Heated Washer Jets

[Ex Member]

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/methanol-water-d_987.html

Methanol Concentration
(% by mass)
0 	10 	20 	30 	40 	50 	60 	70 	80 	90 	100
Temperature 	oC
0 	-7 	-18 	-26 	-40 	-54 	-71 	<-73 	<-73 	<-73 	<-73

[timc1967]

I hope its OK to resurrect this tech advice topic.

I like the idea of heated washer jets, but I also like simple solutions. So I was wondering if anyone had tried simply to route the washer piping via a hotter part of the engine. Some sort of non-flammable piping required, water washer fluid would arrive at the jets as hot as you like.

[Ex Member]

That does not help the jets.  If you use a fluid that freezes, the jets freeze and there is no way to get the warm liquid to the jets.  It also freezes in the container.  Hot water on a cold windscreen also leads to broken glass.

[timc1967]

Certainly I would use fluid mixed appropriately for the season. But it's a good point about hot on cold glass! 

[Troll Hunter]

The other issue, which is really difficult to do anything about, is that under the laws of physics the methyl alcohol will tend to evaporate from the screen wash at the very tip of the spray nozzle.  In theory, at least, this could raise the freezing point of the liquid right at the tip to a value above the ambient temperature, and hence it would freeze, although any ice film could be very thin, and easily broken/washed away, when the spray is next used.  One option to counter this, if it proves to be a problem, would be to have a NRV in the supply line just inside the bonnet, so that that line section benefits from engine compartment heat, and add a very small drain hole immediately above the NRV.  This would allow screenwash to drain from the washer tip, thus preventing freezing.  Admittedly, the small drain hole would allow some loss of screenwash when the washers are actually being used, but provided the hole is really small, this should not be a significant loss.

Mike

[Arjan]

I seem to remember that my Soft Dash had heated nozzles for the windscreen washers. As I always use screenwash fluid we have no freezing problems.

[mmgemini]

A simple, for some, solution. On my Defender I moved the windscreen washer jets to the bonnet behind the spare wheel. Simple ? I also bought a length of washer pipe and a connector. I wrapped the extra washer tubing around one of the water heater pipes. Now I have warm water to the 'screen

#

[FridgeFreezer]

A couple of options:

- Fit heated jets from some other car

- Epoxy a couple of resistors or PTC's into the Defender washer plastic casting

[StuWhitby]

From what I can tell the problem in the UK isn't with the washer fluid freezing.  If it was doing that it would do it in the pipes and in the bottle, and it's not doing that.  The difference between somewhere like the UK and Canada is that in Canada during winters it never gets up near freezing, where in the UK it's up & down between about 4-6 during the days and -5 at night during an average winter week.  Sounds like we have it easy, but what happens is that in the UK we get frost condensing on stuff every night, so every morning there's a new layer of pure ice sitting on top of the washer jets.  The washer fluid may be liquid, but the pump doesn't have the power to push it up into the ice to melt it.  That's why we end up with frozen jets here despite using pure washer fluid, and picking that ice out of the jets isn't practically possible.

Heated jets would be the best solution IMO. It shouldn't take much to melt the ice on top.  Or maybe just a squirt of de-icer straight into them. 

My wife was very thoughtful when she met me and bought me a "Danish Design window scraper".  It's stainless steel.  Danish designers get drunk lots...

[Howitzer]

I fitted Peugeot 405 wiper mounted screen washers, ran the screen wash pipe around the upper heater hose and removed the NRV from the line.

 

we saw -36 and never had a problem with it freezing.

 

i use the purple berry Halfords screenwash mixed 50/50 (I like the smell) and have never had an issue in the uk.

Simple and cheap.

 

Dave!