Have you ever gone outside one day and discovered, to your horror, that you couldn’t unlock your car? At the time, you might have thought you had a flat battery, so you tried to unlock your car manually with the key. But even that didn’t work!

As you can imagine, those situations happen more often than you think. When temperatures plummet, it can cause moisture inside of locks to freeze. As a result, you become locked out of your car.

And it’s not just car locks that the problem of frozen water can affect. Freezing temperatures can wreak havoc on household and office locks, and even padlocks to outbuildings! The situation will likely happen to you someday if it hasn’t already.

So, to prepare yourself for such an issue disrupting your day, what can you do about it? You can call a professional locksmith like www.locksmithforyou.com. The following is a simple guide to handling frozen locks.

Here is what you need to know:

Img source: yourmechanic.com

Never use hot water to melt iced-up locks

If you’re stuck at home, for example, and you can’t get into your car, it might be tempting to use hot water. After all, hot water will melt ice quickly?

Well, yes, it will melt the ice inside of the lock. However, the downside is that it can cause irreversible damage to your lock! Plus, let’s not forget that hot water will cool down and freeze up again after a while!

Behold the magic of de-icer spray

When temperatures start to drop, many people use cans or bottles of de-icer spray. It’s a useful tool to help you remove ice and snow on your car windows. And it’s also handy to use for de-icing the locks on your car.

You can also use de-icer spray on other types of frozen locks too. They are fast-acting sprays, so you don’t have to wait around for the icy locks to melt.

Plus, they are inexpensive to buy. At some stores, you can usually bulk-buy to make savings on de-icer spray. They are useful tools to have at home, and you should stock up on them!

Img source: toplocksmithny.com

Hand sanitizer gel works too

If you’re conscious about the spread of germs wherever you go, you’ll likely have some hand sanitizer gel. It’s a brilliant thing to have when you’ve not got immediate access to a faucet and soap. One thing you may not have known is that hand sanitizer gel works well at defrosting locks!

The reason for that is simple: those gels contain ethanol and isopropanol alcohol. Both chemicals aren’t just adept at killing germs. They also lower the boiling point of water.

All you need to do is smear a bit of hand sanitizer gel onto your key. Next, gently insert the key into the lock. If the ice in the lock doesn’t melt immediately, repeat the process a few times.

Once you’ve got the key in the lock, leave it in place for about a minute. That way, the ethanol and isopropanol alcohol can do their thing!