Window demisting / defrosting wonder gadget!

If it really is 150 Watts as claimed, it would blow the 10A fuse that is used to protect every cigarette lighter socket I've seen.

150 Watts of heat is a tiny amount compared to what would be needed for the claimed uses. (Most hair driers are in the range of 1,000 to 1,500 Watts or so.)

My vote would be "mostly useless".

Chris

Useless. I tried one on my boat to demist the windows. It couldn't even clear a patch the size of a beermat.

I should think that the very last thing you need when trying to start an engine in icy weather is some gizmo drawing an extra 12.5A from the battery.

[...]

I'd imagine the plan is you would start it first, but by the time a 150W heater had cleared the windows, the engine would be warm enough to do it anyway. (Or you would have run out of fuel!)

Chris

In message , Mark writes

Not required, if you drive a Mondeo.

But I do remember them being on sale in the early 60s. :)

On Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:58:04 +0000, Gordon H stammered:

Or a Focus. Or a Puma. Or other Fords.

Do any other manufacturers fit them as standard these days? I'd love to know, because I really like it.

Just getting rid of old stock then!

As others have said, useless. I used to have an old, leaky CX which would have as much ice inside as outside on frosty days. Used to keep a

1 kw fan heater in the back, plugged into the outside socket for 20 minutes while I had breakfast which defrosted it inside and out. Still had to mop windows inside of course.

I believe that Ford have the patent for front heated screens and so only Ford or their sister (or ex sister) companies can fit these. My Hyundai Santa Fe has a lower heater portion to defrost the wiper blades.

Regards, Ian

For heating the car? A decent car heater is the equivalent of about 5000 watts, so you can work it out. ;-) And all of that will be used to de-mist a screen quickly.

absolute waste of time,

i was in a caravan shop once when i was converting my first camper, it was a VW LT... bigger brother to the T4, but the bloke though i had an air cooled one, and was trying to sell me on of these crappy heaters..... to use as the main heater for the whole van when camping,

i pointed out the stupidness of that idea (having to carry a ton or more of batteries to power the thing all night, and that i wasnt interested in keeping a mouse slightly warm if it were blowing directly on said mouse)

he looked suitably let down, maybe he really did buy them in thinking they were the miracle heaters he thought they were.

My diesel smart car has an electric heater element built in the main heater housing, rated at 600 watts i believe, and only works when the interior is below a certian temp, the engine coolant is cold too, you have turned the heat setting lever to max and re-circulation air selection. it does produce warm-ish air, handy to defrost your hands on the steering wheel, but not really good enough to defrost the windscreen much, the air-con keeps the screen de-misted the best.

Would be better to have a diesel burning auxilliary heater. That would work with the engine cold and use very little battery power. They're common in colder climes than ours.

Caterham and Morgan fit them, the latter iirc as standard.

>

The last 3 winters I have used a fan heater on a timer plug on an extension run out of my letterbox to my car.

I bought an extension with a flat-ish socket so it could easily be passed back in the letterbox once I have locked my house.

It defrosts all the windows completely and makes the interior much more pleasantly warm. It got to -10 here fairly regularly here last year.

Got one for the main heater in the motorhome, takes about 10 minutes to get upto temp and the radiators giving out any decent heat, yes could turn it on before i get in the car, but i never make planned journeys, so the built in electric heater does the job for me, it is only a tiny smart car after all, the diesel heater would prolly use more fuel than the smarts engine does :)

Dave Plowman (News) formulated the question :

Fitted one as of a few weeks ago - Webasto. 5Kw of instant heat into the coolant and very effective, for the tiny amount of fuel it uses. Consumes about 45w from the battery.

In message , Mike P writes

I wasn't referring to the Heated Windscreen, though that's invaluable, the Mondeo has a button on the heating console which puts the fan on max, the heating on max, and A/C on full demist, and that clears the screen quicker than it has taken to type this paragraph.

They were very crude things stuck on the windscreen with two suckers. No Bluetooth or Internet access. ;-)

Webasto heaters (probably slightly more powerful?) are also used on diesel trains to preheat the fuel when temperature is below 5 degrees

Regards, Ian