After finding that some filling stations now cynically prevent use of the free water to force you to buy their extortionately priced premix, I went to a supermarket instead and got a 5L drum.
I've just noticed it's only good for down to ?5 °C, so sailing very close to the wind for anti-freeze properties in the current conditions.
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Gosh, so it's 88% water...
www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ethanol-water-d_989.html
Robbing dogs. Pro-rata, LIDL's concentrate would cost £0.52p to give the same protection when mixed with water.
Edited by Hamsafar on 21/12/2009 at 23:12
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Not sure what's going on with my screenwash - I tipped a 2.5L bottle of Tesco concentrate in to my 1/4 full tank (97 Escort) at the weekend and topped up with a guesstimated 2L of water. One heated washer jet works, one doesn't. Both jets froze on Sunday night and after the heat-soak of a 5 minute stop at Watford Gap only the heated one began to work, briefly. When I got home the (digital) outdoor thermometer at home was showing -3.5C.
I shall have to throw another 2.5L bottle of concentrate in there before Christmas as doing the same journey in the morning of the 25th.
Edited by Dave_TD {P} on 22/12/2009 at 00:28
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@ Hamsafar: that's interesting and shows the markup (the 5L cost about £3 from Tesco; Shell garage equivalent was £5.39, but I don't know what conc. of antifreeze it contained.) Trust the supermarketeers to cut things to the bone...
Edited by dimdip on 22/12/2009 at 00:27
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Bought a litre of the normal stuff for 79p, mixed it down to -15c so got an entire tank for 79p which will last a while. If you do a lot of long journeys and scared of running out you can always buy some more and use the spare bottle to make some pre mixed stuff yourself will probably cost about 30p for proper -20c winter protection or about 10p -5c.
The 79p stuff works too, when I cleared the snow off this morning all the water had iced up but the screen washed flowed through instantly and made my windscreen spotlessly clean.
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I have halfords blue premixed in my car. Have always used it.
This mornning I left home at 06:45, everything was fine,it was -0.5c. Hit the m40 going north and around high wycombe it was stunnignly snowy ( I swear I heard the sound "boradsword calling danny boy" ) from the pine trees on the side of the motorway, with many abandoned cars on the side of the motorway.
Temperature kept dipping, and at -3.5 my washer jets froze up. I know it was just the jets as the rear washer was fine.
Thats the first time halfords blue has let me down, and its been used in much colder weather than that.
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For last 2 years have used Lidl stuff (confusingly labelled as antifreeze). Seems pretty good, claims does down to -60 undiluted.
Why buy pre mixed stuff? You are just paying for water.
Have looked at other brands, read the label may do not give much frost protection even undiluted hence my choice of the lidl stuff. About £4.99 for 5l.
1;3 mix worked down to -9 here this morning.
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Still using Carplan stuff I got cheap from Woolworths prior to them closing last year.
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blimey, you have either been driving in the caribean for 12 months, or you bought 10 gazzilion hectalitres.
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I bought 3 gallons of it (neat). Has lasted for ages, and shared between two cars.
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...10 gazzilion hectalitres...
Cor, bet that's more than enough to fill a bath.
Isn't one of the problems here the anti-freeze element of the liquid evaporates in storage and more so in the reservoir when it's next to an often hot engine?
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Apparently wind-chill has an effect at the nozzles too. I'd assumed the nozzles were only heated at the same time as the rear window/mirrors, but it seems they're on all the time, for this reason.
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Wind-chill only applies to humans, not inaminate objects.
Pedants may argue the latent heat of evaporation of whatever fluid's in the nozzle will cool it further, but what about the latent heat of freezing?
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Wind-chill only applies to humans not inaminate objects.
Sort of. Think of it as the inanimate object being unable to influence the temperatire of the layer of air around it.
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I have halfords blue premixed in my car. Have always used it.
I have to use it as wife & daughter like the smell. Halfords Pink is the winter mix.
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I have halfords blue premixed in my car. Have always used it.
Just got an email from Halfords stating they're doing 3 for 2 on 'winter motoring' stuff.
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They are indeed. Their de-icer is excellent (make sure you get the one marked 'concentrate') and doesn't re-freeze. But I stil prefer the screenwash you get from VAG dealers, which is surprisingly cheaper than average as well as better.
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>I have halfords blue premixed in my car.
I use Sainsbury's Vodka diluted as necessary.
Almost as cheap as the Halfords stuff and I can always drink it if I get stuck ;-)
Kevin...
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