Self filling washer bottle!

[[TW]Fox]

Thanks for all the negative responses guys! You have obviously never run out of screen wash on the motorway in the middle of winter and had difficulty seeing where you were going!

You are right, we've not.

Mine goes 'Bong' and tells me when I need to put more in. At this point there is still enough left for a huge Motorway journey in filthy conditions so I'd need to be proper dim to run out.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Rain water is actually quite clean - in fact usually cleaner than tap water once you've done some overflow filtering.

Right up until it runs over your filthy road grime covered paintwork

 

[Dogbreath]

You are right, we've not.

Mine goes 'Bong' and tells me when I need to put more in. At this point there is still enough left for a huge Motorway journey in filthy conditions so I'd need to be proper dim to run out.

Mine doesn't go go bong, but in winter when I'm using a lot of it I simply top it up every weekend and maybe once a month in summer. Given the thirty seconds this takes I can't say it's a particularly pressing problem for me.

 

[Blackhawk47]

My rover just runs out the only way you can tell is when you can here the motor whirring and no longer spurts out water. Also the bottle is literally a little plastic bottle (looks like a 4 pint milk bottle but smaller) which you have to manually remove to fill up.

Makes it very awkward when filling up at a petrol station.

That said, I can clearly see how much is left in the bottle so as long as I open the boot, I can see exactly how much washer fluid is left.

 

[paradigm]

You are right, we've not.

Mine goes 'Bong' and tells me when I need to put more in. At this point there is still enough left for a huge Motorway journey in filthy conditions so I'd need to be proper dim to run out.

This TBH.

I managed to get from just south of Calais to the foot of the Alps with the washer fluid light on, and that was in the middle of a particularly wet winter's day.

When I stopped for fuel I filled it up.

 

[MikeHiow]

Right up until it runs over your filthy road grime covered paintwork

Hence why the very basic filtering is required.

It's irrelevant though, as it's a bad idea.

 

[Liampope]

...a slowly soluble tablet of screen wash additive that would only need changing once a year!

General pointlessness and filtering issues aside, this will be your main problem . How do you propose a 'slowly soluble tablet' does the job of 10+ litres of concentrated screenwash fluid? Need to solve the impossible engineering first. Come back next year, son. For now - I'm out.

 

[paradigm]

General pointlessness and filtering issues aside, this will be your main problem . How do you propose a 'slowly soluble tablet' does the job of 10+ litres of concentrated screenwash fluid? Need to solve the impossible engineering first. Come back next year, son. For now - I'm out.

Well, you could have a controlled release capsule using osmosis through a semi-permeable membrane, but I still fail to see the point.

 

[boxman2000]

MKII Fiestas used to have these if I recall - ended up killing batteries as the bottles would overflow and leak over terminals.

Either way, this has been thought of long ago - also how would you resolve the issue of stopping captured rain water from freezing?

 

[Liampope]

Well, you could have a controlled release capsule using osmosis through a semi-permeable membrane, but I still fail to see the point.

I'm not thinking of the practicalities of the delivery - that's solveable. It's more the quantities involved I'm getting at! I think OP is imagining some sort of dishwasher tablet sized thing plopped into the tank doing the same job as the 10s of litres of concentrated screenwash additive you'd get through in a year.

Anyway - I've already given this more thought than it deserves, so I'm out

 

[Brookert]

legionella anyone?

 

[J.B]

What if it doesn't precipitate enough to fill your washer bottle? You'd still have to check the level and top it up if needs be.

 

[Dogbreath]

My rover just runs out the only way you can tell is when you can here the motor whirring and no longer spurts out water. Also the bottle is literally a little plastic bottle (looks like a 4 pint milk bottle but smaller) which you have to manually remove to fill up.

Makes it very awkward when filling up at a petrol station.

Which Rover do you own? Surely you can just use a watering can or hose to fill it without having to remove the entire bottle?

 

[Scania]

Thanks for all the negative responses guys! You have obviously never run out of screen wash on the motorway in the middle of winter and had difficulty seeing where you were going!

A competent motorist would or should (in an ideal world) check his fluid levels on a weekly basis at least.

Plus, I recall a similar system used years back in some trucks (ERF perhaps?) the system became blocked with crud quickly rendering it useless not to mention it had a water bottle anyway incase the said blockage occured.

In principle a good idea, alas, in practice, quite a silly one tbh.

 

[Blackhawk47]

Which Rover do you own? Surely you can just use a watering can or hose to fill it without having to remove the entire bottle?

Not sure if serious...

 

[cokecan]

A few websites suggest that Legionnaire's disease would also be a potential risk if you didnt add any screen wash into the rain water

 

[Firestar_3x]

For most of the year the water temperature wouldn't be warm enough to promote the growth of legionella.

 

[ShakenNstirred]

lol it takes 2mins to fill
and what happen when it doesnt rain or you keep it in the garage lol

 

[cokecan]

For most of the year the water temperature wouldn't be warm enough to promote the growth of legionella.

very true though I'd hope it would be something one would consider if they did implement such a thing for hte one time of the year when it might get hot enough

 

[arknor]

sounds like a great idea until someone pours cement powder , egg , glue etc into it

it could be the new way to key someones car