Don't scrape your windscreen to clear frost...

JustinR1979

sillygoose wrote: »

With the new car I am getting soon I can turn on the heating in it and the defrost function from an app on my phone, then go back to bed for another 10 minutes. By the time I am ready it will be all thawed and cosy.



Hot water bottles? nah.

Pretty smart


Of course many years ago diesels had night heaters, or whatever you want to call them - I know the E39 5 series did from 15 years ago.

NeverEnough

Our venerable E53 X5 (very large petrol engined guzzler much hated by the "green" brigade) has a marvellous little Webasto "parking heater" under the bonnet courtesy of the wealthy first owner who ticked all the optional extra boxes...........

Its fantastic. Just set the timer for whenever you want it to come on and arrive outdoors in dreadful weather to a lovely toasty defrosted car :T The old diesel E53s had them fitted as standard and could easily be modified to use as "parking heaters".

Ancient Caravelles have them too, although I have not managed to restore the one in ours to working order - and the parking heater conversion costs a lot more than the Webasto one.

Rover 75s had them as standard as well and make an interesting project to fit to a car for the DIYers out there........

New X5s don't have them so I am inclined to simply keep our one till it growls off to the Final Breakers one day! The best add on ever!

facade

Tobster86 wrote: »

What about de-icer spray?

It works by lowering the freezing point of the ice/freezer spray mixture, which allows it to melt (hooray )

When it melts, it cools the glass down even more, so as soon as you breathe out, your breath condenses & freezes on the inside (boo )

Best to scrape with a plastic scraper if you can't warm it up

Gloomendoom

OddballJamie wrote: »

I think the patent has expired now, so hopefully more manufacturers can do this.

Just read the new Corsa has a heated screen.

It was an option on Land Rovers in the 1960's. My 1972 Range Rover has one too.

I'm still not sure what patent Ford actually owned... it certainly wasn't for heated car windscreens per se. Perhaps some specific type of heated screen?


We just stick a fan heater in the car and turn it on from inside the house about 15 minutes before we leave for work. No ice and a warm cabin.

chrisw

I'm quite surprised no one has scratched the windscreen. I had a 06 VW Passat and when it was about 6 months old I cleared the ice with a bog standard rubber on one side and sponge on the other scraper which I kept on the floor in the passenger side. It put a load of tiny scratches in the glass which became very visible once the sun hit them.

Unfortunately it was a four year lease and it annoyed the hell out of me for the remaining 3 and a half years.

It's the main reason I jumped at the option of a heated windscreen on my current Volvo.

Johnmcl7

I've had three VW based cars (1999 Octavia mk 1, 2004 Toledo mk 2 and a 2007 Octavia mk 2), I don't know if they used different windscreens to their stablemates but none of them ever had scratches on the windscreen from scraping all of which they needed fairly extensively as they were diesels and slow to warm up.

John

Bettie

njb783 wrote: »

Instead, 10 minutes before you need to see through the windscreen, place one or two (to clear passenger's view and the driver's wider view) hot water bottles inside,
This is FAR better than running the engine for 5 minutes and polluting your neighbourhood, and it will save you fuel.
:beer:

Must print this off for my neighbour who starts his works van every wintery morning, leaves it running whilst he goes back inside his house for ten minutes. The stench of fumes under my window means I can't open it or I'll be choked and the engine noise wakes me up. :mad:

puppey

Combo of tepid water and a soft scrapper works well for me

wba31

sillygoose wrote: »

With the new car I am getting soon I can turn on the heating in it and the defrost function from an app on my phone, then go back to bed for another 10 minutes. By the time I am ready it will be all thawed and cosy.



Hot water bottles? nah.

What car is this????????

wba31

cherryblossomzel wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

That made me laugh. Mostly because I'm 35 and drive a Honda Jazz. I make fun of myself in my OAP-car all the time. At least the insurance is pretty cheap...

My missus is 22 and drives a Jazz.

What won her over was reliability, low insurance cost, space for 4 adults when she goes out with friends, magic seats for if ever she needs them, and the large boot that will be useful when babywba is born in April!