No more scraping of windscreens?

[tanuie]

Hi
I'm with johnEboy on this.

 

[sinewave]

hot ketlle too much dangerous for screen, I guess

Nah, absolute ****** and an Old Wives tale that 'Cracking Screen' lark!

I've been using Hot water on heavily Iced screens for 25 years on 10+ vehicles without any problem what-so-ever!

Yes, I use a Kettle but only for convenience in pouring, I actually fill it with Hot water out of the Tap and not BOILING WATER!

One full Kettle does the whole car and ya good to go in 2 mins flat.


Modern screens are very robust and I've seen a local DNO Electrician employee throw a boiling hot kettle at a Transit windscreen and let go of the Kettle which promptly hit the windscreen full chat along with the boiling water and it still didn't break.

As Arthur Daley say's...."Stand on me my Son, it'll be fine!"

 

[The _Don]

+1 for warm water whilst others are busy scraping ice from their cars.

Sent from my iPad using MBClub UK

 

[Juani]

A Mercedes lorry in work has a heated screen

 

[Palfrem]

Get a Ford with heated front screen - fantastic!

I used to work for Triplex back in the '70s when they first perfected a wired windscreen like in the Fords - and I believe held a patent.

It was an extension from aircraft windscreens with wired heating.

The Directors all had a wired screen in their 3500 P6 Rovers.

No-one was interested as it cost too much - at the time basically a few quid per unit if enough could be made.

Now folk will pay £90 for a hokey coating?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I also use tepid water, not hot, to melt the water, and then a good squirt of screen wash to clear away the water and prevent refreezing, currently at a ratio of 3:2.

MB screen wash at that concentration doesn't come cheap though!!

 

[@MARK]

MB screen wash at that concentration doesn't come cheap though!!

The BMW stuff does though. Currently running at a concentration that will go down to minus 22 but their stuff will go down to minus 63 neat and its still cheaper than Halfords.

 

[Ian Donkin]

I'm pretty sure patents only have a 20 year life from when they are granted, so Ford won't have an exclusive on this anymore.

A lot of the early 911 boys buy front screens with heated elements in them just to stop the screen misting up as the air cooled cars didn't do a great job of keeping them clear (but nowhere near as bad an air cooled VW Beetle).

I'm with the kettle full of hot water brigade - not cracked a screen in 30 years.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

As I watched my next door neighbour taking ten minutes and freezing his hands scraping the ice from his windscreen, I waited until he finished and then went out and poured a jug of warm water over my windscreen.

He told me that I shouldn't do that, it'll crack my windscreen...

I've only used the technique for the last fifteen years without any problems, what do I know?

 

[malluboy77]

+1 to lukewarm water.

 

[mct_cars]

Even if a patent exists on a product, another manufacturer may use it "under licence" and pay a royalty, by agreement.

As I understand it, Ford want a fortune for licensing to other manufacturers. In effect making it non profitable, and therefore the manufacturers don't bother.

There are a number of ways to make a design your own for longer than 20 years - registering a design, trade marks, exclusive deals with glass manufacturers etc.

Oh, and warm water only works if you can reach the windscreen. Easy on the SL, but not so much on the S-Max!

 

[steve333]

Get a Ford with heated front screen - fantastic!

Get an mb with heated front screen-fantastic!-there you go Mike-fixed it for you!

 

[evdok]

Its amazing what a piece of cardboard can do!

 

[evdok]

Or this...

Buy AM Tech Window Screen Ice & Sunshine Protector from our Car Tools range - Tesco.com

 

[Apial]

I think you'll find that only cars produced by Ford (and any Ford owned such as Jaguar at the time) had heated screens because Ford patented the concept many years ago.

I recall an ex gf having a '93 Escort Ghia with a heated screen

I've had heated front screens in MINIs so I think its more of a case of other manufacturers can't be bothered or think that they would not be worth introducing.

 

[ianrandom]

Old 126's could be had with a primitive heated screen, not usually UK market ones though. It was just a coolant tube that was routed under the screen but also through the washer fluid tank too.
My friend recently had to have a new screen put in his W220 circa 2002 I think was the year of the car, a straight six motor- he discovered then that the screen was an electrical heated type.

On my 126 the windscreen just doesn't tend to ice up too badly, and the heated washer fluid is brilliant, I can usually get in and go with no scraping needed, or warm water.