Heated Windscreen

TrickyWicky

I have mixed thoughts about heated windscreens. Whilst I've had no problems with the heated mirrors, the windscreens have been annoying on all three cars I've had that have had it.

They're supposed to be 'quick clear' right? - So should it really slow down from 30 seconds to 2 minutes when scraping would be quicker? - I'd call it a slow clear windscreen when it reaches that speed. The idea is that you turn it on, ice melts, you wipe the wipers and drive. Thats only been my experience a few times.

tim9966

I think mine is great (in an 07 Focus) 45 seconds the windscreen can go from completely frozen to completely clear. I will never buy a car without one again.

The only problem can be when the side windows freeze closed, but mostly I find I can open them, so that's ok to see out at juctions for the first mile.

forgotmyname

I hate having to scrape the side windows now. But i wont drive the car until i can see out of all the windows
properly. Too many stupid people like that.

Heated side windows now please...

2 Large heavy duty batteries and 2 alternators maybe needed.

Honeydog

Had one for 8 years in Mondeo. Not got a Ford now and don't miss the heated screen at all.

Had Tom Tom XL and used to position it to extreme right of screen rather than in middle as it found signal faster that way.

mark5

I find the quickclear screen in my Focus is a lot faster than my wifes Fiesta both are 2008 models.

andrew-the-cat

The one thing Ford are brilliant for - heated front screen. I seem to remember last year, in the morning after work when we would all go out to our cars and find them iced up or covered in snow, the one guy who drove a Fiesta would jump in and turn on his heated screen, and be able to leave 5 minutes before the rest of us. Whereas in my car the front screen demist is just blowing conditioned air at the screen, and being a diesel it takes FOREVER to warm up in the winter. And this is on a 13 month old car!

My old Peugeot 306 was the same, no front heated screen and being a diesel it took forever to warm up in winter, thankfully though it had a coolant preheating system which used glow plugs to heat the water in the HVAC loop, so you could get warm air fairly quickly even in the cold (although that was a MASSIVE drain on the battery).

Notmyrealname

Contessa wrote: »

I've read that heated front windscreens may interfere with GPS so that a separate aerial is required.
Does anyone have any experience of this?

MK3 Mondeo with heated front windscreen. So far the following have worked fine:

Tomtom ONE
Tomtom XXL
Nokia 5800
HTC Desire Z

All have been placed in a central bottom position on the screen by their mounts.

I would suggest that if the mobile phone GPS is working OK then pretty much any would.

Notmyrealname

forgotmyname wrote: »

30 Amps per side.

My meter only goes upto 20A and its more than that.

Ah, that makes more sense. I only looked at the drivers side when I was routing a microphone cable for my car stereo hands free.

Notmyrealname

TrickyWicky wrote: »

I have mixed thoughts about heated windscreens. Whilst I've had no problems with the heated mirrors, the windscreens have been annoying on all three cars I've had that have had it.

They're supposed to be 'quick clear' right? - So should it really slow down from 30 seconds to 2 minutes when scraping would be quicker? - I'd call it a slow clear windscreen when it reaches that speed. The idea is that you turn it on, ice melts, you wipe the wipers and drive. Thats only been my experience a few times.

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick. Whilst that is how most people use them, thats not exactly how they're supposed to be used. They'll melt thin ice quite quickly but you do need to scrape thick ice off and unfreeze the wiper blades if nothing more than to save ripping the hell out of them. The heated windscreen will still clear the screen quicker than a non-heated one simply because the coolant is cold so the heater blower only blasts out cold air.