Should windshield washer fluid be diluted?

[rayray2]

Buddy of mine says you should dilute it with 50% water. I've never heard this before...antifreeze maybe, but not the blue stuff. Is he right? What's the word on the street?

 

[Anubis]

no

 

[Mermaidman]

Don't dilute if the temperature might drop to freezing or below.

 

[TallBill]

you can to save money.. but mines free anyways.. jiffy lube fills it up when i pay them to change my oil.

besides its like 3 bucks for a bottle that lasts months.

 

[Rubycon]

Well if you dilute the blinker fluid it makes your blinkers go faster - ask any ricer. Somewhere along the lines of:

Diluting the blinker fluid reduces the damping factor within the can so the bimetal strip has faster decay times and less bounce. The snap action is quicker causing a more rapid rate of breaking and re-engaging the circuit.

Diluting your washer fluid makes the windscreen slicker causing the load on the windscreen wipers to drop. The motors pull less amps during the monsoon season and you will save up to 25 milliliters of petrol over the life of the car!

Ok the OP prolly lives on Earth so...

Diluting makes a bottle go further however adding water makes it much more susceptible to freezing. The lines from the pump to the nozzles are quite thin and it does not take much water to freeze them. Nothing is more irritating than getting a splash on the windscreen and the washer fails to squirt, right?

 

[Britboy]

No. The stuff sold in the US is meant to be used as-is. They sell it in the UK in concentrate form, a far darker blue color, you have to add 50% water to that, a real pain in the ass on the garage forecourt.

 

[JulesMaximus]

100% is fine. You wouldn't want to dilute it if you live where the temps drop below freezing.

The stuff costs $.99 for a gallon. You'd have to be the cheapest motherfvcker on the planet to dilute washer fluid...

 

[Deleted member 4644]

May as well keep it at 100%. I think it might streak less that way too.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
100% is fine. You wouldn't want to dilute it if you live where the temps drop below freezing.

The stuff costs $.99 for a gallon. You'd have to be the cheapest motherfvcker on the planet to dilute washer fluid...

well, not entirely true... while deployed getting ahold of enough washer fluid was impossible.. plus water does the trick just fine.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
100% is fine. You wouldn't want to dilute it if you live where the temps drop below freezing.

The stuff costs $.99 for a gallon. You'd have to be the cheapest motherfvcker on the planet to dilute washer fluid...

well, not entirely true... while deployed getting ahold of enough washer fluid was impossible.. plus water does the trick just fine.

Sure in an area where it never gets below zero water is fine. Windshield washer fluid does clean windows better than water though.

 

[FoBoT]

only if you are a cheap skate

 

[YoshiSato]

The blue,green and pink stuff should be used 100%

For thoes that do not know
The Bule is every day stuff.
The pink stuff genearlly has rainX and some deicer mixed in

The green stuff is total crap. They say it's 5x stronger than the blue and has a "fresh pine sent" This stuff is just horrible. You can smell it through your AC vents and it's not a pleasent sent.

 

[WildHorse]

 

[thedarkwolf]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
100% is fine. You wouldn't want to dilute it if you live where the temps drop below freezing.

The stuff costs $.99 for a gallon. You'd have to be the cheapest motherfvcker on the planet to dilute washer fluid...

well, not entirely true... while deployed getting ahold of enough washer fluid was impossible.. plus water does the trick just fine.

Sure in an area where it never gets below zero water is fine. Windshield washer fluid does clean windows better than water though.

It only gets below freezing a few months a year. Rest of the time its water for me.

 

[Thegonagle]

That's OK if you're trying to cheap out and it never gets below freezing where you live.

But it is intended to be used at full strength.

 

[The Stigenator]

i thoguht those blue things say not to use it below 32F cuase it will freeze.. and i have seen it do so ..when i accidently hit it and it froze on to my windhield.. i had to deice it with the heater at high going at the window.

I use teh pink stuff in winter.. it works better.. no freezing as such. The green stuff is bugoff.. it takes bugs off real easy..

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: TheGoodGuy
i thoguht those blue things say not to use it below 32F cuase it will freeze.. and i have seen it do so ..when i accidently hit it and it froze on to my windhield.. i had to deice it with the heater at high going at the window.

I use teh pink stuff in winter.. it works better.. no freezing as such. The green stuff is bugoff.. it takes bugs off real easy..

Never squirt the blue stuff without the front defroster running in very cold weather.

The reason "blue stuff" freezes so quickly is because the "anti-freeze" in the solution is just plain isopropyl alcohol. Once it hits the windshield, it evaporates from the solution very quickly, leaving mostly water behind to freeze on the windshield.

 

[OrganizedChaos]

its alreadys diluted. the .99 blue stuff is 33% methanol, 66% water.

 

[conehead433]

Bought some of the green stuff with wax in it a while back and wasn't satisfied with the results. The wax seemed to actually reduce visibility. I'm sticking with the regular blue stuff now.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Britboy
No. The stuff sold in the US is meant to be used as-is. They sell it in the UK in concentrate form, a far darker blue color, you have to add 50% water to that, a real pain in the ass on the garage forecourt.

You can buy premix in the UK, too.


And we have phones now, and TV. And Street lamps.

 

[loic2003]

RTFM

It's written on the back of the bottle, do what it says. If there's no mention of diluting it, put it in neat. If there's mention of diluting it to a set concentration, decide which you need and act accordingly. Did you really need to post this on an internet forum? I'd be embarrased to ask.