andrew Koole
· 4 min read
Anyone who lives in a place with real winters can identify with this experience: You wake up and get ready for work as you usually do, with a carefully scheduled ritual that allows you to get to work right on time. Everything runs like clockwork until you reach your car outside and find it covered in ice and snow.
If you have the right tools, this predicament can be easily resolved. If all you have to work with are a pair of windshield wipers and a loyalty card, you might as well call the boss and say you’ll be late now.
Ice scrapers are essential for anyone
traveling through winter conditions
, but not all scrapers are made equal. The worst of them will have you redoing your work over and over; the best will clear your line of vision with minimal delay. The following are those types of scrapers.
The ultimate ice scraper and snow brush
It’s hard to find a scraper that doesn’t have one weakness or another, but after testing 17 scrapers over 40 hours, the
New York Times
says the one scraper to rule them all is the Hopkins SubZero 80037.The SubZero 80037 does everything. Need a brush that won’t fray but will also keep your car paint safely in place? Its soft bristles are secured tightly enough to act as a shovel. Want a squeegee to get rid of water lines? You’ll find one on its end, too.
But the best thing about the 80037 is its retractability. Pickup truck and SUV drivers who need extra length for tough-to-reach sections have 60 inches to use. But for anyone not wanting to store something so awkwardly long, have no fear—the 80037 retracts to 39 inches.
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Other good options
The Hopkins SubZero 80037 is about as cool as a snow scraper can get. Durable components, foam handles, separate blades for frost and ice, and of course, that extendability make it the envy of the parking lot. But not everyone needs that much tool for the job.
The Times says Hopkins has other models that might suit your situation better than the 80037. For people who’d rather something a little shorter, the Sub Zero 16619 extends to 51 inches, making it potentially easier to maneuver while offering all the other benefits of its bigger brother.
Birdrock’s Home Snow Moover is a similarly adept tool, but it swaps out the bristles for a foam brush, helping you avoid bringing snow into your car. It also comes apart for storing, with the scraper-end functioning on its own.
Speaking of scraper-only tools, the Times says the Hopkins SubZero 16621 will do the trick for anyone wanting something simple and small that doesn’t bother with a brush at all.
Other tips for winterizing your car
Finding a good scraper and brush for your car is an important step in the winter preparation process, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Before the weather gets really rough, it’s always a good idea to schedule a checkup with your mechanic to make sure your fluid and tire pressure levels are good, your battery is healthy, and that everything is generally running smoothly so you avoid getting stranded in the cold.
While your car is in the shop, you might want to swap your all-seasons for a set of winter tires, especially if your region can experience extreme winter weather.
Lastly, take a moment to inspect your windshield wipers. If you haven’t done it in a while, you might want to replace them before they have to keep the snow out of your line of vision.
