Best car heater....to clear windscreen
in [Car Maintenance]
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From: Harry Bloomfield on 6 Jan 2010 11:50 nickc expressed precisely : > My Astra 1.7cdti '04 takes over about 2 miles to get any real heat.......and > 8 (?) miles to clear the screen. > My Mrs Skoda Fabia 1.4 tdi '03 about the same. > > My old Citroen XZ 1.9d was better than either the newer cars for heat / > screen clear . > > I seem to remember test driving a Daihatsu years ago and being surprised how > quick the heater came up......pretty sure it was from cold. > > Any thoughts? > > Cheers Mine is up to temperature before I get to the local motorway junction about a mile away. Amazingly - it is producing some heat before I even get it out of the end of the drive, but it's most useful feature is the front screen electric heater combined with it's separate ability to just set it with a single control to clear the screen. The latter turns the a/c on and the blower. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
From: IanT on 6 Jan 2010 13:53 "nickc" <nick.costin1(a)btinternet.com> wrote in message news:dsOdnRjO17uhO9nWnZ2dnUVZ8sWdnZ2d(a)bt.com... > My Astra 1.7cdti '04 takes over about 2 miles to get any real > heat.......and 8 (?) miles to clear the screen. > My Mrs Skoda Fabia 1.4 tdi '03 about the same. > > My old Citroen XZ 1.9d was better than either the newer cars for heat / > screen clear . > > I seem to remember test driving a Daihatsu years ago and being surprised > how quick the heater came up......pretty sure it was from cold. > > Any thoughts? > > Cheers > Your heater is clearly faulty then. If it's a petrol engined car you need it checking. If you have air conditioning it clears within a few minutes providing you follow the instructions in the handbook about which settings to put everything on. From memory you switch the aircon ON, set it to full temperature, put the selector to WINDSCREEN and put the fan speed on 4 or FULL. The aircon does NOT work on the windscreen outlets unless you do this. If it doesn't clear doing that then your heater matrix is blocked or the car thermostat is staying open. The thermostat has no effect on the heater, but will not circulate water around the full cooling system until the appropriate temperature is reached. In the cold the thermostat will keep the water circulating around the engine and this causes heat to be generated faster. The heater matrix can be blocked if the correct coolant has not been used at the correct intervals, bits of corrosion form and gather in the tubing inside the matrix which is of very small diameter. Check the colour of your coolant, it should be a red/pink colour, anything else and it is unsuitable! You can get small ceramic heaters that plug in to the cigarette lighter socket, but they are only good for cracking the windscreen as they provide instant heat and not gradual - so put the glass under extreme stress. For the outside of your car, forget using RAIN-X products, they claim to provide protection against snow and ice forming. Do they hell, the products are next to useless and have completely false claims. The same for ASDA De-Icer, what a waste of time that is - it freezes. I was given a refund after demonstrating how useless it was in the ASDA car park a few days ago.
From: Harry Bloomfield on 6 Jan 2010 16:27 Pete M pretended : > Aircon tends not to work at below 4 degrees in modern stuff no matter what > you do as it's designed not to in order to stop the system freezing solid. It > states that in the handbook in most cars built since they swapped over to > R134a back in the early 90s. Just because the AC light comes on doesn't mean > the AC is operating. It mentions it in most car handbooks - it does in the > Mk2 Granada one I've got here, so it's not a newfangled idea. They shut the compressor down, when the temperature of the heat exchanger falls below 4 deg to make sure they do not build up ice. Bypass the sensor and they can be blocked up solidly with ice. On recirculate, with the air from the cabin passing over the heat exchanger matrix, the cabin air will usually be warmer than the 4 degrees cut off. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
From: Nige on 6 Jan 2010 17:42 Pete M wrote: > nickc wrote: >> My Astra 1.7cdti '04 takes over about 2 miles to get any real >> heat.......and 8 (?) miles to clear the screen. >> My Mrs Skoda Fabia 1.4 tdi '03 about the same. >> >> My old Citroen XZ 1.9d was better than either the newer cars for heat / >> screen clear . >> >> I seem to remember test driving a Daihatsu years ago and being surprised >> how >> quick the heater came up......pretty sure it was from cold. >> >> Any thoughts? >> >> Cheers > > Saabs, Volvos, Fords. Some Mercedes. > > My Audi isn't bad, but does take 1/2 mile or so before it's toasty warm > inside. Cant beat the RR, set it up to either come on timed, or press a button on the remote :) -- Nige, BMW K1200S Honda Transalp XL600V Yamaha R1 Range Rover Vogue
From: Richard Crewe on 6 Jan 2010 19:11
On 06/01/10 16:49, Tony (UncleFista) wrote: ------8<-- snip snip --8<----- > > It's possible to buy small 12v screen demisters, a bit like hairdryers, > to clear kitcar windscreens (with no heater). > Available from kit car bits suppliers, dunno whether they're any good > though :) > > Like this; > http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/electric-demist-heater--demst-309-p.asp > I have a pair of 12V hair-dryers on my kit-car, they are pretty much useless for demisting in an open top car and are only there to meet SVA regulations. They may be better in an enclosed space though, but I can't imagine how they could practically be used to dry any amount of hair. My tip for defrosting an icy windscreen is to use _lukewarm_ salty water. This melts the ice and warms the screen enough to reduce misting. The salt prevents it freezing on the screen and on the ground where it eventually drains. There's the risk that if the water's too hot, the thermal shock will crack the screen. -- Rich remove socks and trousers to reply |