Heated Washer Fluid
12-21-2005, 12:05 PM
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Heated Washer Fluid
Okay, so I saw a commercial lastnight for a Buick Lucerne that has heated washer fluid (149 degrees). Anyway, I was wondering if anywone has any thoughts on how to add this feature to the 8.
12-21-2005, 01:12 PM
#3
He's as bad as Can
Why would I want to put 149 deg washer fuild on a ice cold windshield? Or is there another beneift over standard fluid with anti-freeze
Last edited by expo1; 12-21-2005 at 03:44 PM.
12-21-2005, 05:05 PM
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Heated washer fluid has been around for a long time and, no, it won't crack your windshield. Buick acts like it was just invented. My 1990 Mercedes has the washer fluid heated by a spiral aluminum coil fed from a coolant hose, as did even older models. Benefit is to help to better remove grime as well as to melt some ice in cold weather. There may be other benefits.
12-21-2005, 05:09 PM
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Originally Posted by OliverB
Heated washer fluid has been around for a long time and, no, it won't crack your windshield. Buick acts like it was just invented. My 1990 Mercedes has the washer fluid heated by a spiral aluminum coil fed from a coolant hose, as did even older models. Benefit is to help to better remove grime as well as to melt some ice in cold weather. There may be other benefits.
12-21-2005, 05:13 PM
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The max temp of 149 sounds significant. It would be easy to heat up to the same temp as the coolant but that is around 180. Or I suppose you could electrically heat it. Either way I think you'd want some kind of thermostatic control though.
12-21-2005, 08:57 PM
#10
Insanely Yellow
If your car is good and warmed up, the underhood temps of the 8 do a pretty damn good job of heating the fluid - it's not 149 degrees, but I bet it's a solid 80 on a 20 degree day. Try spritzing some on your hand when your engine is plenty warm.
12-21-2005, 10:44 PM
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I saw an ad on tv for a kit to do this... was at Canadian Tire, so I'd imagine the same sorta kit must be available in the US too. Just saw the ad today, I thought "why bother" though... antifreeze works.
12-22-2005, 12:01 AM
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Originally Posted by gonnahanvan8
I read a bottle of winter washer fluid and it said not to let come into contact with plastic or painted surfaces.
12-22-2005, 03:09 AM
#13
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Originally Posted by StewC625
If your car is good and warmed up, the underhood temps of the 8 do a pretty damn good job of heating the fluid - it's not 149 degrees, but I bet it's a solid 80 on a 20 degree day. Try spritzing some on your hand when your engine is plenty warm.
12-22-2005, 07:56 AM
#15
Momentum Keeps Me Going
Buick ad ---> http://media.putfile.com/Lucerne-Heated-Washerfluid
This may be the system mentioned by Buick http://www.buyhotshot.com/default.asp
And the NEW Hotshot as of 11/1/2005 ---> http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...01/147131.html
"The innovation behind HotShot Wireless is a huge advancement for the product and for our company," said Microheat President and CEO Gary Pilibosian. "This wireless system can be easily plugged into an automobile by any driver, making the product easily accessible and affordable to drivers throughout the world."
Pretty cool! ...ummm I mean hot!
This may be the system mentioned by Buick http://www.buyhotshot.com/default.asp
And the NEW Hotshot as of 11/1/2005 ---> http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...01/147131.html
"The innovation behind HotShot Wireless is a huge advancement for the product and for our company," said Microheat President and CEO Gary Pilibosian. "This wireless system can be easily plugged into an automobile by any driver, making the product easily accessible and affordable to drivers throughout the world."
Pretty cool! ...ummm I mean hot!
Last edited by Spin9k; 12-22-2005 at 07:59 AM.
12-22-2005, 08:09 AM
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i dont know, i used to play with marbles when i was little, i used to heat them up on the stove then put them in cold water so it can crack in pieces wiouth breaking. it was fun. would the same happen if its 0 degrees and you throw a 149 degree liquid???
12-22-2005, 10:52 AM
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Hmm, I went to their site. There is supposed to be a link to buy it, but it's for information. Their web site kinda pisses me off. Would like to see it in a store. Thx for all the responses to this post.
12-23-2005, 09:56 AM
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Originally Posted by knight7
i dont know, i used to play with marbles when i was little, i used to heat them up on the stove then put them in cold water so it can crack in pieces wiouth breaking. it was fun. would the same happen if its 0 degrees and you throw a 149 degree liquid???
