Heated screen. Why oh why?

[Brijo]

A bit of explanation would be helpful????

It was a Ford Fusion

[P6bJOHN]

When my (now deceased) Old Man got his first Octavia he also had a new tumble dryer fitted into his kitchen, it was set quite high. I asked why, he took me outside and pointed to the rear vent kit grille on his outside wall, it was level with his bonnet. He parked up at night with it lined up on the windscreen base, then whilst having breakfast, he fired up the tumble dryer for 5mins, ice free windscreen. Simples.

[CFB]

Another plus for the heated windscreen, is its ability, juggled with the rear heated window and heater blower to act as a retarder when descending an icy hill.  Was really impressed by this feature when I owned a Ford Fusion a while back.

??? OK then.

[Shanco]

They will either burn your wiring or are only 200W, which is really not going to do much.

It's like an asthmatic huffing on the screen.

Personally I wouldn't bother.

 

Read some of the reviews online, they generally say they are quite naff.

Due to running off the fuse and wiring in the car they just can't produce a reasonable amount of heat.

Thanks BossFox - shall take your advice and not bother.

Shanco

[Chan110]

Love it!

Used it a few times - but not when its so bad that the wipers stuck frozen to windscreen.

I have noticed that when I stick keys in ignition and turn to open 2, the wipers move a few mm's?

My concern is, if wipers were stuck to screen,

how do I turn on the heated screen,

WITHOUT turning into posn 2,

Or drain the battery?

[gadgetman]

Heated screens are great until you have a chip.

I cracked a few on cold mornings due to unnoticed chips.

[Chan110]

Heated screens are great until you have a chip.

I cracked a few on cold mornings due to unnoticed chips.

Yikes!

I had a few on mine.

Seem fine.

Then I got it repaired by Auto-glass.

I swear the cracks are BIGGER now :-(

[muddyboots]

I have the heated screen on my Focus, and my wife has it on her Mondeo.

 

Have to say, I could live without them. That's because on frosty mornings, I get in, start the car, then go round scraping all the frost off the other, non-heated windows - so doing the front screen isn't much more effort.

(Wife thinks it's great, but that's usually because I've scraped her side windows off for her by the time she goes out!)

 

By the time I get back in, there is often just enough warmth in the coolant to clear the screen of ice anyway.

 

However, both our cars are diesels with electrical coolant heaters (sounds daft, I know) - so they actually get just enough warmth in the coolant to clear the screen fairly quickly. My Passat TDIs were the same.

 

I've had other diesels without any coolant pre-heaters though, and they simply don't warm up at all at idle on a cold frosty morning. In fact my Ibiza PD130 would take 2 or 3 miles of driving to get any heat in it at all. So I could see the heated screen being more useful if that was the case.

 

Out of interest, does anyone know if the CR170 Yeti (pre-FL) has a coolant heater ?

[dieselglider]

A bit of explanation would be helpful????

Sorry, Buses and HGVs' usually have auxiliary braking to save brake wear, quite often involving gearbox hydraulics, electro magnets or such like.  Well the engine loading caused by switching on various high drain electrics such as both heated screens also provides a decent amount of engine braking, probably more noticeable on a petrol which would tend to run away downhill without throttle.

[Llanigraham]

Well I've read some tosh in my time................................

[Paul52]

However, both our cars are diesels with electrical coolant heaters (sounds daft, I know) 

 

Not so daft. In my previous employment we sourced an electric Peugeot 106 for use as a pool car (part of a very late 20th century experiment in sustainability). Although it ran exclusively on battery power once in a while we had to pop it into a petrol station and do a brim-to-brim fill of petrol, a whole 1/2 gallon!, as this ran the heater. Only a handful of the electric 106 were made and I believe Portsmouth had the only one outside Coventry.

[Cumbrian28]

Perhaps not all tosh.

