Uwe

Having almost passed my first winter incl. minus temperatures and frozen windows every day i find that the heating ducts/defroster of the JK for the front window are a joke. They simply go vertical up without any hot air blowing to the side of the front window. This leaves the window frozen on either side for quiet some time until the car is warm enough inside.. besides, the stream of air is to weak.

I compare this to the defroster of my YJ which blows hot air niecely distributed across the whole front.

Who thought about such a useless design?

mowbizz

Wow...I have no problems with mine. I agree that the stream of air is more "vertical" than "fanned out" but my defroster blows very strongly and the engine warms up very fast. Maybe there's something blocking your duct for the defroster??

Uwe

All i can do is to compare the heating and defroster with the YJ and there the JK takes about 2x as long to really heat up with normal driving. In the YJ say it is warm and cosy after about 10-15min and in the JK perhaps after 20min. or more.

Also the air stream to the foot or front vents is much stronger than the one for the front window.

WaIIbanger

thru trial and error i have found that you have to keep the fan on at least speed 2. this makes the jeep very warm after a while, so you have to turn the temp down to about 2 or 3 o'clock on the dial. but as long as i am at fan speed 2 and a lower temp, i have enough air covering the entire windshield without roasting. at least its comfortable for me. give it a shot.

sin52

My yj (93) sucked at defrosting the windshield wipers/bottom of windshield. nothing worse than wipers icing up in a snowstorm and having to stop to slap the wipers against the window.
oh yeah, so does my JK.

Gaidheal

I've only ever had an issue with the defroster not doing the whole windshield when the AC was off (must have bumped the button).

Worked like a charm all winter with teh AC on.

Area-51

This seems to be one of those hit or miss things that some will chime in and note they never have problems keeping it cleared, but others who do.

I think the differences between the two responses is exactly what is being cleared from the windshield, and what the weather is doing when the reporter is either noting they have no problems or they do.



I have noted from the first wintry icy day that my JK had problems keeping the windshield clear on the sides.

The center clears very quickly, but on each side, there is a nice wedge that has problems, and in some instances, no matter how high you have the defroster cranked up, it just will not keep the corners cleared off.

The problem is not a problem of enough air flow to the windshield, as I have zero problems with the center staying clear even at a 1 setting for blower. It is the directional flow of the vents for the defroster, and the lack of the opening going much farther over to the corners of the windshield. You can crank up the blower as much as you want, but if the airflow is not being directed to the two lower corners, it isn't going to matter much.

It is certainly one of those things I would change in design in a heartbeat, and if someone could come up with some relatively inexpensive device that could attach into the whole vent channel, and add some additional venting to the sides (and not look like something Dr. Frankenstein would have designed), I would be all over it.

That said, I have gotten somewhat used to needing to pull over every 5-10 miles in some weather, pop out with the scraper, and clean up the windshield again due to the lack of the defroster being able to do its job...just have gotten used to it being one of those Jeep things I will have to put up with if I want to drive it in that weather.

mowbizz

I see your point...It might be very easy to devise some kind of "clip on" deflector that would channel some of the air to both sides...I could think of many ways just off the top of my head with simple materials...
I have not experienced any long term icy, blizzard conditions in my Jeep yet as we have had a very mild winter here in Southern New Hampshire....but I could see the problem in those conditions being present.

I would think an industrious person would come up with a deflector to channel air flow to the sides for the worst conditions then simply remove it for normal conditions...I would if I had this problem...
As far as the engineers that designed the defroster register being inept..I would have to agree to some degree, and it could have been a simple change to the design in the testing stages to add some deflectors into it...and solve the problem...

ronjenx

This is what I'm working on. It distributes the hot air along its entire length. I haven't had the kind of weather needed to test it, yet.
If it works out, I will paint it black.

JeepTrav

Sweet idea. Mine gets just a bit frosty on the sides her in MN