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Waterline Antifreeze

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nothermark

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Oct 12, 2012, 2:23:55 PM10/12/12
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I was curious so I looked at the difference between the cheap stuff
and the high end. It seems the cheap stuff is a blend of Alcohol,
Water and Propylene Glycol. The expensive stuff is straight Propylene
Glycol. That has me wondering if anyone has heard of problems with
the alcohol in the cheap stuff.

dm_callier

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Oct 12, 2012, 2:52:44 PM10/12/12
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On Friday, October 12, 2012 11:23:56 AM UTC-7, nothermark wrote:
> I was curious so I looked at the difference between the cheap stuff and the high end. It seems the cheap stuff is a blend of Alcohol, Water and Propylene Glycol. The expensive stuff is straight Propylene Glycol. That has me wondering if anyone has heard of problems with the alcohol in the cheap stuff.

No
Message has been deleted

bill horne

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Oct 12, 2012, 5:02:11 PM10/12/12
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The cheap stuff (Dow) from Walmart doesn't list alcohol. But they're
probably lying, and it's got Chinese alcohol in it.

--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

nothermark

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Oct 12, 2012, 5:14:36 PM10/12/12
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On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:50:57 -0400, stan....@hotmail.com wrote:
>I've never heard of the alcohol mix; but the propylene is only $3 or so a gal. I must have picked up
>a really good buy on this stuff, since I still have 10 jugs of it in the garage.
>
>My Winnebago doesn't need antifreeze. It just needs to be blown out with a compressor. I would
>suspect that most rigs don't "need" antifreeze. When I do use it, I only use a gallon. The only
>observable advantage of using antifreeze over blowing out the lines, is that if you are heading out
>from north country in mid winter, your plumbing system is operative from the get go. If you just
>blow out the lines, it takes a full day on the road before the system has thawed enough to use the
>water pump and taps etal.
>
>A couple winters ago, I did a big boo boo. After blowing out the lines, I overlooked draining the
>water tanks. It was February before I noticed that the water tanks were still half full. Though I
>was expecting the worst, nothing bad happened. !

Not going down the blowout vs antifreeze issue as I just used 2 1/2
gal to do the new MH. I might modify what I do next year.

I'm not sure what prices are in Canada but the cheap blend is around
$3/gal in the US and the straight PG is $5.

nothermark

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Oct 12, 2012, 6:18:00 PM10/12/12
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On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:02:11 -0400, bill horne <red...@rye.net>
wrote:

>nothermark wrote:
>> I was curious so I looked at the difference between the cheap stuff
>> and the high end. It seems the cheap stuff is a blend of Alcohol,
>> Water and Propylene Glycol. The expensive stuff is straight Propylene
>> Glycol. That has me wondering if anyone has heard of problems with
>> the alcohol in the cheap stuff.
>
>The cheap stuff (Dow) from Walmart doesn't list alcohol. But they're
>probably lying, and it's got Chinese alcohol in it.

Interesting. Dow was not here. The cheap blend was Supertech for $3
and Prestone for $5. What are they getting there?

Will Sill

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Oct 12, 2012, 7:09:43 PM10/12/12
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On 10/12/12 5:02 PM, bill horne wrote:
> nothermark wrote:
>> I was curious so I looked at the difference between the cheap stuff
>> and the high end. It seems the cheap stuff is a blend of Alcohol,
>> Water and Propylene Glycol. The expensive stuff is straight Propylene
>> Glycol. That has me wondering if anyone has heard of problems with
>> the alcohol in the cheap stuff.
>
> The cheap stuff (Dow) from Walmart doesn't list alcohol. But they're
> probably lying, and it's got Chinese alcohol in it.

Maybe the kind he buys has impaired his typing?

Will


dm_callier

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Oct 12, 2012, 7:32:57 PM10/12/12
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On Friday, October 12, 2012 2:14:24 PM UTC-7, nothermark wrote:
>Not going down the blowout vs antifreeze issue as I just used 2 1/2 gal to do the new MH. I might modify what I do next year. I'm not sure what prices are in Canada but the cheap blend is around $3/gal in the US and the straight PG is $5.

If you blow out the lines before adding antifreeze, you might find that you use less antifreeze...

gregz

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Oct 12, 2012, 8:51:37 PM10/12/12
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I looked left, $3 , right, $5 . Went left.

Ran up to camp today, going to 25 tonight. Took off water filter,
regulator, turned. Heater on, few drops down drains. Going to be warm
coming up, but going winterized next week.

Greg

Tom J

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Oct 12, 2012, 9:52:06 PM10/12/12
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It sounds to me like you are using antifreeze like goes in the engine
radiator and if so it is poison and should not be used in water lines. You
should be using the pink stuff for drinkable water lines????? If that's what
you did you need to do a power flush as soon as possible!!

