These freezing mornings you’re probably finding your windshield frosted/iced over. And you’re tempted to throw a bucket of hot or warm water over it.

Don’t do it. You might crack your windshield.

You can throw cold water on it, but even better, and safer, says Mike Andrews of Reliable Auto Glass in Rohnert Park, is to start your car, turn on the heater for five minutes, thus warming up the car and windshield, and THEN turn on your defroster. If you turn on your defroster right away, he says, you also might crack your windshield, especially newer cars where the defroster air heats up quickly.

He says that after those five minutes he typically finds he can just use his wipers to push off the ice or frost.

Andrews says this week he’s replaced one windshield of a customer who tossed warm water on it and two of customers who had immediately turned on their defrosters.

“It’s always been the case,” said Andrews, who’s owned Reliable Glass for about 40 years.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you’re letting your car warm up, stay nearby or even in it because every winter cars are stolen here as their owners let them warm up but go inside their home to do other things.