How to thaw a frozen door handle
Simple and easy steps to unfreeze a door handle in under 10 minutes when it's freezing out.
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During winter, it’s not uncommon that many people wake up to find their backdoors, car doors and anything with a handle frozen stiff.
Fortune favors those with “remote start” key fobs that can warm and defrost the car from the comfort of indoors, coffee in-hand. For the rest of us, there are some simple solutions to thawing out a frozen handle — and they’ll take under 10 minutes. These tips can be used for frozen locks, too.
Use warm water — not hot — to thaw a frozen door handle
Pour a large glass or bucket of warm water around the edges of the door frame and over the handle. Simply fill up a container with water and microwave it for 30 seconds, it doesn’t need to be too warm.
Definitely don’t use hot or boiling water as this can shatter a glass window or damage the paint on a door. After pouring the water over the handle, most of the ice should melt away, but if any remains — break apart any ice leftover with a gloved hand or ice scraper. Easy and free.
Use hot air to thaw a frozen door handle
Take a hair dryer and hold it around six inches from the frozen handle, waving the dryer around the entirety of it for a few minutes until thawed. For a house door, this is easy. But for the car, an extension cord might need to be used in order to reach the car door. Need to own a hair dryer and possibly extension cord.
Use de-icer fluid to thaw a frozen door handle
Commercial de-icer fluid can be bought at most auto and hardware shops. Grab a bottle and spray the handle and door frame where frozen. De-icer fluid will melt ice away in a couple of minutes while also lubricating the area it is applied to to prevent moisture from freezing up again. Need to buy de-icer first, prices vary.