Cold Car Starting / Driving

[error]

The only good reason to let a modern car "warm up" is so that it isn't below zero while you're sitting in it!

[money dollars]

I do it for my sake, not the cars.

And screw messing with a tarp....that sounds like work.

[Crocuta]

I do it for my sake, not the cars.

And screw messing with a tarp....that sounds like work.

Because chipping at a 1/4" of ice is easier? 

You could always try what a friend of mine did when we were growing up in Michigan.

He boiled some water on the stove and threw it across his windshield.   

[money dollars]

I do it for my sake, not the cars.

And screw messing with a tarp....that sounds like work.

Because chipping at a 1/4" of ice is easier? 

No, using the defroster is easier. I am pretty sure they installed it for some reason.....

[Lloyd Danforth]

Unless you have a block heater you must have to run the car to get the defroster to work.

My little diesel just starts and goes right away, but, I've been told to baby it 'till it warms up.  Little point in sitting in the driveway, the damn thing barely warms up while idling.

I put a tarp over my entire car and for the truck I have a Tarp on a lightweight, knockdown frame that sits on my ladder racks and with 6 bungie cords makes a nice tight pitched roof that sheds snow. My option is standing on a stepladder and brooming off the roof.

[Minsk]

The only good reason to let a modern car "warm up" is so that it isn't below zero while you're sitting in it!

I fell in love with heated seats ages ago...

[Pat McCotter]

Then there are those folks who don't have their radiator fluid checked. The water in the cooling system freezes, they start the car, they drive off and a few miles down the road a radiator hose gives way because of the pressure.

[KBCraig]

Does anyone use an electric defroster, to help out until the engine comes up to temp?

[Lloyd Danforth]

Do you mean built-in?

During my second stint in the 6th grade I had a teacher who drove a VW 'bug' and lived in a snowy town in the horthwest hills of CT.  He ran a cord and an put electric space heater inside it so he could find it in the morning.

[MaineShark]

Does anyone use an electric defroster, to help out until the engine comes up to temp?

No one I know, but I've always thought that should be standard equipment from the manufacturer, right in the climate control system.  It's not like it would be a complex or expensive addition, to add that in with the heater core, with a simple thermostat that would turn it off once hot water reached the heater core.

But I don't work in Detroit...

Joe

[Lloyd Danforth]

Sounds like a big drain on the battery

[MaineShark]

Sounds like a big drain on the battery

So?  If the alternator works, it will be charging the battery as it is drained...

Joe

[Lloyd Danforth]

Oh, I misunderstood about it running.  Still, you would have to produce 100 amps @ 12 volts to get the equivalent of a hand held hair dryer.

[MaineShark]

Oh, I misunderstood about it running.  Still, you would have to produce 100 amps @ 12 volts to get the equivalent of a hand held hair dryer.

I think that's a frighteningly-powerful hairdryer...  My heat gun runs at about 1200 watts, and that would melt your head...

Joe

[KBCraig]

Oh, I misunderstood about it running.  Still, you would have to produce 100 amps @ 12 volts to get the equivalent of a hand held hair dryer.

I think that's a frighteningly-powerful hairdryer...  My heat gun runs at about 1200 watts, and that would melt your head...

Lots of hairdryers are 1200 watts; 10A at 120V, or 100A at 12V.

But you're right, you wouldn't need anything nearly that big. The ones I see advertised plug into the cigarette lighter, which are generally 10A or 15A. A 120 watt heater might not do much good.

Like you, I've always wondered why they don't build resistant electric heat into the heater core.

Kevin