Heated windshields not a priority in Kenya

Every car owner desires to keep and maintain their vehicle in perfect condition.

Perfect condition includes replacement parts are of the same fitment. From body parts to electrical parts and even the mechanical parts, we all endeavor to keep our stock unless we are building our cars for the track. 

  When doing replacement, the owner has an option of either going for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or any other available part. In most cases, the OEM is usually of a higher quality and is fully compatible with the car but the prices are not pocket friendly. The other similar parts are mostly of low quality less durable and low price, which we all agree are fake parts. 

 However, some OEM parts come with additional components from the factory that may not be necessarily important to go for the same part when doing a replacement on your car 

HEATED FRONT WINDSHIELD

HOW IT WORKS 

This is a special type of windshield that incorporates a copper circuit towards the base of the windshield at the wiper resting point (wiper park area). During winter in some parts of the world, ice forms on the windshield causing the wiper blades to get stuck on the windshield. Using a special switch/button, the driver turns on the heater. The copper circuit on the windshield warms up the wiper blades and the entire wiper park area causing all the ice around the wiper blades to melt away before the driver activates the wiper to clear the ice off the windshield. Every time the wiper blade comes into contact with the heating element at the wiper park area, it warms the blade hence making it easy to wipe out ice and prevents further formation.

This is not a feature you may ever need to use in Kenya. 

WHY DID MY CAR COME WITH IT 

There are 2 possible reasons why your car may have come with it -On the production line, the windshields are produced in mass oblivious of the tropics where the vehicle is going to be used. Whether or not the car is equipped with the heater setup the windshield is still fitted. The only thing that will differentiate the 2 tropics (freezing and none freezing tropics) will be the circuit and button to operate the windshield heater. 

 For the freezing tropics, the vehicle will have the heater connected, the operating button will also be included in the driver's cabin and well labelled with the windshield washer sign as seen in the picture above. 

If the vehicle is meant for the none freezing tropics, yes, the vehicle will be fitted with the heated windshield due to mass production but the connection circuit and the switch will both be missing 

-The second reason why your car may have come with a heated windshield could be, maybe your car was not meant for the Kenyan market but due to one reason or the other, the car ended up here and with both the heated windshield, the circuit and the switch even though the feature may never serve its intended purpose during its time in Kenya unless the climatic change affects us. 

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION IN THE EVENT OF A CRACKED HEATED WINDSHIELD? 

When purchasing a windshield, the prices between a heated and a nonheated windshield is like day and night. But the truth is on the car they are both nonfunctional if at all your car doesn't have a visible switch for activating the heater. Many car owners will insist on fitting back the heated windshield thinking that the circuit on it adds some functionality to the car and just ends up paying for a feature that does not exist on their car. Well even if by chance your car is a second-hand car from Europe and has the switch, still the function will never come in handy in Kenya. 

Apart from the rear heated windshield where the circuit is fully functional for all vehicles regardless of the tropics, the heating feature in the front windshield is an example of an OEM additional function that isn't worth giving someone sleepless nights. As long as the windshield is genuine, the heaters can wait until we start experiencing winter in Kenya.