If you live in a place that gets dead-ass cold in winter, I can tell you first-hand that there’s pretty much no better way to spend $200-$300 than on a remote car starter (if you can install it yourself, it’s even cheaper). But if you don’t want to drop that much coin, there’s this thing – a battery powered windshield defroster with a timer.
It appears to be a little more than a space heater that sits atop your dashboard. You set the timer for thirty minutes before you need to leave and the heater will apparently spring to live and draw enough juice from the built-in NiCad battery to defrost your entire windshield and make the $100 gadget worth the money.
Couple potential problems. First, it appears to only be available in the UK (for £ 56.50). Second, I’m dubious that something with a rechargeable battery can create enough heat to defrost a windshield. Check out these plug-in car heaters on Amazon and notice that the user reviews all seem to say the same thing; not enough heat. And the ones on Amazon are plug-in style, not rechargeable.
Now that being said, if the Car Window Heater can actually do all it claims, it’d be a good winter-time gadget. That timer feature makes all the difference.
[via RedFerret]
Yep, remote car starters are great; however, doing it yourself is a little more involved than some people think. Even with a Haynes and Chilton manual I still needed to check the resistance on each wire as to what position it was on the starter switch on the column. Not very fun. But it sure was cheap! Best $59.99* I’ve ever spent on a vehicle!
* With the cheap remote starters, newer vehicles will need either: an expensive chip mounted inline with the unit or an expensive spare key with the chip in it and left in the engine to complete the circuit. Imagine what a moron I felt like having it installed for two days only to forget I left my keys in the ignition and show my buddy “The lights come on but it won’t st…va-va-va-vrrrrooom. WTF?” Hehe…
We may need it pretty soon here, in France… :(