Defrosting a car with an electric heater !!

[London GT3]

My daily driver sits outside and gets frosted up on these cold mornings. It is next to the garage (and therefore has access to power) and I wondered about using one of those low wattage electric greenhouse heaters on a timer set to come on an hour or so before I go out to the car.

Any thoughts, or is this a recipe for a fireball on my drive!!

[sleep envy]

In the seven series?

[FreeLitres]

I defrost mine with an electric heater!

It heats up straight away, unlike my previous petrol and diesel cars.

It IS part of the car though. :P

[London GT3]

sleep envy said:

In the seven series?

Hi Ric, how are you doing?

Yes, in the 7 Series. My old X6 had a built in diesel heater and it spoilt me! I am missing it on these cold mornings!

[sleep envy]

Hello Howard!

I'd be worried about starting a fire. What about some thermals?

[jas xjr]

I had a catalogue posted to me recently , similar to screwfix / toolstation but from a firm I had never heard of.
They had an electric heated scraper. 12v

[London GT3]

sleep envy said:

I'd be worried about starting a fire. What about some thermals?

I tried that but they didn't help me at all to see out of the iced up windows!

[sleep envy]

[Dogwatch]

I have used a fan heater in the distant past, obviously have to prop it so the heated air goes upwards and not straight at something plastic/flammable. Defrosted the windows quite effectively and left the cabin cosy too! Of course once you move off cold air comes through the heater vents until the engine coolant has got up to temperature which can undo some of the good work and cause screen misting. Quite helpful on brilliantly sunny mornings even so.

[sparks_E39]

Lukewarm 2 litre bottle of water works for me.

[Roman]

I used to have a classic saloon with no heater so I put a couple of hot water bottles in the cabin first thing in the morning.

Not quite as effective as an electric heater perhaps but safer and warmed the seats nicely too!

[redstu]

I use a 2kw fan heater. It wedges nicely between the front seats. Takes about 10 minutes or so. I just plug it in to an external socket by the garage.

[turbolucie]

sleep envy said:

Hello Howard!

I'd be worried about starting a fire. What about some thermals?

Bah, I used to use one of these to dry out cars I'd wet vac'd...aim it inside the car from the side and hey presto, dry in no time

[Huff]

Daft & wasteful idea; when in most Nordic countries use OEM plug-in engine block heaters that draw not much power for a few hours but do what you really want - preheat the engine (minimising wear and, shock! emissions) and therefore also giving instant interior heater action on startup.

Seriously - if your car has ever been sold in Scandinavia there could be a cheap OEM kit available.

[XG332]

Huff said:

Daft & wasteful idea

very common in motorsport. And saves alot of money

[Switch]

In my more youthful days when staying with my grandparents in the winter my grandfather would put a small electric fan heater on the end of a couple of extensions under the bonnet of his Citroen 2CV for a hour before going anywhere. On cold days there was virtually no other way to get the bugger started.

[jeff m2]

Switch said:

In my more youthful days when staying with my grandparents in the winter my grandfather would put a small electric fan heater on the end of a couple of extensions under the bonnet of his Citroen 2CV for a hour before going anywhere. On cold days there was virtually no other way to get the bugger started.

The 2CV was not a great winter car.

They light fires under diesels in some climes.

For the more modern cars I would suggest a "remote start" or send your child out in the cold mumbling something about "allowance retention"

[anonymous-user]

In Scandinavia you could buy heater elements (like electric kettle element) with a timer that fitted into the block via the core plugs, worked great, and model specific, but you could also get some that fitted via the bottom hose that where 'univeral,

[thinfourth2]

Been using an electric heater with a timer on an extension lead for years and as far as i'm aware i'm not dead.

Nor has my car burst into flames

[SLCZ3]

Try some newspaper across the windscreen before settling for the night and remove before driving the next day.