Frozen Washer Fluid

In here dealers use anti freeze in washer fluid all year round.

Best anti freeze what I know is industrial (denatured) ethanol. It’s always possibility that somehow you breathe or get washer fluid to your hands, so its better be something that does not harm your health.

I usually use -29 Celsius (-20 Fahrenheit) fluid in winter, it won’t completely freeze even if weather goes colder in short periods.

 

This time of year, to be safe, and especially this week with a rare cold snap. But all year round? For about ten months I top off the reservoir with plain water, and have never had a problem. I agree with your good points about cooling effects and warming the windshield.

 

Hi AV,

Here in the US, they do not sell Denatured Alcohol, anylonger. What they sell that they call Dentatured Alcohol has a very nasty smelling oily liquid disolved into it, and it would smear on the windows after the ethanol evaporates and proably eat away at the rubber seals too. Its really nasty stuff.

They changed this some years ago. To get traditional Denatured Alcohol (5 % Isoproponol ) one needs a special license.

This has to be one of the most insane things the government has ever done. There are just some work that one needs Ethanol for, and putting in a carcinogenic nasty smell denaturant is just plain stupid. The whole idea is that the Ethanol would disolve water on a surface, and promote it evaporating away from the surface, along with the Ethanol leaving a clean surface. The idea of putting something into the Ethanol that does not evaporate away, and leaves an oily film is just ignorant of the whole idea of using Ethanol for cleaning and finishing of surfaces.

 

Yup. Because: windshield washer fluid can sit in the reservoir for over a year. Look at what's for sale, the loss-leaders at hardware stores for example. It's all the -35 deg stuff. Except maybe in the summer, then you can get the non-protected stuff. But even then I'd ignore that stuff:

I would never put anything else in. I don't use the washer fluid to speak of in summer: if I top it up in summer it's likely going to be still in there at least half way through winter.