This would be a lightweight plastic mat that has wiring embedded in it just like is embedded in your rear car window. It would adhere to the inside of your windshield through static and you would plug it into the lighter. Then it would be as easy to remove ice and snow from your windshield as it is on your rear window.
-- Vecini, Feb 01 2001

My sister's mini-van has some defroster wires at the bottom of the windshield and they help it clear much more quickly. Without such wires, the defroster would be useless until the engine heated up.
-- supercat, Feb 01 2001


My car already has heater filaments embedded in the windscreen. They are extremely fine (unlike the sort in a rear screen) and do not hamper vision at all: you have to look v. hard to spot them.
-- Gordon Comstock, Feb 02 2001


Really Gordon? I had no idea such things were available. Of course that was my first thought, but I didn't know if it could be done, and it wouldn't quite do to have a whole bunch of lines across the winshield.
-- Vecini, Feb 02 2001


my car has fine line defrosters in the windshield also. It works great, although it never freezes here.
-- raisin, Feb 03 2001


I think knocking out the windshield saves a lot of work and time spent on defrosting the windshield... if only they could find a way to defrost the steering wheel... and my gauges have been acting up... or I should say not acting at all.
-- Wraith7n, Feb 05 2001


Vecini: It's a rather specialised lightweight job (Caterham Super Seven - to anyone who's interested). It's so cramped that there is no room for the ducting and vents necessary for conventional demisters. Most of the time you drive with the hood/roof down (it's unbelievably noisy with it up) so ordinary vents wouldn't work. Also the screen is very small (i'd guess about 120m x 25cm). There might well be manufacturing problems building larger ones and presumably they'd be pretty expensive.

Be seeing you.
-- Gordon Comstock, Feb 05 2001


Perhaps you could add them to the side windows as well so you could get more time to see billboards.
-- Amishman35, Feb 13 2001


I wonder if it would be possible to construct a windshield such that it consisted of multiple layers which were resistively conductive. Simple pass a current between the two layers and the whole glass heats up. Might be quite a trick to get it to heat evenly.

Alternativly, if a clear resistive conductive material existed, it could be imbedded in the windshield in a snake pattern zig-zaging back and forth covering the entire surface.
-- mgrant, Apr 15 2001


The current windshield defrosters are some of the most ineffective inventions I have seen. This is an idea whose time has come, kind of like some of the ideas that can't be baked, like world peace, non-atheist government, etc.
-- Amishman35, Dec 21 2001


The "Current Windshield Defrosters" are not defrosters... nor are the rear window ones.... they are de-MISTers.

The demisting wires for the windscreen/windshield are certainly available on Fords in the UK and are marketed as "Quickclear Windscreens". The inside of the Windshield has hundres of tiny microsized wires zig-zaging down it.

You could not fit a device like this to side windows (or at least it would be very difficult) as the side windows MOVE. It would be difficult and expensive to connect all the wires up and it would probably get broken very quickly.

I tend to find I can wipe most of the snow off and then spray on some de-icer to clear the screen. You can also get bottles of spray on water repellent that stop your windscreen freezing in the first place... you just spray it on the night before.
-- CasaLoco, Dec 21 2001


It's the Atheist Gub'ment that keeps whirled peas from happening by allowing windshield defrosters to remain as-is.
-- thumbwax, Dec 22 2001


GODDAMMIT I HATE THE F%$@ING GODDAMN NON-ATHEIST GOVERNMENTS THEIR WRECKING THE WORLD THANKS FOR BRINGING IT UP LEMME JUST TELL YOU BLAH, BLAH, ETC...
-- snarfyguy, Dec 22 2001


Was there a Ligion before there was Religion?
-- thumbwax, Dec 22 2001


Baked... My windscreen has heating filaments.
-- riposte, Dec 23 2001


I, for one, have never heard of windshield defrosters being called "demisters."

While my car does not have wires embedded in the windshield, it does have small electric heating elements (nichrome?) in the heat ducts which are hot almost immediately upon selecting "defrost." They turn off after the engine comes up to temp.
-- bristolz, Dec 23 2001


[Bristolz] That was one of my first thoughts for a defroster that didn't obscure vision -- what kind of car?
-- mwburden, Dec 27 2001


My 1958 VW beetle has three heater vents that blow directly onto the windshield. If I keep my heater ducts properly maintained, they work absolutely fine. Btw, as you would have to wait for the engine to heat up for the defroster ducts to work most efficiently, you would need to wait for the wire mesh or whatever to heat up, also. Posting four months after the fact is fun:)
-- 1kester, Mar 28 2002


Peel-off disposable windows, anyone? Soon as it gets dirty or frosty, you just peel off the outermost layer. Ought to be able to get at least 20 layers per windshield.
-- ThotMouser, Apr 30 2002


My old Range Rover (1989) has a heated front screen. You can barely see the hundreds of very fine embedded wires, and it easily clears thick ice/snow in serious sub-zero temperatures while you freeze to death manually scraping the side glass.

[CasaLoco]: I can't see any particular reason why it couldn't be applied to the side glass too - there are only two external power connections to the glass.
-- drew, May 29 2002


I actually tried to turn my windshield wipers into a kind of moving heating element to do this job, but found that it shorted out far too easily, even with a guard. Incidentally, are we talking about *actual* frost, or just condensation?
-- thelumberjack, May 29 2002


tlj: //easily clears thick ice/snow in serious sub-zero temperatures //

What do you think? Just condensation?
-- drew, May 29 2002



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