As the electrical load increases, when high use items are switched on, there is increased resistance to rotation in the alternator (so I'm told by someone far more knowledgeable than me) therefore there will be more "engine braking" effect due to the drag on the alternator drive belt. Whether this would be noticeable - or even scientifically correct I don't know but it sounds feasible.

Steve.

[Trevor M]

Hi all; I can not, I am afraid, offer any useful information on the heated screen debate as I do not have one fitted. The reason I did not 'spec' one was that I use a screen mounted sat-nav and had heard the wires in the heated screen can prevent these from working.

 

I wondered if anyone could please confirm from experience if this is true, or if it is an 'old wives tale' (or should that be 'old spouses tale' in these PC times)?  Thanks in advance for any info, and apologies if this is seen as hi-jacking the thread.

 

May I also take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year.

 

Regards,

 

Trevor M

[CFB]

No problems with my heated screen and Garmin Zumo.

It works perfectly.

[aerofurb]

I do remember that the treatment on some windscreens which act as a heat reflector can disable satellites - R*naults spring to mind in this.

 

It needs a consumer test me thinks which means Yeti + heated windscreen (on and off) + screen mounted satnav.

 

 

 

 

 

Q. Do people really use screen mounted satnavs still in a Yeti? Don't they all have the Columbus installed......?     

[oldstan]

I do remember that the treatment on some windscreens which act as a heat reflector can disable satellites - R*naults spring to mind in this.

 

It needs a consumer test me thinks which means Yeti + heated windscreen (on and off) + screen mounted satnav.

 

 

 

 

 

Q. Do people really use screen mounted satnavs still in a Yeti? Don't they all have the Columbus installed......?     

 

 

1) Yes they do.

 

2) And, no they don't.

[7029bob]

Hi all; I can not, I am afraid, offer any useful information on the heated screen debate as I do not have one fitted. The reason I did not 'spec' one was that I use a screen mounted sat-nav and had heard the wires in the heated screen can prevent these from working.

 

I wondered if anyone could please confirm from experience if this is true, or if it is an 'old wives tale' (or should that be 'old spouses tale' in these PC times)?  Thanks in advance for any info, and apologies if this is seen as hi-jacking the thread.

 

Hi Trevor

My previous Yeti had a heated screen and I had no problems with a Tom Tom and I've not heard of anyone who has, so I should take it with a pinch of salt.

 

Mind you the Tom Tom did switch itself off occasionally when the wife argued with it but I tend to switch off when she has a go at me. :think:

 

I also much preferred  the screen mounted Tom Tom to my present fitted Amundsen.

[Paul52]

+1 to above.

 

I use a basic Tom Tom screen mounted and the heated windscreen doesn't seem to affect it at all (although i haven't needed to use the sat-nave with the elements "on" but I would have thought if there was an effect it would be the presence of the elements rather than whether they are warm or not).

[Llanigraham]

Perhaps not all tosh.

As the electrical load increases, when high use items are switched on, there is increased resistance to rotation in the alternator (so I'm told by someone far more knowledgeable than me) therefore there will be more "engine braking" effect due to the drag on the alternator drive belt. Whether this would be noticeable - or even scientifically correct I don't know but it sounds feasible.

Steve.

 

Wrong!

As the electrical load increases so do the engine revs, therefore totally defeating your point.

On my Yeti with everything turned on it increases the engine revs by less than 100 revs.

 

I can just see us teaching off-road drivers: "Now when you come to this steep down hill turn all the electrical things on, as that will provide some engine braking!!"

 

Sorry, but the ONLY way to apply engine braking is to engage a lower gear, so that the comprehesion of the engine does it for you.

[Llanigraham]

 

Q. Do people really use screen mounted satnavs still in a Yeti? Don't they all have the Columbus installed......?     

 

Yes!

 

Why would I waste my money on a Columbus system? As far as I can see it isn't very user friendly and can be very difficult to keep up-to-date.

[aerofurb]

Okay, okay, calm down: I only made the statement as a joke - remember those?

