window defrosting methods?

[oneinchsidehop]

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

with temperatures dropping and a car that's parked outside all the time frosted or foged up windows are quite a problem for me.


it's not nice to sit in a freezing car for 15 minutes when you could be halfway home in that time.

frosted windows: try using a credit card as a scraper, inside and out

fogged windows: same trick, makes a great squeegee.

getting the moisture out when you get out is the answer. when it's dry out roll down the windows!! all day if possible and let it dry.

When it's above freezing vacum the carpets to get the moisture out, esp if there has been snow recently, there will be a lot of water down there.

One of my old cars had a roof leak, I had to be very careful to keep the inside dry or I'd get thick ice all over the inside. I don't miss that car...

freezing car for 15min? BLOCK HEATER!

[GasSavers_HAHA]

If you are parked reasonably close to where you live, you can go to the car some time ahead of your departure and place a closed container of hot water inside the coupé. 20 - 25 liters normally work fine for temperatures a bit below freezing. The floor under the windscreen is probably the best position. The hotter the water and the more insulated the car is, the better effect it will have. There are good third party car covers if you want to do it properly.

[GasSavers_BIBI]

There you go, here is your professional blanket.

Haha I just found this article on the net, its a guy from downhere (quebec, canada). He got a site, French and English.

www.minigarage.ca

He doesn't have a specific model for your opel (we dont have opel here) but I'm sure if you really want this product, he can build one for your opel.

Its looking like to be professional for 100 $, and its CAN$, so in belgium with the euro, its like 60 dollar or so... take a look.

Also, since you have to open the door to put it off, no one is going to steel it...

[8307c4]

No do NOT use hot water!

Dumping hot water on cold glass is just asking it to shatter and crack.
The last thing to do with glass is anything involving drastic temperature changes, it can and will make it break, if yours has not done it that would be because windshields are very tough, but please don't test this anymore

There's a trick I read about someplace, use a big solid piece of cardboard and put over the outside of your windhshield before leaving it overnight, hold it in place with the wipers, I hear say it helps.

[SL8Brick]

Originally Posted by skewbe

You can try something like rain-x anti-fog for the fog and a window scraper for the frost. My car is usually defrosting well enough on its own in freezing weather after a couple blocks though and I usually get away with just a couple squirts of winshield fluid.

Edit: I have not actually tried rain-x anti-fog yet, can't say first hand if it works. There are other options besides rain-x also.

The rain-x antifog stuff does work, but its a PITA to apply without smearing. I've noticed that regular rain-x on the outside will actually help to keep thick frost from forming. Thier deicer wwfluid works ok, but I have seen it freeze up on the glass on really cold days.
VW/Audi used to make an "intensive" ww fluid that was incredibly good at removing frost films. I never had to manually scrape my windshield off when I used this stuff. They used isopropyl(ie:rubbing) alchohol instead of the standard methyl alchohol which is used in most other ww fluids. The only drawback was that the smell was rather potent everytime you sprayed it on the windshield(..kinda like a doctor's office).

[dogncatboy]

Originally Posted by HAHA

If you are parked reasonably close to where you live, you can go to the car some time ahead of your departure and place a closed container of hot water inside the coup?. 20 - 25 liters normally work fine for temperatures a bit below freezing. The floor under the windscreen is probably the best position. The hotter the water and the more insulated the car is, the better effect it will have. There are good third party car covers if you want to do it properly.

With his problem being frost on the inside, I doubt adding more moisture to the interior environment will be a good long-term solution.

[CoyoteX]

I will probably find the biggest 12V electric heater I can find for my metro this winter. It usually takes about 15 minutes of driving for it to warm up well enough to clear the entire windshield. I figure if I can find an ~300W heater that would increase alternator load the engine and make it warm up faster as well as warming up the interior pretty good and start heating it within a few seconds of starting the car.

It would be tempting to try and duct it into the existing defroster system so I can run it till the engine is warm then switch over to the normal heat. Having the defroster actually working as soon as the car is started would be pretty nice. Beats having to run an extension cord out to the car and run a small electric heater to warm it up since that doesn't work well at work or anywhere other than home.

[kickflipjr]

For fogging first make sure your fan is not on recirculate mode. That fogs the windows bad.

For frost I use prestone windshield wash with ice melt. If I spray some and wait a few seconds it usually gets rid of it.

[theclencher]

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2006/ch_4.html



i haven't used it tho

[lunarhighway]

thanks for all the tips but my main froblem is indeed interior fogging. covering the windows and scraping the ice is not to much of a consearn, but than the problems start as i still can't see because interior windows fogging up... moisture on the cars inside seems to be the main problem and probably common in cars this age.

For fogging first make sure your fan is not on recirculate mode. That fogs the windows bad.

car has'n got anything this "sothisticated" .for the fun of it here's a picture of the controles:

big mechanical sliders that opperate shutters trough pulleys, that duct exterior air to selected outlets and by useling the main slider on the left past a small additional radiator, gotta love that sort of engineering.but this is the problem as it only heats up when the engine does and the first few secconds even makes things worse by supplying damp outside air.

the product theclencher sugets seems pretty clever if it works, but i'm not sure if it's soled over here. i do have a small spray can of lock de-icer in my bag, as once i had to get in trough the rear hatch as both my doors where frozen shut and kick them open from the inside. good thing i have a hatchback

i'll shop around for some kind of moiture trap i think