Date:         Thu, 4 May 1995 09:58:50 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Marcus Doherr <mgdoherr@ucdavis.edu>
Subject:      Re: My windshield washer heater gizmo

On Wed, 3 May 1995, Alistair Bell wrote:

> 
> As reported earlier, I had a 4" length of 1/4" copper tubing soldered to
> the side of my rad. To this I connected the windshield washer line in an
> effort to create an ice-destroying spray! Well, I completed all of the
> connections last night and tried it out today...it doesn't work! the water
> doesn't feel at all warm! I guess I should have used a longer bit of
> copper tubing. Oh, well. I'll wait until next winter, maybe it'll have
> some effect.
> 
> Alistair, back to the drawing board
> 

I think the heat exchange will not be sufficient considering the length 
(and surface) of the copper tube and the flow rate of cold water through 
that tube.

An friend of mine (back in Germany, and in a VW Rabbit) used approx. 3-4 
feet of plastic tubing, and tightly wraped/coiled that around the incoming 
radiator tube (the one with the really hot fluid coming from the engine). 
With this he created a kind of hot water reservoir between the real 
windshield water reservoir and the spray jets, and the water arriving on 
the windshield was actually steaming.....

Marcus
'80 Vanagon Camper
****************************************************************
Marcus G. Doherr, Dr. med. vet.
Graduate Group Epidemiology
VM: Medicine & Epidemiology
UC Davis, CA 95616; USA
Phone (916) 752 6409 (Office 1136 MS1A)
      (916) 753 0816 (Home phone)
FAX   (916) 752 0414 (Med&Epid. Department Office)
email: mgdoherr@ucdavis.edu