Best way to prevent intercooler from icing?

That's gonna be great for the paint when he goes to remove it in a couple of months... no way I'd do that to the front of anything!

Foam water pipe insulation works well, quick, easily removable. This combined with removing the intake air snorkel so the engine draws air from the engine compartment will help (but not solve) the problem.

Foam pipe insulation, ill send you a picture later, it looks pretty clean with it

I know this is not apples to apples, but my ALH has an ebay FMIC and RC5.
I also have a scan gauge and monitor IAT.

When ambient temp is less than 30 degrees, the IAT rarely exceeds freezing, even under hard acceleration uphill without covering the grille openings.

With pipe insulation on the grille, the IAT is in the 40-55° range. I feel the engine is less likely to get a slug of water this way.

Icing is not simply due to babying the car

I would like to relay my personal experience with this IC icing issue.

2 weeks ago, I completely removed the intercooler outlet hose and removed about 1/4 cup of thick green sludge. Temps were in the 40's to 50's (very unseasonable for Wisconsin in January), so no water or ice was found. However, today I pulled the hose while changing my oil, and several Tbsp of water came out. In addition, I pulled the equivalent of about 3 large ice cubes out.

Last December, I had multiple experiences with no-start in which it took up to 10 cranks before it would start and run.

I have submitted a defect complaint to NHTSA on this matter (ODI number 10492197). I would highly recommend that anyone else who has experienced this would do the same. VW needs to be forced to own up to their engineering defect, and lots of data points (objectively written complaints) will help our cause.

The the intercooler icing links in my signature. I have compiled a database of over 250 intercooler icing incidents all across North America and mapped them for your viewing pleasure.

Click SURVEY to report an intercooler icing incident and click MAP to view the results. I update the results manually, so it may take a few days for your report to show up on the map.

Enjoy!

Just installed some pipe insulation yesterday after having a slightly rough idle after a startup a few weeks ago (startup itself was fine). Backstory: Driving one day on a brief 20 minute highway run, car up to temp, outside temps are about 15*f. Get home, park outside until the next day. Wake up to a breezy 45*f day. I knew in the back of my head that the IC kit (vacuum hose revision for me, installed May 2012) was put to the test the day before. Get in the car, glow, and start the engine without drama, but two seconds after, it started to shake, so I gave it a little blip of the go pedal, maybe to 1200 rpm, nothing crazy, and it returned to 900 or so rpm idle, smooth as ever.

No problems since, however, I will be doing a nearly identical run tomorrow (albeit ambient will be around 23-27*f not 15*, haha) with the lower IC opening blocked off (intake snorkel is still attached, as stock, not that anyone says it makes much of a difference in IAT, just fyi). I have a few small pieces of insulation I can quickly tear away if needed (regen etc). No above freezing days for the next week or so, so I will report back.
Update: The car will be driven in 20*f weather on the highway for three hours, and the next day it will be 44*f. The lower IC grill will be blocked off for the highway, and taken away for the next day.... lets see how quickly my fingernails can be bitten away..... Thoughts? (again I have the vacuum hose IC tsb installed).

Update. Travel plans changed from what was described, and the car was instead driven on the highway in temps ranging from 15*f to 40*f from the beginning to the end of the trip, respectively. Car was driven with the IC fully blocked off as described above, and unblocked once we arrived. Ran like a top. 42 mpg to boot. Happy.