In particularly bleak, frosty and frozen weather, one of the biggest concerns for drivers is the risk of frost building up on the glass, requiring several minutes of warming up before the car can be driven off, often leaving you in the freezing cold all that time.

The solution is to put a mat over the windscreen to stop frost from accumulating, cover the wing mirrors with carrier bags secured with rubber bands, and use de-icing products that will lower the freezing point of water and thus stop ice from forming.

However, with desperate times come desperate measures, and every frosty morning brings with it several social media hacks that will fail to do anything at best and at worst could potentially require a windscreen replacement.

The most recent one is a video of a driver who put hot water into a sandwich bag to help defrost the windscreen, which is a really bad idea.

In one sense, it is easy to see where the driver is coming from. Most people know that boiling a kettle and pouring that on the windscreen is a one-way ticket to shattered glass and sometimes an iced-over windscreen if the weather is particularly cold.

A better solution, although still not ideal is to replace the hot water with warm water.

As well as this, try to avoid leaving the engine on to de-mist. Many cars are stolen as a result of this, and the Highway Code has started to crack down on unnecessarily running a vehicle engine if that vehicle is on a public road. On your own drive, however, this should be fine.

Do not turn on the wiper blades unless you are sure the ice has melted off or you have scraped it away. Wiper blades are designed to be soft and push away water, so if they bump into ice they could rip and break.

Finally, don’t just drive off and take your chances. It is a criminal offence to drive without full visibility, which also includes driving with a cracked windscreen as well.