Tom J


Tom J

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Oct 12, 2012, 9:57:22 PM10/12/12
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If he is putting engine block antifreeze in his water lines as he seems to
be describing, more than his typing will be impaired!!! his whole body will
be impaired!!!

Tom J


bill horne

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Oct 12, 2012, 11:56:57 PM10/12/12
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I don't remember. I'll try to remember to check the next time I'm there.

Jan Orme

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Oct 13, 2012, 1:15:58 AM10/13/12
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe nm buys his waterline antifreeze on the advice of Dr.Menglele
and his engine block antifreeze on the advice of richard. But....still
doesn't know the difference. :::::sigh:::::

Jan

jerryosage

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Oct 13, 2012, 1:37:49 AM10/13/12
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On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:52:06 -0400, "Tom J" <tomn...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

>It sounds to me like you are using antifreeze like goes in the engine
>radiator and if so it is poison and should not be used in water lines. You
>should be using the pink stuff for drinkable water lines????? If that's what
>you did you need to do a power flush as soon as possible!!
>
>Tom J

Ethylene glycol is toxic and is what is used in automotive antifreeze.

Propylene glycol (The Pink Stuff) is used as a nontoxic antifreeze
for winterizing drinking water systems and in many food applications.

Jerry O.

ZEETA ZEE

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Oct 13, 2012, 8:02:11 AM10/13/12
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N-mark, you gotta quit drinkin' that cheap stuff. It's worse than
rotgut whiskey. Stick with good ole Jim Beam, Jack Daniels with Coors
Light as a chaser.

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 10:12:42 AM10/13/12
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Coor light eeeeeuuuuuuuwwwww ;-)

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 10:50:46 AM10/13/12
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On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:52:06 -0400, "Tom J" <tomn...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

I got curious again. Engine antifreeze at Autozone is $16/gal and
their blend is $14. There is a nice profit maker. Cut your
antifreeze 50% with water and drop the price $2. "But then you don't
need to mix with water". And folks ask how dumb other folks can be.
;-)

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 12:46:58 PM10/13/12
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There is a fairly good chance that your alcohol consumption exceeds
mine. ;-)

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 12:46:59 PM10/13/12
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Agreed. With a hard freeze coming and a bad hip, and the blowout
fitting somewhere in the stuff not yet sorted from the MH swap it made
more sense to use an extra gallon. Also used the extra I ran through
to load the traps. Next year I will at least pull two shower hoses
that ate a lot of stuff and are easy to drain.

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 12:46:59 PM10/13/12
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On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:52:06 -0400, "Tom J" <tomn...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

No. Both are RV/Marine antifreeze sold by Walmart. I got curious
over the $2 price difference and read the label.

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=RV+antifreeze&ic=16_0&Find=Find&indexId=13a4db6e44fc&cdnHost=search-cdn.walmart.com&searchdropdowndiv=com.wm.module.305715.constraint&search_constraint=0

The first two items come up as what I used.

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 12:47:00 PM10/13/12
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On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:57:22 -0400, "Tom J" <tomn...@earthlink.net>
wrote:
I'm not. Both are polypropylene glycol the food additive not
polyethylene glycol that cars used. The issue is they make the cheap
stuff by cutting the polypropylene glycol with water and alcohol.

Given the comments I have seen from folks here about alcohol in
gasoline I thought I would bring up what I found to see if anybody had
information.

From my perspective I might use the cheap stuff if I blew out the
system first. Pushing out water I would stay with the expensive. My
thought is a little water in the PP probably does not cause problems
as fast as water in the alcohol/water/PP mix.
Message has been deleted
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JB

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Oct 13, 2012, 6:39:31 PM10/13/12
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Not that this will apply to you directly, but some people who have
changed RVs in the past year would do good to check and see if the
have an outside shower and if so to make sure that it has been
winterized. I have heard of several individuals over the past year
who have mentioned that the first year they forgot and did not do it
and it cost them $$ to repair.

JB
Colorado Springs

nothermark

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Oct 13, 2012, 7:56:01 PM10/13/12
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And there is probably a quart in ours. I think I will look at a way
to cut that off before the valves so I can blow it out next year and
not worry about it. They are a very vulnerable device as there is no
insulation around the valve bodies and they are on an outside wall.

bill horne

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Oct 14, 2012, 12:28:04 AM10/14/12
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The only thing Walmart has today is Supertech for 3 bucks. The
ingredients are listed as:
ethyl alcohol
propylene glycol
water
potassium phosphate

It says it's good to -50, which is the same thing my older Dow says.

gregz

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Oct 17, 2012, 10:06:18 PM10/17/12
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Bubbles might be a problem.

I just read another method. Run antifreeze through, then blow out saving
antifreeze. Really work well doing multiple units.

Greg
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