Micro heater neede

[Stuart]

[Doki]

Yep. Don't bother trying to heat the nozzles with some gimcrack device. Just buy a pair of heated nozzles. Almost all reasonable modern cars were fitted with them at some point - even if your base model wasn't, the top of the range probably was. To give you an idea, in the late 80s Golf GTIs had heated washer nozzles. They do die eventually though and cost around £12 a piece to replace.

The other option is to do what SAAB did, and put a piece of copper piping in one of the coolant hoses, wrap a fine bore copper pipe around the bigger copper pipe, solder the two together, and run the screenwash through that. Should give more than 15 degrees.

However, if it's got a screenwash on top of something hot, I bet it's a Volvo (the one I had had a screenwash and expansion bottle moulded to fit on top of each other) and it'll definately have heated washer nozzles availble.

[Rod]

And it worked so well, I had it transferred into the next two cars (both Saabs) as well.

Whereas the first car I had with heated nozzles, froze the screenwash solid on the screen.

[fred]

In article , Stuart writes

As well as the helpful heater suggestions you probably still need some anti-freezing agent in the water for when it hits a cold windscreen. I gave up using the premixes long ago as when it gets really cold you need to put so much in that you end up having a bubble bath on the screen form all the detergent in it. I changed to using Clearalex powder from sachets (or tablets) and adding Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) at about 5-10% as antifreeze. The IPA is expensive at about 8-10quid a litre but that will do about 10 washer bottle refils.

[Man at B&Q]

nter months I find that I use an unreasonable amount of screenwash. Unless I= am using a very strong mixture the windscreen wash system freezes up. A str= ong mixture such as 50/50 is expensive especially considering most of the ti= me I am using it to clean the windscreen when the temperature is well above = zero.

If the instructions say use 50/50 then it sounds like you're using cheap screen wash that is already diluted. Check the instructions on a few different brands.

MBQ

[Doki]

Heated nozzles are really only heated to keep them from freezing up. They don't heat the water by any large degree.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I usd 35% isopropyl, and still froze the nipples off the washers doing

70mph along a sub zero german autobahn. The alcohol evaporation itself causes a massive temp. drop.

If definitely go for warming it up via some kind of heater. Antifreeze stops the bottle splitting, but that's about all.

[Harry Bloomfield]

That is where they do usually freeze up and why better spec vehicles have heated jets.

Therefor without doubt the problem is due to the nozzles freezing up, this can further be proved by warming up the nozzles with warm fingers (not very practical at motorway speeds :-) I have considered somehow creating a vent to allow relatively warm air from the engine compartment to pass the nozzles, however as the vehicles interior air intake is from this region I am reluctant as I do not wish to introduce engine smells to within the interior. I would therefor like an electrical heater to attach to the nozzle that I could switch on when freezing occurs, any thoughts???? I have thought about using a light bulb as a heat source however this could possibly be too hot and damage the nozzles and the bulb will probably crack and fail when it gets wet.

Two bulbs wired in series would get less hot, or you could use a suitable resistor instead of a lamp bulb I =V/R. W= I x V. They come in a large range of wattage and resistance values.

[fred]

You used too much then :-P, 35% is getting on for cheap Gin or Vodka which is way OTT, lets have look at what's realistic for the UK climate.

[Stuart]

Two bulbs wired in series would get less hot, or you could use a suitable resistor instead of a lamp bulb I =V/R. W= I x V. They come in a large range of wattage and resistance values.

Thanks for that Harry

So 40 ohms of resistance would give me about 5 watts (asuming14v) Any type of resistor ? (thats assuming you get differant types) What about resistance wire, a measured length coiled around the nozzle ?

Where would I be able to source resistors or resistance wire. am I likely to find such resistors in redundant electrical goods ? or will I need to buy new and pay out good money.

[fred]

In article , Stuart writes

5w is a lot of heat to be confining in a small space, old vitreous wirewound resistors rated 2.5W and of about 5x15mm famously glowed dull red when used at their maximum rating.

Rather that 40 ohm, I'd suggest buying multiple 270 ohm resistors, each giving about 0.7W each. One on it's own wont melt anything, just add more in parallel and placed around the nozzle inlet pipe to get the heat you want, 2 - 4 should do the job I would think.

Maplin is as good as any as a source since they are in the larger high street, buy them in a 2W body to avoid overheating, description is Metal Film 2W Resistor, code for 270 ohm is D270R, 18p each.

HTH

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