I use my washers a lot here in the winter because wet salted and sanded roads mean every car generates a spray of filth behind it. It'll grey out your windshield in minutes unless you can stay 50 car-lengths back from everyone. Sometimes I think I need a 25 gallon washer-tank.
It would be nice to have a more effective washer system, but the key problem I see is my fluid drying so fast on the hot windshield in the fast air-stream that it cannot make an effective rinse of the filth and grint on the windshield. Warmer fliud should absorb the junk into the solution faster, but the difference between ~80F (under the hood) and 149F might not make much difference when you're driving in ~30F, 65mph air.
Just my random thoughts......
12-23-2005, 10:33 AM
#23
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Originally Posted by drfoo
I saw an ad on tv for a kit to do this... was at Canadian Tire, so I'd imagine the same sorta kit must be available in the US too. Just saw the ad today, I thought "why bother" though... antifreeze works.
This thing would be really useful for really cold conditions. Yeah, winter washer fluid works - slooooooowly. Heat works so much better! A coolant warming coil would actually be pretty useless - when is the windshield frosted or frozen over? When the car is cold after being parked outside for a while. How long does it take the coolant to warm up to the point where it would be noticeably heating the washer fluid? In an RX-8 at 0F, probably about 10 minutes. Who's going to wait 10 minutes after starting the car before clearing the windshield so they can drive off? You could scrape the windshield in 2 minutes... the separate, electric washer fluid heater would give you heated washer fluid in less than a minute. I bet they sell a million of them!
02-18-2007, 09:21 AM
#24
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My thoughts
Originally Posted by Cool-Blue-Dad
I can't think of anything likely to be made of lower quality glass than toy marbles. Auto windshields are a tempered safetly glass, designed to withstand some thermal stress (like pyrex and Corning-ware). All the thermal cracks I've seen on car windshields were actually expansions of an initial rock-chip.
I use my washers a lot here in the winter because wet salted and sanded roads mean every car generates a spray of filth behind it. It'll grey out your windshield in minutes unless you can stay 50 car-lengths back from everyone. Sometimes I think I need a 25 gallon washer-tank.
It would be nice to have a more effective washer system, but the key problem I see is my fluid drying so fast on the hot windshield in the fast air-stream that it cannot make an effective rinse of the filth and grint on the windshield. Warmer fliud should absorb the junk into the solution faster, but the difference between ~80F (under the hood) and 149F might not make much difference when you're driving in ~30F, 65mph air.
Just my random thoughts......
I use my washers a lot here in the winter because wet salted and sanded roads mean every car generates a spray of filth behind it. It'll grey out your windshield in minutes unless you can stay 50 car-lengths back from everyone. Sometimes I think I need a 25 gallon washer-tank.
It would be nice to have a more effective washer system, but the key problem I see is my fluid drying so fast on the hot windshield in the fast air-stream that it cannot make an effective rinse of the filth and grint on the windshield. Warmer fliud should absorb the junk into the solution faster, but the difference between ~80F (under the hood) and 149F might not make much difference when you're driving in ~30F, 65mph air.
Just my random thoughts......
A quick thought...I have an 02 jetta as well and the spray on the Jetta is much more "fan-like" spraying like a spraybottle (windex), where i find that the spray on the 8 is much more like a water gun (super-soaker). My thought is, i would be willing to put more time and effort into a mod like that then heated fluid..i think that because the Jetta can cover almost the whole windshield in a one sec spray, proportionally you would be using the same amount of fluid...rx8 a lot (constant spraying to smeare it on the windshield) and the jetta would spray a lot as well, but cover a greater surface area, cleaning the windshield more efficiently.
what do you think?
Keith
02-18-2007, 09:35 AM
#25
Extraordinary Engineering
The heated fluid would have a marginal effect at best.
Start the car. Turn the heater on full. Get out and clear the snow and ice off your car. By the time you're done the heat from the car will do more to free up the ice than a few ounces of warm fluid will do. (heated nozzels are a different story)
Way too many people do not properly clear off their cars and end up driving around without visible tail lights, turn signals or even windshields!
Start the car. Turn the heater on full. Get out and clear the snow and ice off your car. By the time you're done the heat from the car will do more to free up the ice than a few ounces of warm fluid will do. (heated nozzels are a different story)
Way too many people do not properly clear off their cars and end up driving around without visible tail lights, turn signals or even windshields!