Hi WCR fans,
I have for seven plus Ohio winters used 2 Gals of -20 washer fluid with 1 Gal of tap water then added some GG4 (1 oz) and win sol super slip (1 oz). It gets the job done down to zero and lower, if I have to work those days!
However I do not like the blue dye in the washer fluid and many times it seems to fog or haze the cold window briefly as if my rubber was worn out.
I have heard talk of using rubbing alcohol with distilled water as an alternative. Before my DI tank resin went bad, we used a 50 50 mix with pure water and 70% rubbing alcohol in a squirt bottle for cut ups and it did a good job.
Can it be affordable for all day winter route work, and if so what % of mix and does soap need to be added?
Am I fishing in an empty pond or is this a practical choice?
Currently my mix cost just under $4 to make the three gals described above.
Thanks for any advise!
Matt
Something to keep in mind when dealing w/ the windshield washer fluid is not only the blue dye but it has a lousy soap already added to it and you are only getting 25% (at best) methanol in it. We use isopropyl or methanol (can be found at a race car supply house) which costs us $3.50 a gallon. That is like 4 gallons of the WWF by percentage of alcohol. The Iso cost more than that but I’ll gladly spend a bit more to avoid the dye and lousy soap. I have used the methanol in route work and it’s much more affordable and allows you to increase the alcohol content more quickly because it’s not mostly water like WWF.
I use 1 cup of isopropyl alcohol to 1 gallon of plain water with the recommended amount of unger easy glide. This works to about zero degrees, and a little more alcohol can be added if need be if it is colder.
I use just enough alcohol to keep my solution from freezing in the van. I then put it in a squeeze bottle (3/4 full) and top that off w/ more alcohol. I can then increase the alcohol percentage in the bottle which means I use far less alcohol than if I tried adjusting the amount in several gallons of solution.
I don’t know how dirty the windows are where you’re at, but I do route work too. I have two of the Pulex window cleaner’s buckets filled and add the alcohol as needed. It’s been a long time since I needed more than 2 quarts of alcohol in my bucket (98% Isopropyl averages $2.50 per quart at Wallyworld). By the way, I fill the bucket with water up to the line (3 gallons). I’ve never needed more water than that, but I start at 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. and quit at 4 p.m. at the latest in the Winter, so that’s not really a full day.
I can get the 93% Iso from Wallyworld for $2.46 a quart. They don’t carry 98% here.
Well I went and looked at the bottle… Mine says 91%. I don’t know why I thought it was 98%.
I priced pure Iso one time and it was more like $5 a quart online. Just not worth it for a few extra %.
Has anyone tried Denatured alcohol? I found some at a Lowes and it said cleans glass on the can. It said 4 oz to a Gal of water, but it did not say anything about freezing. So last night I put a gal of water with 4 oz of Denatured out on the porch. At 11:00pm my thermometer said it was 23 degrees and at 7:30 this am it is down to 16 degrees. The water was not frozen solid but it was slushy. I guess I’ll keep trying more until I find the happy point that works. Based on the price I could go up to 12 oz per gal to be the same cost as the -20 washer fluid.
Has anyone got a formula / mix % that works as well and does not freeze on the window?
Matt
No formula is universal due to a variety of factors. The biggest being wind. On one side of the house you can have sun and hardly any wind on the other it’s shady and a 10mph wind. This can give you 20 degrees difference on the same house. Any mix you start out w/ at your home or in the van may not work when you get to the job. That’s why we add enough alcohol to work in the van and adjust our mix in our bottle. I have used denatured before but the smell was the most overwhelming of all the alcohols I’ve tried. Pricewise methanol or Iso is cheaper for us.
A recent post on another forum gave the difference in Iso and denatured. Iso has more water in it because of the way it is made. Also Iso evaporates faster. That being said it takes less denatured than Iso to keep water from freezing. Iso has poison added in it to keep alhoholic from drinking it. But like Tony said denatured is stronger in smell. Home Depot and hardware stores carry it. I have always used Iso but I am experimenting with denatured now.
Hey Matt,
I use a mix of denatured alcohol at 10 oz per gallon of water. I like to mix my soap first then add the alcohol. It has a strong oder, but if you dont take your bucket inside, it should be alright. Also…it is highly flamable. So be careful around smokers, another reason not to take it inside. It works great for me here in Missouri, albeit not a real cold winter for us here this year. It was 6 degrees and it worked fine for me, but I did have to wipe the ice off the squeegee rubber in between windows. Good Luck!
Hey thanks for the reply, I was wondering what % of water vs alcohol works.
The ice on squeegee is hard to avoid and the towels don’t get wet they get frozen stiff. Makes us appreciate Spring or anything above 32 degrees, right?!
I use a 50-50 mix of denatured and water to clean mirrors and insides of skylights. I also use it on lightly soiled cut ups as well. It does a great job and I always have the spray bottle around while I am working.
Thanks, I have used a mix of rubbing alcohol and pure water (Zero TDS) in warm weather on an old farm house with a hugh amount of the old wood frame cut ups, using a spray bottle. It did a good job and dried faster than a reg soap and water mix, which keep it from run downs in this case.
Still do not like those old wood & flaking putty cut ups though. We had one of the 6 inch by 8 inch pieces in the transium over the front door fall outside as soon as we touched it from inside the house. It had no putty left on the out side to keep it in place. It landed on the front cement porch, and it amazed us as it took a small bounce then layed on the porch without breaking! The older farm couple were not home until about an hour later and as they were commenting on how great the glass was looking, we told them the news. The husband went out to look, he was surprised too that it did not break. He then went to his garage and found some caulking, an we put it back in.
We were a little worried since this happened, but the couple were very happy, and so were we, as we charged enough to make a very good days pay for two!
Thanks for your reply
Does adding isopropyl to a pure water tank and circulating through a 12v pump for long term winterizing damage the seals, valves, and diaphragms in the pump? I think I’ve heard that ethanol damages plastics and rubbers so I wonder about other alcohols.
John, I know this is a super d post, but how did the denatured end up working for you?
Jesse
Atlas Window Cleaning
North Carolina
Jesse denatured alcohol works good.
Thanks Steve. I’ll try it out this winter.
Jesse
Atlas Window Cleaning
North Carolina
Damn. I’m glad I’ve in the south. It did get freezing cold last year and I added rain x bug remover windshield fluid. No issues with film. I guess because it’s made with pure water or something. Nonetheless it did not freeze. Bit it’s green.
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