Climate screen

[Briggsy]

It's not invisible metal..... you can see it.
Look onto windscreen from outside; there is a thin conductive metal layer in the windscreen that gives it a noticeable tint. How do you think electric current could otherwise flow through it (which heats it)?
This does absorb some signal - not only GPS but also other electromagnetic spectra. Hence VW have bundled it with the advanced telephone system.

VW are the first to use this wirefree technology to heat screens iirc, but it has been around for a while. My brother's mid-2000 C4 had a 'climate' windscreen (not heated) that took out IR to stop interior from heating up (or at least less) and that was pretty good at lowering the signal so it would take his handheld sat nav ages to get a lock and frequently drop out.
Ford's system has some more blank space in between the heating wires, so potentially this might allow more signal in. I never tried a handheld sat nav in a Ford though.

As I said, usually GPS (or GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo) reception should still be OK unless the weather is poor (very overcast, thunderstorms, etc) or you drive in a location with tall structures (skycrapers, industrial plants, mountains, etc).

Right, so you claim the super thin layer of metal impedes signal and I quote "cripples signal".

1. If true, why isnt my signal blocked completely virtually all the time considering the rest of the car (other than the remaining windows) is a huge metal cage with much thicker metal walls than the glass.
2. If the glass is impeding signal, why does my Garmin GPS Forerunner and Edge (which use GPS and GLONOSS) devices also suffer location issues when in a heavily urban area or when I'm out in bad weather, which neither have any metal surrounding them.

It's a bit far fetched to claim a thin layer of metal has any noticeable effect on any signal in an already metal vehicle.

[itavaltalainen]

Full quote really not required.

Your nav is on the screen and gets signal from above, so the rest of the car doesn’t really bother it too much.
VW do include (or make you take) advanced phone connection with heated screen - I had the heated screen in my 1st mk7 and it lets through less signal than the non-coated. Do I have screenshots of GPS status of my phone in that and my new car - no! But it’s my observation that you get less signal under similar circumstances.

Try it with your smartphone if you want to see, I use GPS status app, it shows signal levels.

[Restlessnative]

If you want to turn it on manually, press the "Setup" button on the lower half of the middle climate control knob. You will then be presented with a pictogram showing the airflow though the various vents though the car and the temperature set etc.

At the bottom of that screen is a small "heated windscreen" logo. Just tap that and it turns from white to orange indicating it's on. Press again to switch it off. Press any of the head unit buttons (Radio for example) to exit out of the climate control menu.

Incidentally, when you are in the climate menu screen, hitting the small "setup" button in the lower right side of the screen presents you with a few options, one of which is whether you want the climate screen to turn on automatically on not. Some have reported though that the "auto" setting is a bit random and doesn't always seem to switch it on when you want. I prefer to go down the manual route of switching it on (as mentioned above) manually as an when I need it. I agree it should have a dedicated button however.

Do love it though - worked wonders this morning in the first heavy frost of winter 2017 - cleared the screen completely in around 2 minutes.

That was me this morning at -1 deg.Trusted it to come on automatically when i pressed the screen demist button.Which it did.I'd say it comes on automatically about 90% of the time.It is so quick- it soon becomes obvious when you have to switch to manual.I notice it stays on if you don't switch it off again (on manual).
Bit like the heated mirrors which i always forget to switch off.I wish there was a warning on the dash for them!.

[Restlessnative]

It's not invisible metal..... you can see it.
Look onto windscreen from outside; there is a thin conductive metal layer in the windscreen that gives it a noticeable tint. How do you think electric current could otherwise flow through it (which heats it)?
This does absorb some signal - not only GPS but also other electromagnetic spectra. Hence VW have bundled it with the advanced telephone system.

VW are the first to use this wirefree technology to heat screens iirc, but it has been around for a while. My brother's mid-2000 C4 had a 'climate' windscreen (not heated) that took out IR to stop interior from heating up (or at least less) and that was pretty good at lowering the signal so it would take his handheld sat nav ages to get a lock and frequently drop out.
Ford's system has some more blank space in between the heating wires, so potentially this might allow more signal in. I never tried a handheld sat nav in a Ford though.

As I said, usually GPS (or GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo) reception should still be OK unless the weather is poor (very overcast, thunderstorms, etc) or you drive in a location with tall structures (skycrapers, industrial plants, mountains, etc).

I've noticed the tint on mine.It is almost a dark green shade.Sometimes looks like the inside of the car has misted up, it's quite noticeable parked beside other cars.

[fredgroves]

Bit like the heated mirrors which i always forget to switch off.I wish there was a warning on the dash for them!.

Is there any reason to switch either off?

Ok, so the current drain will (marginally) effect your fuel consumption but its not going to melt and catch fire like those stick on demisting things we used to have last century.

I drive around with my heated mirrors on most of the time. It helps keep them clear of spray as well as ice. No fires to report yet.

[itavaltalainen]

Heated mirrors on prevent mirror dip in reverse (needs to be on L to work). Other than that and bit of fuel waste nothing to really worry about.
They never get really hot anyway I think, most likely they have NTC circuit built in to stop heating at a certain point (like heated washer jets that had this for a while already).

[MrE]

I still use Waze a lot in my 7.5 in an attempt to save my driving license and haven’t noticed any I’ll affects from my climate screen. I have never tried it whilst it’s in operation to be fair. Maybe that could affect it?  I have my iPhone mounted on a magnetic holder attached to the air vent above the media unit so would have thought that combo would kill it - but no, works fine 😁

[Beezer]

So what’s the general consensus on the automatic activation then?

Should it come on when temperature is below a certain level?

Or do I need to press the max front windscreen blower button and it will come on with that?

Used it for the first time this last week or so. The manual button on the display definitely works just wondering under what conditions it will automatically activate?

[Hebegeebee]

I pressed the max front windscreen button on mine this evening leaving work and it didn't activate the climate screen, it still had to be activated manually - and it's set to Auto enable in the settings menu.

[Briggsy]

Your nav is on the screen and gets signal from above, so the rest of the car doesn’t really bother it too much.
VW do include (or make you take) advanced phone connection with heated screen - I had the heated screen in my 1st mk7 and it lets through less signal than the non-coated. Do I have screenshots of GPS status of my phone in that and my new car - no! But it’s my observation that you get less signal under similar circumstances.

Try it with your smartphone if you want to see, I use GPS status app, it shows signal levels.

1. Theres actually an external antenna, top of the car (sharkfin) for GPS, as most cars have these days.
2. No VW do not make you have advanced phone connection when taking the heated windscreen - I certainly dont have it with my climate screen on my 7.5
3. I do compare, in our other car (DS3) which has no clearscreen/climate screen type windscreen the phone has exactly the same signal strength and loses it, in exactly the same places as I do on the commute if I was taking the Golf into work.