Thick antifreeze

my3sons

my3sons

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2009
3,046
Western NY (Lake Erie)
Boat Info
2004 400DB, Onan 9 kw Generator, Highfield RIB,
Engines
Cummins 6CTA M-3
Not working today, My crews are inside protecting their flesh from this mini blizzard we are having, there are driving bans, and I decided to stay put. I was posting with Converse48 about winterizing things and it made me think about the a/f that is out in the garage. I had a few unopened jugs of pink left over, and the samples that I pulled from the systems on the boat. I grabbed the IR gun and the camera and in case anyone cares, here's what I found. The temperature outside is 15 below, the temperature inside my unheated garage is 9 below. And yes, the labeling on the a/f bottle is correct, the pink (-50) stuff turns to a solid at that temperature. It isn't frozen enough to cause trouble...yet, but maybe a few more degrees colder and, well it does say the "danger Zone" is -10 and under. "breaks plastic pipes at -12". I am not sure, but I bet this cold snap is going to test it out. The pink would not pour out of the bottle, so I squeezed some out onto the bench, kind of the consistency of those frozen treats, freezie pops, I think they are called. I did not have any -60 left over in jugs, but that is what I run through my mains and genny motors, and I always catch a sample of it when I am done winterizing. The minus 60 stuff is holding up better than the pink, as I guess it should, it is still a liquid, it looks like thickened grape juice. I thought about putting it in the freezer to see if it would get harder, but it's about the same temperature outside as in my deep freeze in the basement, so I guess that's the end of the experiment. Here's a couple pics. Stay warm folks.
DSC_0014_zpsacc0b08a.jpg
DSC_0016_zps916a0840.jpg
DSC_0017_zpscf30db23.jpg
DSC_0018_zpsf9748f18.jpg
 
Very interesting.
 
Good info and, yes, that is exactly how the AF is supposed to respond to cold. It turns slushy, but does not start to expand until it gets to it's rated temp. We carry the Camco line at the store and, unless I've missed it, I don't recall seeing a danger zone on the label, so I don't know what's up with that. But, the info about expansion originally came from my rep. Good experiment, though!
 
I once forgot to de-winterize my ice maker on a previous boat and discovered that the -50 pink stuff would form ice cubes… But, they were soft, chalky kind of ice cubes that you could easily break by squeezing them. Further proof of Dennis' point above. It can freeze, but won't freeze enough to hurt anything until it gets really, really cold!
 
This fall I couldn't find the pink with anti corrosives so I got the purple stuff, which I believe was -70*. The fresh water systems got the pink RV stuff. 7* outside when I woke up this morning.
 
yeah makes me wonder about my plastic fixtures and such on the boat for sure. We had a low of -15°... Come on spring and I hope I don't roll snake eyes. Great photos and info thanks for sharing!
 
Thanks Mark for the post. I was thinking about the same thing last night. I used -60 for the engines so I feel a bit better. Crazy weather this year.
 
I am curious what my bilge temperature is with the bilge heater in it. I am assuming with it being -10 the bilge is probably 20 or so degrees warmer.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Good info and, yes, that is exactly how the AF is supposed to respond to cold. It turns slushy, but does not start to expand until it gets to it's rated temp. We carry the Camco line at the store and, unless I've missed it, I don't recall seeing a danger zone on the label, so I don't know what's up with that. But, the info about expansion originally came from my rep. Good experiment, though!
Click to expand...
I know that some places up in northern NY used to just drain everything for fear of breaking things with the minus 50 stuff. I think My boats have made it through -15 outside air before with this stuff in the water lines no problem, it just doesn't usually get that cold here. Here is the label on the -50 jug.
DSC_0019_zps5948a68d.jpg
 
Interesting. I still don't completely understand what they mean by danger zone, though. Unless they're using that as a CYA thing to cover themselves against a person not doing the winterization process properly, such as not draining all the water out.

Regardless, you'll be fine. We've only ever used the -50* stuff and we do about 400 winterizations a year. I've been working at Peters Marine for 16 years and we have never had a burst problem. It's cold out, but we've certainly been this cold before.
 
That's cool. Stuff. How do you receive the info? Wifi?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
Rick, are you running a heater?
Otherwise how is is 69.1* in the cabin?

On a side note, I got my Dad one of these Accurite set ups for Christmas. He loves sitting in Florida and seeing how cold it is in Rock Hall.
 
What effect, if any, does the TV-News-Weather-Man-Creation known as "WIND CHILL," have on the freezing of this stuff?

This has come up before and I don't recall if there was any scientific answer - just a lot of opinion and conjecture.
 
rondds said:
What effect, if any, does the TV-News-Weather-Man-Creation known as "WIND CHILL," have on the freezing of this stuff?

This has come up before and I don't recall if there was any scientific answer - just a lot of opinion and conjecture.
Click to expand...

Wind chill is something we, as humans, feel because of the rapid evaporation of moisture on our skin from the air blowing over it. We will "feel" a temperature below ambient. Inanimate objects will cool down quicker because of the wind, but the surface temp of an inanimate object will never drop below ambient. As far as the boat is concerned, ambient/actual temp is the only thing to worry about.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Wind chill is something we, as humans, feel because of the rapid evaporation of moisture on our skin from the air blowing over it. We will "feel" a temperature below ambient. Inanimate objects will cool down quicker because of the wind, but the surface temp of an inanimate object will never drop below ambient. As far as the boat is concerned, ambient/actual temp is the only thing to worry about.
Click to expand...
Excellent answer!
I've always pondered that myself.
 
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