I'm not one of those YYC Costco knobs that run to customer service the moment I'm the slightest but unsatisfied with something. Especially for fluid I bought 8-9 months ago.
I wondered if I could fix or power up the remaining bottle for like a few bucks. Doesn't seem like it's doable in a cost effective way. I'll just buy another few packs next time I go to Costco. I'll mix the ####ty bottle with some reflex stuff for a warm week that'll require a ton of liquid to avoid a grey windshield.
Maybe one of those little bottles of gas line anti freeze?
Maybe one of those little bottles of gas line anti freeze?
Those bottles aren't cheap. Better to spend like $3-4 on another bottle and mix 50:50. As long as it isn't literally icing up at -5C to -10C, it's fine. It'll work fine for a melt week where I'm probably using half a bottle a week, but only if I ration because the car will always spray the headlights on the first spray if the temps are single digits or less. Instead of conserving, I'll just spray frequently until the 50:50 mixes are gone. I'll top it up with the Reflex stuff when it gets close to getting cold again.
I actually ran some calcs.
Basically it'll cost like $10-20 to make my own with the ethyl or isopropyl alcohol or whatever at around 4L (but I can tweak the additives).
$15 for 9.46L the Reflex stuff rated -49C. Melt performance seems better than the Costco stuff and it seems there's something in the mix that seems to keep ice or salt and dirt from accumulating as fast as the Costco stuff. But it's like twice as expensive. So probably better just buy Costco and use more.
$15 for 6x 3.85L for the Costco stuff rated -40C
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius
I think as much alcohol as it takes for it the whole windshield wiper fluid mixture to become flammable and then the fun really begins.
Oh yeah the gloves are definitely getting retired haha, yeah I can't get past the mental block. They've served me well, but have a date with the garbage can. Yeah coat zipper will get fixed, may be the best winter coat I've ever had...until 45 minutes ago anyway. Just gonna make for a chilly weekend in the meantime.
The mental block is real. I dropped a phone in the toilet once, while getting up before flushing it fell out of my pocket. Even though my phone was water proof and I washed it numerous times with soap, I just couldn't get past the image of the phone sitting in the toilet next to a turd.
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What's the best stuff to add to winter washer fluid to keep it from freezing and not damaging any internals? Vodka/Everclear? Isopropyl? Hoping to make sure what I add to the fluid doesn't mess up any plastics, rubber or body paint if it gets on stuff other than the windshield.
The winter stuff I got from Costco sucked. Like it has been freezing near immediately and clogging up my wipers like super chilled water. The stuff I bought didn't do that in previous years. Must be a bad batch. I got some reflex brand stuff rated to -49C in the meanwhile and it was exactly what I expected this morning when it cleared out the light frost and evaporated cleanly.
I’m a little OCD when something like this comes up and I want to know.
You could put a little cup in the freezer, see if it freezes at -5. Also put a little cup out overnight, see if it freezes a -15 or whatever the outdoor temp is. A couple of no cost real world tests.
No idea how much an actual measuring device would cost.
The mental block is real. I dropped a phone in the toilet once, while getting up before flushing it fell out of my pocket. Even though my phone was water proof and I washed it numerous times with soap, I just couldn't get past the image of the phone sitting in the toilet next to a turd.
Years ago, I was sitting in the HR office, they handled the cell phones. A sales guy came in with his phone that had fallen in the toilet and said “it still works, we could use it as a temporary phone for someone who needs it”
The HR person grabbed a Kleenex, picked up the phone and dropped it in the trash.
I gained a lot of respect for HR and lost a lot of respect for Sales that day.
The mental block is real. I dropped a phone in the toilet once, while getting up before flushing it fell out of my pocket. Even though my phone was water proof and I washed it numerous times with soap, I just couldn't get past the image of the phone sitting in the toilet next to a turd.
Especially when said appliance needs to be held against your face to use. You made the right decision
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I’m a little OCD when something like this comes up and I want to know.
You could put a little cup in the freezer, see if it freezes at -5. Also put a little cup out overnight, see if it freezes a -15 or whatever the outdoor temp is. A couple of no cost real world tests.
No idea how much an actual measuring device would cost.
It's still liquid at around -10C to -15C and spraying (approximate temp the container was in when I topped up the fluid in the car). It's not freezing in the lines, but it's freezing almost immediately after it's sprayed in around -5C to -15C, like supercooled water (windchill factor and car materials potentially colder than air temps I guess?).
If you want some undisciplined science though...
Spoiler!
I ran scenarios through this calculator as a loose titration type of calculation. I just conservatively treated the stuff as 0% in my calcs (even though it's probably still possibly at 10-30% based on what I read about methanol freezing temps):
The temps for freezing for isopropyl, methanol and vodka are slightly different though and IIRC, you'd typically you'd have to aim for around 35-50% to reach that -35C to -50C freeze temps. A ball park calculation of 50:50 70% isopropyl alcohol to the "0%" windshield liquid to bring it to 35% is like 3-4x more expensive than a new jug.
I dunno. I thought it was an interesting rabbit hole to go down. Putting an additive into a winter fluid isn't as cost prohibitive as first assumed, but there's reasons to believe it's potentially not worth the gamble either.
-49C rated stuff was $15 for 9.65L or around $1.55 per litre. But there's supposed to be water repelling additives too and the mixture is less likely to do damage to a car.
-40C rated bottle for $3 for 3.85L, then adding 500mL of 70% isoproyl for $3 is around $1.38L when the total is 4.35L. The melting might be the same or superior due to concentration of liquid that freezes at lower temps, but no water repelling additive (little bit of dish soap?) and potential risk of the mixture damaging vehicle etc.
Basically, I wouldn't bother making my own mixture unless I couldn't buy a commercially available winter mixture due to shortage or geographic location.
It’s when I let someone in. I don’t particularly care whether someone waves or not, but I judge people if they don’t.
I usually look in the rear or side view mirror as I wave. But I also say aloud a very Top Gear-esque Clarkson/Hammond “Sorry… sorry! Sorry!” if the manoeuvre is particularly disruptive such that I would be mildly annoyed if someone was foisting it upon me.
If someone does let me in, I make sure I get away from them as quickly as possible or at least not delay them in any way. Nothing is more annoying than letting someone in and immediately regretting it as they proceed to drive like a proper struggler (ie: most Toyotas and any normal-ass car bearing an Uber sticker and/or commercial license plate so as to indicate an Uber).
__________________
-James
GO FLAMES GO.
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Speaking of Toyota's, did they put some really ####ty LED lights in the headlights of the previous generation Highlander or are a lot of owners of those vehicles putting in ####ty bulbs. I see so many Highlanders with headlights that are flickering or bouncing around and it is so annoying. I don't know if it is a Toyota or driver issue because honestly the demographic of those vehicles is such that I wouldn't expect many of them actively going out and swapping lightbulbs.
