Oh hell yeah

[Des]

 

Look what the charity shop threw up today for a pound, Gentlemen I present to you the Hot Wash, as used by the Ford Works Rally Team, or so the box side proclaims. This baby heats your screenwash, imagine your life with heated screenwash, opulence.

Sorry squares, Hot Wash is not suitable for VOLVO cars.

[overrun]

I have heated washer jets. I am 42% as trick as this gizmo. #bringonthefreezingweatherohmercilessoverlord

[DSdriver]

Presumably this is meant for winter use however I seem to remember from physics class at school that due to latent heat of evaporation, boiling water will freeze quicker than cold tap water. Any scientists on here care to comment on its likely effectiveness?

[vulgalour]

I wonder if this would have helped when the screenwash froze on the screen of my Ledbury when I was commuting in it?  That was the most unpleasant thing ever.  The screenwash, that is, the Ledbury wasn't too far behind... for once in its miserable little life.

[rml2345]

Wonder how that works? Do you wire it in or stick it in the oven for 5 minutes or something?

Being a Volvo driving square, I shall never find out for myself...

[dollywobbler]

Well, I use warm water to defrost the car (never hot!). If you don't wipe it away, it does indeed freeze very quickly. I wipe it away (always carry an old wiper blade around. Useful things). 

 

I can still foresee problems here. If the washer bottle has frozen up, the washers still aren't going to work. Modern cars do love to tuck their washer bottles in stupid places, well away from engine heat. Wonderful engineering!

[overrun]

You can throw boiling water up in the air during freezing temperatures, and it freezes instantly.

[Vince70]

For a quid how can you go wrong but I'm too tight to spend that kinda money.

 

So i use train screen wash come the winter months and its clear and smells like neat alcohol i never have an issue with iced washer jets but come spring the bonnet may need a repaint once its eaten away at the paintwork.

[overrun]

I smash things left outside of charity shops and I never venture inside.

 

INSERT POSITIVE FORUM REP [HERE]

[Station]

If it's like the Omega heated washer jets, there is a narrow passageway through a nozzle, or in this case, one of the pipes will have a heating element in it, or it heats the water in the li'l bottle. The water passes over it and it is warmed up. They are quite effective, but the temperature isn't impressive once it's shot through the air. It's for stopping you pipes/nozzles from freezing (not a problem with 'neat' screenwash).

 

That's a great find though, I used to go into charity shops just to find obscure stuff like this.

[Barry Cade]

Had the Saab version of this on my 190, and it made very little difference- water in the bottle still froze, so would need to be pretty much neat screenwash, and the water was still cold, when you need it most. Once the car warmed through, the screen would be warm anyway from the heater.

 

[Lacquer Peel]

Most screenwash is utterly shit in the winter, I'm sure Tesco screenwash is rated to -3C neat.

Lidl sells some 'European grade' screenwash and even at a 50/50 mix it didn't freeze in the depths of the Highlands last winter.

[saucedoctor]

I use the CarPlan stuff that you get from motor factors for about a fiver. I mix it 3 parts water to 1 part screenwash, and it hasn't frozen yet, even in the mark 4 Fiesta I had, where the screenwash reservoir is pretty exposed.

[Pete-M]

I used my heated screen today. They're truly ace things.

I think it's got heated nozzles too. 

The Happy Death Express has heated wipers. That's a mad idea.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

They're not heated, but while we're discussing screen washing I am going to nominate my own screen washers as the shitiest. 

 

 

By my calculations, at 70mph you'd travel 350 yards between the first press and water hitting the screen. 

[vulgalour]

I think Conrad wins, those are the most disappointing and useless washer jets I've ever seen.

[beko1987]

Anyone recommend some bog cheap screenwash to use neat? I'll start

 

Asda 5l for £3 - Not too bad, froze up a few times at -8 last winter though

Poundland 2l for £1 - Not tried yet!

[cms206]

The Council Estate's extended washer device, as demonstrated at Arley, passed muster at MOT time, for the winter I may refine the idea by adding a similar set up to the passenger side.

[overrun]

Conrad's jets are indeed so poor that they are amazing.

 

Same setup, even identical switch, to the Mini Wobman. Ours wouldn't work though, so had to bodge in an electric job.

The jet output/aim/direction is still pitiful at best, though.

 

It's like a not-very-upset mouse crying onto the screen.

[skattrd]

Anyone recommend some bog cheap screenwash to use neat? I'll start

 

Asda 5l for £3 - Not too bad, froze up a few times at -8 last winter though

Poundland 2l for £1 - Not tried yet!

 

Was it Aldi (might have been Lidl) that was recommended on here before? £5for 5l, I used it 50/50 last winter and it never froze.

[Sigmund Fraud]

They're not heated, but while we're discussing screen washing I am going to nominate my own screen washers as the shitiest. 

 

 

The old BMC system is supposed to have a non-return valve somewhere, it looks as if yours is missing or borked.

 

Not that it will make a huge difference, though. Frantic pumping is still essential if you want to get things adequately moist. Ooh... erm...

[castros_bro]

Can it be used to heat veg oil en route from tank to pump?

[Bobthebeard]

Was it Aldi (might have been Lidl) that was recommended on here before? £5for 5l, I used it 50/50 last winter and it never froze.

Lidl I think.

It was branded 'Ultimate Speed' and suitable down to -60. I bought 10 litres last winter and it never froze, so did what it claimed. (Not that temperatures every reached -60 of course) Still got 5 litres left to use in the forthcoming winter misery months.

[garethj]

I wonder if this would have helped when the screenwash froze on the screen of my Ledbury when I was commuting in it?  That was the most unpleasant thing ever.

I had a similar problem on my old VW 412 in the winter, freezing fog and frozen washers with no engine heat to warm them up.  On the same journey, to add to the misery, I was dying for a slash.

 

Need to have a piss.

Need to get some warm water onto the screen.

Need to have a piss.

 

hmmmm