 

There was no intention to allow the thread to degenerate into another 'Columbus is great/friendly/updated enough' (by the Columbus owners) v 'Columbus is rubbish/unfriendly/difficult to update' (by the non-Columbus owners) thread....      

 

Now, where were we? Oh yes. Heated windscreens in Yetis - absolutely brilliant (in my humble opinion).

 

Happy New Year

[old newbie2]

Hi all; I can not, I am afraid, offer any useful information on the heated screen debate as I do not have one fitted. The reason I did not 'spec' one was that I use a screen mounted sat-nav and had heard the wires in the heated screen can prevent these from working.

 

I wondered if anyone could please confirm from experience if this is true, or if it is an 'old wives tale' (or should that be 'old spouses tale' in these PC times)?  Thanks in advance for any info, and apologies if this is seen as hi-jacking the thread.

 

May I also take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year.

 

Regards,

 

Trevor M

Hi.

 

All of my Mondeo's have had heated windscreens & I've has no problems with satnav's. 

We have a Tom Tom, a Garmin & an old RAC & they all work.

 

However, my ex-partners sat nav wouldn't work at all when mounted in her Citroen Xsara Picasso, that have to be 

stuck to the fixed quarter light!

 

Greetings to you all, have a cracking 2014.

 

DC

[Maverick vRS]

Sorry, but the ONLY way to apply engine braking is to engage a lower gear, so that the comprehesion of the engine does it for you.

I remember my dad's old diesel escort (non turbo) wouldn't go uphill with the A-C on, good times haha

Sent from my Xperia Z using Tapatalk

[dieselglider]

Wrong!

As the electrical load increases so do the engine revs, therefore totally defeating your point.

On my Yeti with everything turned on it increases the engine revs by less than 100 revs.

 

I can just see us teaching off-road drivers: "Now when you come to this steep down hill turn all the electrical things on, as that will provide some engine braking!!"

 

Sorry, but the ONLY way to apply engine braking is to engage a lower gear, so that the comprehesion of the engine does it for you.

I can see your point, but I have experienced the effect in both a petrol C-Max and petrol Fusion.  Trickling down the 1-in-5ish section of the hill where I used to live iny icy, snowy conditions, in first gear(and to a lesser degree second gear), no throttle, the car would try to speed up.  By turning on both heated screens, turning up the heater blower, having headlights on, the engine held back on the revs, turn them off,  the revs start picking up again.  It's the alternator creating drag on the engine, as Cumbrian28 said.

 

Diesels don't really need it due to better engine braking.  As regards the revs rising by 100rpm, going downhill without throttle at above idle, no fuel will be injected, so extra electrical load will cause more engine load, but as long as above idle, still no fuel being injected (depending on software).

 

You can keep saying wrong! as you see fit, but you need to try it, preferably in a petrol.  I'd be interested if someone with a petrol Yeti would try it, and report back their experience, assoming the Skoda version of the heated windscreen is as powerful as the Ford version.

 

Happy New Year to all Briskodians!

 

This is getting a bit deeper than I expected , and I certainly wouldn't condone including it as part of off road training, just passing on a little bit of my experience.

[Trevor M]

Hi again. Thanks to all for reassuring me that in general (except perhaps Citroens) screen mounted sat-navs do appear to work with heated windscreens. I guess next time I will still check the sat-nav in the vehicle to confirm before ordering.

 

Also, my reason for using this type of unit is that it can easily be transferred between vehicles rather than paying manufacturers' extortionate prices for these in each car.

 

On the point of the braking effect and alternator load, isn't this the basis of VW/Audi Group's recuperation technology, where alternator output is increased under deceleration and braking (and reduced slightly during normal driving)? I think they claim something like a 2% decrease in fuel consumption as a result. As something can not be 'had' for nothing, this suggests there is indeed increased engine braking via the alternator belt to me.

 

All the best.

 

Trevor M