Setting asside for a while any potential water leaks from faulty body sealing (which there aren't on my car and local cars), here is an interesting quote from Self-Study Programme 11 for Skoda Felicia:

 

• Combining the heating with the air conditioning system is favourable for dehumidification of the windows in wet, cold weather. The air is first cooled and dried, then heated by the heater matrix.
• A prerequisite for no foggy windows is a perfectly clean inside of the windows. A dirty window, e.g. from smoke, increases the fogging considerably.
• The water produced during air dehumidification as condensation on the evaporator is dumped under the vehicle.

 

In other words, the evaporator, being the coldest object, acts as a dehumidifier too by condensing any incoming air moisture. Not having a dehumidifier before heater ->sauna time! The only thing now is to find a simple, long time efficient dehumidifier solution before the heater matrix. A moisture trap.

 

In other words, the evaporator, being the coldest object, acts as a dehumidifier too by condensing any incoming air moisture. Not having a dehumidifier before heater ->sauna time! The only thing now is to find a simple, long time efficient dehumidifier solution before the heater matrix. A moisture trap.

Agreed, which is why I suggested "defogging" non aircon cars with the heater on full cold. At least that way your ventilation air is at the same temperature and RH as the environment the car is in (and the windows).

Yeah, it may be efficient but it is very unpleasant blowing cold air in the cabin. We need a smarter solution. Dry air during a trip with the car makes driving less stressful. Of all European countries, you have to know best how annoying is to live constantly in a humid environment.

Yeah, it may be efficient but it is very unpleasant blowing cold air in the cabin. We need a smarter solution. Dry air during a trip with the car makes driving less stressful. Of all European countries, you have to know best how annoying is to live constantly in a humid environment.

"Full cold" without air con means "outside temperature", not "cold air".

 

Automotive air con is the only method I know of drying the sorts of volumes of air you can move through a car. Let's say that the interior is typically about 8by4by3 feet, which is 96 cubic feet. At highway speeds you can get 2 or 3 complete air changes per minute, which is getting towards 300 cubic feet per minute. The water content of air in the Caribbean can get to 3% by mass, which would mean several pounds (even kilogrammes possibly) of water getting through the ventilation system per minute, and I don't see any chemical method of dehumidifying handling that.

"Full cold" without air con means "outside temperature", not "cold air".

Let's not play semantics. When it's raining it's cold outside and you don't want that cold current blasting through the cabin. That is what I ment. I have also took note about your airflow analysis and your opinion that there aren't any chemical solutions known to you that could dry the air in the cabin.

All cars with AC are pulling air inn through the evaporator and drying it by condensation. Same system on all of them. So you can't use that with a non AC felly.

 

It would be probably possible to built some kind of silica gel filter and pull air through that in the cabin but i doubt it would be long term efficient and healthy for the occupants.

 

I had 2 fellys (still have one) and foggy Windows were always a water leak problem. Leak found = problem gone. At least on the ones i had. (i know that a constantly humid enviroment it's a problem on it's own)

 

Had a similar problem on a clio with AC (persistent foggy Windows) and it had a leaking heater matrix. You don't want to now what that did to the interior of the car. The leak was minimal by the way....

Thank you for input, pinjon. Yes indeed, a chemical, long lasting solution to dry the air in cars hasn't been invented. Yet. But there are other means other than chemical that could be perfected.

 

Tomorrow I will look into my moisture trap then remove seats and bench, remove the carpets, have an overall look under the dash once more and vacuum everything. A friend of mine that owns a Felicia combi will join me for a similar job to see if we get consistent results.

Update:

My moisture trap installed 5 days ago in the cabin 'caught' about 3 spoons of water. During that time there was no rain. I forgot to mention that I installed another moisture trap as a control sample on the deck of my house. That remained completely dry. Conclusion? There was some moisture in the cabin of my car.

 

Yesterday my friend and I took out the seats, bench, and floor carpets. Each one from his own Felicia.

 

 

 

 

We washed what has to be washed then vacuumed like mad every bit of moisture (to the amazement of our wives, I might add). The cars and upholstery sat in the hot :sun: for 6 hours. Everything is bone dry now. We installed everything back (including the plastic sheet moisture barriers in each door) and we are now waiting for some to see if our work payed off.

 

The mystery of the air circulation in the cabin was solved. felicia16v was right  :clap:  :beer:. The air vents through 2 slots under each rear door panel then it passes through a flap in the plastic sheet of the door then it escapes into the atmosphere via 2 grills in the sides of each rear door. In fact the air in the cabin is more likely to be 'sucked out' during driving because there is low air pressure behind rear doors.

 

How was your carpet underlay Ricardo?

