Weather striping and door seals embedded with wire heating elements to allow them to warm up above freezing to ensure doors and windows can be operated when needed.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 I think the wear and tear on the door would cause for some great malfunction of this device, which could end in a terrible fire.-- Chefboyrbored, Dec 27 2006 I cant say Ive ever noticed any great amount of wear and tear on my door and window seals. This is low voltage heating so no risk of fire(12 volts), would just blow the fuse).
Similar type gaskets are used already in freezer door gaskets.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 I cant say that I have ever had trouble with my home door freezing shut or windows for that matter.
I guess if its 12 Volts and would trip a fuse than it should work just fine.-- Chefboyrbored, Dec 27 2006 you realize this is for car doors and windows?-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 //But if the temperature is below freezing, why on earth would you want to open your windows//
Uhm lets see....pulling up to the atm, a fast food joint, a mail box, a state police officer, a prostitute, a donut shop, a toll both, a parking garage ticket machine, a parking attendant, because you farted, because your smoking, because your tired, because your bored, because they are frosted up.
Seems like enough for it to make sense to me.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 been there done that, nothing like boiling a big pot of water before you can go to work in the morning.("sorry I'm late boss but my stove wouldn't boil fast enough")-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 [21 Quest] Its a BMW. Theres just no prying on any part of the body when its a BMW, now on my dodge PU that works just fine.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 Mines old(97) and used(111k miles) but its still really nice and there is just a psychological impairment when contemplating such things.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 27 2006 You could also leave the windows open at night and get in Dukes of Hazzard style.-- acurafan07, Dec 27 2006 On the other hand, frozen doors would be a good way to prevent theft, unless crooks start carrying thermos flasks around with them.-- Ling, Dec 28 2006 11 million miles? Man, those BMW's sure do last a while.
I had this happen to me for the first time the other day (I live in the dessert, but I'm going to school in a slightly wetter/colder portion of it now), so I think it would be worth it. Maybe something around the hinges, too. Mine didn't freeze up the door and window as much as inside the gap between the door and fender, making a solid chunk of ice out of my door hinge.-- Hunter79764, Dec 28 2006 (+)-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 28 2006 My worry would be that if it's cold in the first place, the battery would drain faster and the heating would be an extra demand. [+] if it can be activated remotely and isn't on automatically. Also, any extra paraphenalia is a potential source of problems, so i think an optional extra for cold climates rather than a default feature.-- nineteenthly, Dec 28 2006 It most definitely could be remote activated and it would most likely be an option package. many cars have a cold weather package available in which this would be found.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 28 2006 + Barring technical difficulties, this is still a good idea for cold weather climates. I have had frozen power windows before and I have to always open the whole door to use the drive-thru bank terminal.-- xandram, Dec 28 2006 //you realize this is for car doors and windows?//
Sorry I have a bad habit of not reading the catagory. I guess this idea is the same as the anno I put for one of 21Q's ideas.-- Chefboyrbored, Dec 28 2006 If you did I cant seem to find it.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 28 2006 It would only need to heat long enough to open the door. I would guess you could do that in under 1 minute. The draw could not be much more than the headlights would be so draw would be no worse than sitting with the engine off and headlights on for 1 minute. Given that I think just about any properly functioning car battery could handle that sort of load. once car is running then the window seal heaters come on(and other car doors to I suppose) at that time power is not a problem.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 28 2006 you know I don't suppose it really matters if this is on a car or a house. I suspect the need is less for houses but there is no reason it should not apply there to.
The sea-lions can stay even though I didn't get it.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 28 2006 A week or so ago, I had frozen locks. When I got the locks to turn, I found the doors were frozen shut. [+]-- baconbrain, Dec 28 2006 I'm not sure if I would pay for this but the idea sounds nice [+]-- nomadic_wonderer, Dec 28 2006 Presumably, once you were in the car, you would want to turn the heater on, and by heating the entire car interior, any ice on the doors would also melt.
Since cars already have remote keyless ignition, you might not actually need such a device. All the same, I'd rather use electricity than gas, because I'm cheap.-- ye_river_xiv, Dec 28 2006 + I also had to pour hot water down the door to get it open once (so I could get to school). While doing it I kept wondering how the hell I was going to get back into the car when the door froze over again twice as bad. For some reason it didn't. I guess I parked the car driver's side towards the sun or something.-- Zimmy, Dec 29 2006 My goodness! We pedants have let things get too far! sp: stripping
Once, after a freezing rain, I had to warm the key with a match to just get it into the lock, then I had to hold a match to the key in the lock to thaw the lock. However, once unlocked the door still would not open. When I tried the same procedure on the passenger door I finally got in. After letting the vehicle warm up for about 10 minutes whilst scraping the windows plus a half hour drive home I still couldn't get the driver side door open.
I would think having a heating wire included in the rubber weatherstripping it would seriously shorten the life expectancy of the rubber.
For anyone thinking of pouring boiling water on their frozen vehicle here are 2 words for you: DO NOT!
However, if you must, do so with extreme caution. You can't just fling a pot of hot water all over the car, unless you'd really like to see your windows go kablooey! The flow of the hot water must be precisely directed onto the affected areas so as to minimize posssible damage to your car or yourself.-- Canuck, Dec 29 2006 heh, heh, [Canuck], that thought never occoured to me at the time. I guess I was lucky I only poured it down the door seal.-- Zimmy, Dec 29 2006 // I would think having a heating wire included in the rubber weatherstripping it would seriously shorten the life expectancy of the rubber. //
We only need to heat above freezing so say the rubber only gets to 50 or even 80 degrees. that would be well within the normal working range of the material and should have no adverse effects on it.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 29 2006 I made a prototype like this application in 1998. I am testing it for the first time this winter...It is working very well and I have not had one issue as of yet with my doors sticking...I have not however moved to the entry key or the windows yet. Those are great ideas though...-- OTRideas, Feb 23 2008 I never pour hot water on my windows, just the cold stuff right under the layer of ice in the rain barrel. The first few pints often freeze when poured onto the windshield, but the next several pints don't, and melt the ice - just a degree or so above freezing is all I'm looking for. Next to no threat at all of windshield cracking at such a small differential.
Let the wipers run until they chatter on a dry surface, though, or evaporative cooling lands you back right where you started.-- elhigh, Feb 25 2008 Has anyone done the obligatory pinniped joke yet?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 25 2008 No maxwell, it looks like you have the floor...*drum roll*-- jhomrighaus, Feb 25 2008 "I say, why do you have a feverish walrus on your Toyota?" "That's no feverish walrus, that's my heated door seal!" <tshhh booom>-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 26 2008 Can we all stop hating on the door seals? All they want is fish. They can't help the barking.-- bungston, Feb 11 2011 <Tries to think up joke/pun involving "Navy Seals">
<Reviews efforts, decides all to weak to post and will attract opprobium>
<resolves to return to this thread when suitable pun/joke composed>
<wanders off to find another idea to trash>-- 8th of 7, Feb 11 2011 Actually, the problem of door seals freezing shut is not really the ice's fault. Ice will only glue things together if they are wetted efficiently. The rubber used for door seals is typically very wettable (ie, hydrophilic).
If the seals were made of a more water-repellent (hydrophobic) material, the ice would still form but would not glue them together.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 11 2011 random, halfbakery