Totally agree - I recently went back to a Ford Mondeo, and had forgotten just how brilliant the heated windscreen function was.
Is this idea totally unique to Ford, or have any other manufacturers done this?
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Is this idea totally unique to Ford, or have any other manufacturers done this?
I believe that Ford have the patent, no doubt would want huuuuuuge sums to allow any other car maker to use
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I believe that Ford have the patent, no doubt would want huuuuuuge sums to allow any other car maker to use
Ford have had this system for going on 20 years now so the patent must be about up. I've seen similar on HMS Belfast though, and also on Jaguars and a Volvo Olympian.
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Mike Farrow
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I know that the Audi A3 has a heated windscreen as a colleague at work heard me talking about it and said "me too!"
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the other amazing thing about cold weather antics by the truly stupid, is the amount of people who will leave their car running, to heat it up, but don't stay in it/with it in circumstances that can get it stolen,such as outside the newsagents..........
certainly in the London area, if you fancy a change of car, lurk o/s a newsagents on a frosty morning.
there must be some awful fibs on insurance forms, because they wouldn'y pay out otherwise, would they
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Heated windscreen - what a fantastic feature of the Mondeo (and other Fords) that is. I had a Mondeo for 5 years, and the single biggest reason for buying another Ford would have been the heated windscreen, I kid you not. In five years I don't think I once used 'high speed fan' on the windscreen to demist it - one press of that little button and it was clear, and just as importantly, stayed clear.
I no longer have a car with a heated screen and it's like a step back into the dark ages not having that little button.....
By the way - it's not cos I'm too lazy to scrape a screen - that is hardly any extra effort when you have to scrape the whole car anyway. It's the instant demist and keeping it clear that is the real benefit to safety and sanity.
As for the A3 - is your colleague sure? I've never heard of VAG having this. Maybe he has a front screen demister button; my Toyota has one too - it just sets the climate control to AC on, windscreen and high speed - hardly rocket science and not a patch on the real thing :)
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Bit ironic too that all the current protests in London about global warming are on one of the coldest days of the month so far...:-)
I too very much like the Ford heated windscreens, but have always found that unless you keep them scrupulously clean then the pattern causes problems at night with oncoming headlights.
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It's not just Ford, Caterham also use a heated front screen on the 7. I believe it's the only way to get the screen to clear within the specified time
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The patent did tun out, as remember reading it in the press about a year ago, I wonder where they all are, although they are on many Ford Group cars, such as Volvo, Landrover, Jaguar etc... There is a new type about to be relleased which uses those metalicised heat reflective windscreens but with invisible laser-cut tracks cut in, these are supposed to heat when 12v is applied and not have the visual disturbance of the ford system. maybe auto makers are waiting for this to be released?
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Aircraft have had heated front screens for 30 years or more. A thin layer of gold sandwiched into the layers heated up when a current was applied. It also had the advantage of acting as sun glare reflecting layer, almost like heated sunglasses.
I go outside, start my car, go inside, put on the heater, have a coffee, go outside and drive away in a perfectly clear car,
I dont think the ford screen makes the coffee.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I agree about the heated screens on the Mondeos. The last two Mondeos were brilliant for this. I notice that, now we've had some frosty mornings the weather forecasters are telling us we'll be scraping the windscreens in the morning. Am I the only person in the country who puts the car in the garage ?
Incidentally, where I work, rather a lot of vans were out of use yesterday morning, simply because they refused to start in cold weather.
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New Passats can be specced with a heated front screen, I think. I wouldn't want one though - in the fords I've been in with them they're distracting at night because it's like looking through a grid.
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How could Ford patent something that was generally available in rear screens?
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>>How could Ford patent something that was generally available in rear screens?>>
Completely different designs and conception.
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Actually the Ford system was first seen in teh rear screen of a Mercedes 280SE 3.5 that my father owned in the 1970s. The elements were so thin and embedded in the glass, so that they could hardly beem seen even in bright daylight. Also, they cleared a whole swathe of glass, at one, rather than stripes that eventually merged.
My Subaru (old and new) has heater elements under the wipers. It makes it very useful for frosty mornings.
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>>The elements were so thin and embedded in the glass, so that they could hardly be seen even in bright daylight>>
That, obviously, was what I meant in the previous posting, although I didn't elaborate.
Funnily enough I never notice the rear screen elements in my car - certainly they are narrower than previous types.
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Actually the Ford system was first seen in the rear screen of a Mercedes 280SE 3.5 that my father owned in the 1970s. The elements were so thin and embedded in the glass, so that they could hardly beem seen even in bright
daylight.
IIRC the Vanden Plas 1100 had this type of HRW and maybe RR had them.
Not the easiest feature to notice except on a frosty morn.
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>> Actually the Ford system was first seen in the rear screen of a Mercedes 280SE 3.5 that my father owned in the 1970s. >> The elements were so thin and embedded in the glass, so that they could hardly beem seen even in bright daylight.
In the mid '80's (I think) I remember seeing adverts in car mags for a "Triplex Hotscreen", heated front windscreen. They were available for "many popular makes of vehicle" AFAIR. They obviously didnt catch on as an aftermarket thing (probably cost a fortune), and the ads seemed to disappear before Ford started fitting heated front screens. Did Ford buy exclusive rights to this product? Does anyone else remember it?
Rich.
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>>Does anyone else remember it?>>
I remember it but not much else.
I do remember buying a stick-on version for a car I had around that time for the rear windscreen, but it was a fiddle to keep it attached to the glass surface.
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it is not just idiots who have problems with icy screens, even after using a can of de-icer some cars will re-ice 2 minutes down the road,
Some would say you should therefore wait until your heater is blowing warm air out, to stop it re-freezing. But sometimes people haven't got time to wait. If I'm at home I pour warm water on the screen, which clears it and also warms it up to stop it re-freezing. Before someone says "you will shatter your windscreen", I dont use water that is too hot, and do it very carefully!
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A cheapskate previous owner has replaced the Quickclear screen in my mondeo with a standard one. Have a button for it, and the light even comes on, but there are no elements in the glass to heat up.
No idea what would be involved in refitting the Quickclear, as if anything happened to this screen I would insist on it. Does anyone know how these connect up in terms of wiring? Wonder if mine has been butchered or not?
Cheers
DP
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There are plugs at the bottom corners of the screen under the scuttle panel.
Replace with the correct screen and plug in - job done!
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It might have been on the grounds of cost.
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Almost certainly was - I think a Quickclear screen is about twice the price of a standard one. It would be interesting to see where the insurers stand if I ever made a screen claim - the correct screen is a Quicklclear item, but the direct replacement is a standard one.
Good to hear they just plug in. Hopefully the wires are still in place and have just been tucked away. The light on the switch comes on so I guess the rest of the gubbins is intact.
Cheers
DP
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>>It would be interestingto see where the insurers stand if I ever made a screen claim - the correct screen is a Quicklclear item, but the direct replacement is a standard one.
I picked up a hefty stone chip on my Quickclear screen - replaced under insurance with another one exactly the same. I guess it's part of the spec of the car, so the insurance company couldn't get away with fitting an inferior item.
One other thing, I was told that the chip would have been repairable if it had been a standard non-heated screen, but much shallower chips can cause a heated one to be 'written off'.
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The original HRW's available in the early 60's ( Triplex Hotline ) used a very fine element between the two laminates of glass in a similar fashion to current Ford HFW's , these were expensive options on a limited number of cars and became standard on some top line models . This all changed in the 70's when the cheaper etched rear sceens we know today became a standard fitting ,those original HRW's were much more efficent ,much like todays HFW's but the elements could hardly be seen .
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