Washer jet heaters

Unread post by **RichardW** » 07 Dec 2010, 07:23

Right, I've had enough of frozen washer jets

The tank is still liquid, but the jets freeze even at / around 0°C - not that it would have helped this morning when it was -15°C

I thought about perhaps fitting a set of pucker of heated nozzles, but looked them up and they are £75 a set, so scotch that idea

So, 2 ideas: run a hosepipe from the back of the rad up to the scuttle to duct some warm air up; or strap a resistor to the nozzle and wire it into the side light circuit - 150 ohm should give about 1W dissipated heat, so that ought to be enough.

Any thoughts?

More here if I get it to work!

Where are the heated nozzles normally fed from - the HRW circuit? Is the wiring likely to be there in the scuttle?

the_weaver · Unread post by **the_weaver** » 07 Dec 2010, 08:19

Richard

I've heard about people wrapping the screenwasher pipe three times around the water pipe that goes to the heater, at the bulkhead. I don't know if it works or not.

A bulb might work as an alternative to a resistor. You could paint it black. Maybe they do nozzles with bulbs in them. LED's would not be warm enough though.

There's also something called resistance wire, or Nichrome heating wire. Maplin might sell it. You could wrap some of it around the pipe close to the nozzle. An inline fuse would be a good idea if you're experimenting with it. I think an old type wire-wound power resistor might be a few turns of Nichrome wire wrapped around a former. Maybe you could extract the coil from the former and place it around the washer pipe. If you removed the former you'd probably have to reduce the power capacity though, as I expect the former acts as a heatsink. Most heating elements use Nichrome wire. If you've got an old, blown element from an electric fire or cooker then you can get some wire from that.

Paul

addo · Unread post by **addo** » 07 Dec 2010, 08:25

Mine has the plug tethered in the scuttle, just behind the inertia cutoff - think it's black.

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 07 Dec 2010, 08:45

XM's have them as standard, but rarely work....

They are fed from the HRW circuit along with the Door mirrors, on XM's that is... Im surprised the Xantia even exclusives arent heated...

Paul

Chris570 · Unread post by **Chris570** » 07 Dec 2010, 09:16

citroenxm wrote:XM's have them as standard, but rarely work....

They are fed from the HRW circuit along with the Door mirrors, on XM's that is... Im surprised the Xantia even exclusives arent heated...

Paul

They are if you had the winter pack, both of mine mine do

HDI · Unread post by **HDI** » 07 Dec 2010, 10:02

Ah, so thats why some Xantia exclusives have cold weather heaters and some don't, there was a cold climate pack !
Mine has heated jets but it's waste of time because the tubing from the reservoir freezes up and takes at least 30 mins to defrost on a sub zero day ! I keep intending to try insulating foam jacket around a polyurethane tube, PVC is hopeless in very cold weather as it will split and remain kinked if sharply bent. Another idea would be trace heating cable wrapped around the tubing, this is commonly used in industry to prevent fluid lines freezing on remote plant.

Chris570 · Unread post by **Chris570** » 07 Dec 2010, 10:54

i just increase the % of screenwash in the bottle before we start to get cold and it isnt a problem

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 07 Dec 2010, 10:56

Chris570 wrote:i just increase the % of screenwash in the bottle before we start to get cold and it isnt a problem

Or do as the Russians do and fill the washer bottle with Vodka. It has a very low freezing point...

jimleshed · Unread post by **jimleshed** » 07 Dec 2010, 10:59

CitroJim wrote:
Chris570 wrote:i just increase the % of screenwash in the bottle before we start to get cold and it isnt a problem
Or do as the Russians do and fill the washer bottle with Vodka. It has a very low freezing point...

What a waste of good vodka! Hmmm, must check my sloe vodka, its rolling around in the boot at the moment!

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 07 Dec 2010, 11:07

Chris570 wrote:
They are if you had the winter pack, both of mine mine do

AH HA! The answer at last to the "Unknown Fuel Heater Burner!!!" that Ive never seen yet..

I knew it WAS NOT fitted to my car and my mates car! As discussed else were in a thread...

Paul

Chris570 · Unread post by **Chris570** » 07 Dec 2010, 11:08

as seen in the top gear driving on an active volcano film

Unread post by **RichardW** » 07 Dec 2010, 11:13

Didn't we decide that the aux heater was an option by itself, rather than just the winter pack...??

Some interesting thoughts guys. Running near neat concentrate, but it still damn well freezes in the nozzles. Maybe I need another brand!

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 07 Dec 2010, 12:16

Hmm, so not all Xantia Exclusives have a pre-heater then, I thought they did. So a winter pack on those brought heated washer jets and a pre-heater?

Im guessing C5s have heated washer jets, as ive not had them freeze as yet, even with -10 temperatures.

evilally · Unread post by **evilally** » 07 Dec 2010, 12:23

I've been putting a good helping of alcohol into the washer bottle with my usual screen wash mix, been working fine! Although it does smell a bit when you wash the screen!

mooseshaver · Unread post by **mooseshaver** » 07 Dec 2010, 12:32

Citroenmad wrote: Im guessing C5s have heated washer jets, as ive not had them freeze as yet, even with -10 temperatures.

My rear one freezes often, and sometimes the front, so my VTR cannot have them. And on a trip through freezing fog, at the top of the hill I used my screenwash, it froze on the windscreen, (temp -5) then melted at the bottom of the hill (-2). I'm guessing my mix of anti-freeze is not as strong as yours