It's a Team's Life
Frost on the Windshield
Frost on the windshield. I need to leave now. I have misplaced my scraper. What would you do? I found an alternative to ice scrapers: heated windshield washer fluid and heated wiper blades. Heated fluid first. You might ask, how does that happen, or how do you do that? Several years ago, at a truck show, I stopped at a booth that sold a device that heated washer fluid after it goes through the pump but before the squinters.
I bought one but didn’t install it till recently. It only heats about two ounces of fluid, but it will recover in about 10 seconds. That’s a good squirt, then rest and reapply as needed, warm enough to melt ice, but will not crack the glass. We haven’t had the opportunity to give it a good test on frost or ice, but I can tell you warm fluid cleans the windshield faster than the ambient temperature fluid. The manufacturer claims faster bug removal in the summer, we shall see.
I will go through the install quickly. Find a suitable mounting location between the fluid pump and squinters, as close to the squinters as possible. The pump on most trucks is in the washer fluid reservoir. Mount the pump, you may need to fabricate a bracket. Find the hoses that run to the wiper blades and follow it to where they join into a TEE fitting. This is where I disconnected the hose from the pump and reconnected it to the inlet port on the heater. The heater came with some hose to reroute back to the TEE from the outlet side of the heater. I then purged the air from the heater by running the washer function of the wipers.
The instructions said to get power for the heater from the alternator. Ground to a good frame ground point. The heater will not heat unless the power is 13.2v or more; that way, it will not heat and draw power unless the alternator is making power, good safety to not drain the battery. Start the truck, wait 30 seconds or so, feel the heater, it should be warm (ours was), if not recheck power voltage and ground. Ours worked the first time.
There are several heaters on the internet, so I will not name a brand as there may be a better one out there, do some research if you are interested in one of these devices, search windshield washer fluid heater.
The heated wiper blades are something we have had in the past. After stopping to bang the wiper blades on the windshield to knock the ice off, then carrying an extra set of blades so when they iced up, I’d swap the blades and thaw the frozen ones. We tried the first brand I heard of, not a great idea. I was content with the performance but wasn’t too excited with the way the wires were run to the blades. The internet showed me there are more options out there now. I decided to try a different brand that turns on with a thermostat, when the temp gets below 33* they will heat. They are designed without a frame to build ice upon, and the whole thing is heated, no ice buildup on the blades, I don’t even have to think about it.
As simple to install as changing the wiper blades, and adding power, and no switch to install. They came with adapters to fit any wiper blade arm, easy swap. There is one connector that comes from the center of the blade at the pivot/mount point with a lead that can be zip-tied to the arm. The controller needs to be mounted away from engine heat so it can read ambient temperatures. I mounted ours in the tray right under the windshield, close to the wipers. There are two harness cables from the controller, one to each of the blades, zip-tied to the wiper arm, and one that feeds power to the controller. I connected to the same power supply as the washer fluid heater, good clean power.
The blades are low voltage draw and are powered full time. This may be an issue if parked without running during very cold temperatures, but one could pull the fuse if parked for a long period. I liked these because there is no switch inside the cab, they work as needed and the install was simple. The blades are of high quality and clean the windshield as well as any blade we have ever had. They can be removed easily for summer and replaced with normal blades.
There are a few brands of heated blades as well, look them up and make your own decisions based upon your research. The internet is a wonderful thing, search heated wiper blades and see what comes up.
Until next time, stay clear and ice-free.
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
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