Smiths heater demisting or the lack of.....
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:26 pm
Hi,
I thought I'd post up what I think might be a solution to the demisting (or lack thereof) that I think we all experience with our original Smiths heaters.
I've always found their ability to warm up the car itself adequate, once they've warmed up themselves of course, so I have no real desire to install something else, unless it is very similar in design / look and doesn't involve a great deal of faffing about.
That said I have always found their screen demisting abilities somewhat wanting......
I have looked at the Smiths round heater with two closing front vents, as used in the early Landrovers but the price they want for the secondhand units is usually more than I'll pay for what is basically the same heater with a different front panel! And the front panels (on their own) have been way overpriced (IMO).
The Clayton Classic barrel heaters look good but again, the price.......
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source= ... 1147735171
All of which left me scratching my head, and this is what I came up with:
Basically it's a slim piece of perspex, cut to size and sanded, to round off the corners and give it a good keying surface for paint.
The two holding pieces are simply three small sections, cut to size, two give the same depth as the vanes in the open section of the heater front panel, the third latches over and holds the closing panel in place, all superglued together and in place.
To get the shape, I boiled the kettle and (wearing rubber gloves) placed the perspex panel inside and left it a little while. This made it really malleable, so I then pressed it round the heater and held it in place with two elastic bands until it had cooled and the shape was set.
One corner is separate and held on my a (superglued) piece of leatherette, a similar piece was glued to the other side, so they would match. This gives the panel flexibility and makes it easier to slot into place and remove again later.
It was then all sprayed the same colour gold as the heater and the rest of my gold coloured dash panels.
With the addition of a piece of draft excluder to seal any gaps, it was ready to test, so I wired it up to a battery and flicked the switch......
And got a good blast of air up the vent that connects to the pipes for the screen vents, much improved on what was being directed up there!
I look forward to testing this properly once Sally is back on the road.
The other good thing about this is that it is a completely detachable addition and I haven't had to alter the heater panel in any way.
It just slots into place and can be removed, at a convenient point, once the screens are clear.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that I have a flick on / off switch instead of the rheostat with bakelite knob.
As per an earlier post of mine, I did get hold of a secondhand rheostat, to replace a black plastic flick switch that was operating the fan.
I was unable to get this to work, despite it being a really simple design and once cleaned up and reassembled it should have done.
Anyway I stumped up for a new one from ESM, to find this refused to operate the fan motor as well.......
So I have replaced it with a more period looking metal on / off flick switch, guess what....... it worked first time!!..... 
I have no idea why it won't work with a rheostat, if any of you do I'd love to hear but for the foreseeable future the switch is staying.
Just as good as a rheostat anyway and a fraction of the price!
You'll have to excuse me now, I need to pick up the toys that the rheostat episode has caused me to throw out of my pram....... ( )
Best wishes,
Mike.
I thought I'd post up what I think might be a solution to the demisting (or lack thereof) that I think we all experience with our original Smiths heaters.
I've always found their ability to warm up the car itself adequate, once they've warmed up themselves of course, so I have no real desire to install something else, unless it is very similar in design / look and doesn't involve a great deal of faffing about.
That said I have always found their screen demisting abilities somewhat wanting......
I have looked at the Smiths round heater with two closing front vents, as used in the early Landrovers but the price they want for the secondhand units is usually more than I'll pay for what is basically the same heater with a different front panel! And the front panels (on their own) have been way overpriced (IMO).
The Clayton Classic barrel heaters look good but again, the price.......
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source= ... 1147735171
All of which left me scratching my head, and this is what I came up with:
- Smiths heater vent closer 1.JPG (1.27 MiB) Viewed 2337 times
- Smiths heater vent closer 2.JPG (898.98 KiB) Viewed 2337 times
- Smiths heater vent closer 3.JPG (1.36 MiB) Viewed 2337 times
- Smiths heater vent closer 4.JPG (1.32 MiB) Viewed 2337 times
- Smiths heater vent closer 5.JPG (1.33 MiB) Viewed 2337 times
The two holding pieces are simply three small sections, cut to size, two give the same depth as the vanes in the open section of the heater front panel, the third latches over and holds the closing panel in place, all superglued together and in place.
To get the shape, I boiled the kettle and (wearing rubber gloves) placed the perspex panel inside and left it a little while. This made it really malleable, so I then pressed it round the heater and held it in place with two elastic bands until it had cooled and the shape was set.
One corner is separate and held on my a (superglued) piece of leatherette, a similar piece was glued to the other side, so they would match. This gives the panel flexibility and makes it easier to slot into place and remove again later.
It was then all sprayed the same colour gold as the heater and the rest of my gold coloured dash panels.
With the addition of a piece of draft excluder to seal any gaps, it was ready to test, so I wired it up to a battery and flicked the switch......
And got a good blast of air up the vent that connects to the pipes for the screen vents, much improved on what was being directed up there!
I look forward to testing this properly once Sally is back on the road.
The other good thing about this is that it is a completely detachable addition and I haven't had to alter the heater panel in any way.
It just slots into place and can be removed, at a convenient point, once the screens are clear.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that I have a flick on / off switch instead of the rheostat with bakelite knob.
As per an earlier post of mine, I did get hold of a secondhand rheostat, to replace a black plastic flick switch that was operating the fan.
I was unable to get this to work, despite it being a really simple design and once cleaned up and reassembled it should have done.
Anyway I stumped up for a new one from ESM, to find this refused to operate the fan motor as well.......
So I have replaced it with a more period looking metal on / off flick switch, guess what....... it worked first time!!.....
I have no idea why it won't work with a rheostat, if any of you do I'd love to hear but for the foreseeable future the switch is staying.
Just as good as a rheostat anyway and a fraction of the price!
You'll have to excuse me now, I need to pick up the toys that the rheostat episode has caused me to throw out of my pram....... (
) Best wishes,
Mike.