Mine was dry but my friends' (shown in previous photos) was damp due to a plugged drain in driver's door and absence of plastic sheet that could have prevented water spilling in the footwell. I am convinced now that some of the moisture leaked or brought into the cabin evaporates and is responsible indeed for fogging the windows.

 

I am fairly optimistic that following all good advice I got from everybody, we will finally have clean windows during rain.

I always found that to keep the windows clear when I had my Felicia 1.3 L&K I had to have the fan turned up fairly high to keep a good air flow.

 

They would also get bad doing lots of short runs.

 

In the Octavia I use a couple of these in the car too to help in the winter:

 

When the Penguin turns pink you stick then in the microwave for a bit to dry them out and they're good to go again.

Edited 15 March, 201610 yr by Phil-E

Phil, so basically your tip is to turn the fan on high... is there any reason you would think I didn't know that ?

Tried w/o success: defogger spray, silica gel pouches, shaving cream, toothpaste (yeah, I know...)

Well I was merely commenting as to how I was able to keep foggy windows at bay both in the Felicia and the Octavia (loads of foggy windows thread in the MK2 Octavia section).

(loads of foggy windows thread in the MK2 Octavia section).

That is sad. Could be this the weakest point for Skodas w/o A/C ? Does the same happen to Passats, Golfs, and Polos? I'm asking because I hope some of them have a better design with minimum windows fogging. Driving long hours in humid air puts a lot of stress on driver. I can't imagine how you guys cope with that in the UK.

Update:

I have just arrived to work while driving through heavy rain. Success! No fogging :clap: during trip or after parking the car.

I will summarize the contribution of each factor for future reference.

• fix any leaks due to body corrosion or faulty seals (mandatory as first step)
• dry upholstery, take out all carpets, vacuum any trace of moisture
• refit all plastic sheets inside doors that act as moisture barriers
• unplug all drain holes (windshield, firewall, doors, boot, etc.)
• avoid getting moisture inside on clothes and shoes; dry immediately
• attach moisture traps (silica gel pouches) around ventilation outlets and on rear parcel shelf

Note: this applies mainly to cars without air conditioning

For the happiness of @RicardoM i have also this problem to solve: foggy windows and water on the floor, much in the passenger side ( humid sponge above feet , dry fuse box) driver side small drops on the floor.

According to the varous info on forum:

-Checked the heater box  ,the rubber valve works and there is a big hole in the middle wide open( seems open form Skoda maybe will take picture)

-small quantity seems coming from the door rubber gaskets/seal make water in from external/upper side to internal lower side.

-have to check the famous 2 drain hole at the bottom of the screen as the leakage seems in that exactly zone. but for now i cant remove it windscreen . So the question is: are this holes accessible from outside ?maybe removing  the plastic blade of the wipers motor?

- have to check the bulkhead more closely as there is a lot of dirt on the "deck" of the battery and other side.

As always many thanks for your time and patience

 

I have ac but I am worrided if I may damage it running both the heater and the ac together.
A requirement to get warm but duhimified air.
Other than that I use shaving cream and it works wonders
 

6 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

A requirement to get warm but duhimified air.

You mean dehumidified, right? Don't worry, I make mistakes too.

6 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

I have ac but I am worrided if I may damage it running both the heater and the ac together.

See here

6 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Other than that I use shaving cream and it works wonders

I tried it in Canada and didn't work. But Canada is not Greece...

On 20/12/2019 at 22:52, RicardoM said:

You mean dehumidified, right? Don't worry, I make mistakes too.

My eyes playing tricks on me. 

Read it many times still reading dehumidified. 

Although no written. 

On 20/12/2019 at 22:52, RicardoM said:

See here

Are we sure that the felly is "properly designed" . 

Like the air first flows through the ac heat exchanger and then through the heater core. 

On 20/12/2019 at 22:52, RicardoM said:

I tried it in Canada and didn't work. But Canada is not Greece...

Well it works in my bathroom. 

But still if you don't use after shave it may irritate your windshield. 😂

On 20/12/2019 at 13:52, Thefeliciahacker said:

duhimified air

Ricardo is correct; your quoted post does not say "dehumidified"

2 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Ricardo is correct; your quoted post does not say "dehumidified"

Yeah you know mind plays tricks, you read what you want.
Sorry

48 minutes ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Yeah you know mind plays tricks, you read what you want.

Don't worry. My browser (Firefox) marks bad spelling as I write, so basically my posts are bad spelling free. Not sure about style though

4 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Well it works in my bathroom. 

Well, the bathroom and mirror are not at all equivalent with a car interior and windshield respectively during winter or fall.

 

Oh, don't tell me about moisture-water in the car,i have filled whole boxes from water.

I had 2 times a ''tragedy'' with rain so i had to remove everything from indide and i mean it...everything.

 

Now everything is fine and ''sealed'' (new seal stripes on 4 doors plus hood etc).

I will post some pictures in the future.