Heated windscreens

[Zac]

Further to the heater bars - I spoke with Shawn (dude who used to rally the autospeed.com sponsred Evo...)

he was saying that a few guys are now getting the 12V heater/blowers (like a hairdrier, but a bit more industrially rated motor) and fitting one or two under the dash. They only need to be run for about 10 sec to clear a whole screen, and can also be used to heat the inside of the cabin.. - Cost is about $45 each plus ducting (unless you connect it up to the existing HVAC ducting..)

Southo, any idea what kind of amps these things consume?

[Southo]

Shawn said the one he was looking at was a 12V unit and ran at about 300W (not sure of how to work out the Amps sorry...

[Beavis]

Isn't it Amperage=Wattage/Voltage? In which case it's 25A...

[Shunty]

The ones i saw were about 150 watt from memory, so drawing over 10 amps each. Ya wouldn't want to take any chances with that wiring!

[Zac]

hmm, quite a few amps.

[Cplus]

Isn't it Amperage=Wattage/Voltage? In which case it's 25A...

Mr. Ohm would be proud of you Chris

[Beavis]

Cplus: Aww... you're so sweet :D

[TurboSuzi]

The company that I used to work for, windscreen manufacturer, made heated front screens. We made them for a R33 race car for someone in Melbourne. Some models of GQ patrol actually have the aerial in the front screen too. The company I worked for merged with another company so I'll have to ask around and see whether they are still making heated ones. They will pretty expensive. As for the HQ screen from China, not only was 1 broken when it turned up, the turn around time from the manufacturer would have been huge. They would have required a template, then make all the moulds, blah blah blah. Unless they went thru an Aust windscreen company who imports glass from china, then they probably already get the HQ screens made in china and just got an extra couple put thru the production run with heaters in them.

[Uncle Henry]

I dont see the big drama really.
Ford have been doing heated front screens since the mid eighties in the UK, you can barely see the element at all and it clears the screen in seconds too. Ive also just found out that a lot of screens destined for the UK are made in Aus - I can get a screen for a sierra cossie cheaper over here than I could in England!

[edo]

Cosworth, The drama is that I want one for a MK1 Capri...

Turbosuzi, If you could check that out it would be great. Or just give me the name of the manufacturer & I'll make my own enquiries.

[TurboRA28]

I've been playing around with one of the electric heaters for my Celica. As the heater core started leaking instead of replacing it thought electric might be the go.

I got the core, which has 2 elements sorta. Both 150w, so can be a hi/low setting of 150/300w.

The manual suggested that the wiring has to be capiable of supplying 20amps.

So far i've started mounting the element in the original heater box. Its so small though.. Not sure how well it will work.

Cheers
Joel

[oxy]

Fark the windscreen, can you make sure the rear window is sufficiently heated as well so my hands don't get too cold when I have to push the car in the cold tassie weather

[edo]

Oi! At least youre on the ball with who does the pushing.