What's the best way to remove snow?

[tiamfooks]

Hey all...it's like the snow is never ending here in Boston. What kind of tools/techniques do you use to try to avoid scratching the paint, while removing snow?

[joed1228]

I'll just remove the loose snow and let the stuff stuck to the paint stay there and fly off when I'm driving around. Sometimes I'll use my arm (in a coat sleeve of course) to sweet everything away but the last inch and let that fly off on it's on. When I'm really bored I'll drive to the spray bay and spray it off with water and then it's really gone.

[DiPsAuCe]

How about a bucket of hot water?

[tiamfooks]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Has anyone used the "sno brum"? This is what i've seen them use at my lexus dealership but that's definitely not reason to trust it.

Amazon.com: SNO BRUM PRO WITH HANDLE: Automotive

Anyone have any experience with this? i'm wondering if it's any better a regular snow brush. I'd like to keep something in the trunk just for cleaning off the hood (at least) if i get caught in the snow but I don't like the idea of brushing my car's paint.

[ozzy]

Depending on the snow, if it's light fluffy snow, I use the electric leaf blower to blow it off, if it the ice that we had last week I wait till the sun comes out and warms it a bit and remove it then, I try to clean it with the leaf blower as much as I can, the less you touch it the better.

[Bigpoppa3346]

The key is to not actually *touch* the paint.

A snow brush might be fine for windows, but is a huge no-no for paint.

What you want to do is take your arm and wipe off most of the snow, leaving about .5" or so left. The rest will just blow off when you drive. Remember any contact will lead to marring, even a large amount of snow sliding around will marr.

P.S. that snow broom is a POS and will marr the nuts out of your paint.

[Street5927]

I have a large truck, so I have one of those telescopic snow broom/squeegie/ice scraper. I never use the broom part, I always just scrape the loose snow off with the rubber squeegie part and never had any problems with scratching. For the frozen on stuff, I do what someone else said and I will just use my hand to gently tap the frozen snow until it brakes and then just let it slide off. I wound not normally do this, but here in PA, we have a law where you can be fined $75.00 plus court costs, etc. if you have loose snow/ice blowing off your vehicle while driving.

[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by tiamfooks

Has anyone used the "sno brum"?

I have one that I usually use on dealership service loaners. This winter I lent it to an elderly friend of mine so she wouldn't use something worse.

If I *had* to use it on one of my vehicles I'd be sure to leave the bottom 1" or so that's actually in contact with the paint(that's what I did when I had the outside 24/7 Volvo). But I simply let the snow melt off my cars; I don't park them outside long enough for it to be a real issue.

[Boston Man]

Snow:
I brush off the top layers and leave as small amount of snow as i can on so the brush doesnt brush the paint.

Ice:
I use the brush and hit the ice so it breaks into pieces. I lift off the pieces to prevent them from sliding.
Once the ice was so hard i couldnt break it. It slid off while driving and there's a scratch on my trunk now.

[DaGonz]

I use a Sno-Brum. I leave a little bit of snow on the surface and let mother nature (or engine heat) melt the rest off.

[shine]

Originally Posted by Street5927

I have a large truck, so I have one of those telescopic snow broom/squeegie/ice scraper.

I use one of these and try not to touch the paint.

I drove past a 2 dealerships this past week using snow shovels. One of the two was a large new car dealership. Down the road a quarter mile a small used car dealership was using a gas leaf blower--they've got the right idea!

[dave40co]

MOVE!