WARNING: Tesco windscreen waher fluid

[nannyL]

just had to share this

today while on the motorway at about 1830 (so NOT super early morning or middle of night etc) i washed my windscreen while on the motorway and it froze

it was really really really scarey (i had a little line about an inch wide and 6 inches long to see out of) and with my air blowers on full and wipers on super fast mode (to generate friction) it took nearly a MILE to be able to see again

i had put the washer fuid in 2 weeks ago and it was in their UNDILUTED (and tank was empty to is completley undiluted)

it was the most frightening thing ever, and i have now squirted the whole lot out and replaced it with halfords...
bear in mind i am in hampshire (NOT the arctic) and was less than 10miles away from the sea / south coast at the time

while i appreciate it was definitley a cold day, i do not think that my NEAT washer fluid should have frozen like that

it was the 'tesco normal' washer fluid

if anyone is using it i would seriously consider replacing it with another type in case the same thing happens to you

IME all screen washes(diluted)freeze on the screen in icy/freezing conditions. It is fluid. Although I've never gotten around to trying it, I've been told that putting a squirt of washing up liquid in the screen wash tank along with the screen wash and water stops it freezing up. Also, if you get a spray bottle, fill with about half water/vinegar and spray your car windows before leaving your car for the day, it stops the windows from freezing up over night.

Glad you are ok, it must've scared you.

Surely it will freeze thugh as its fuild.? .
Not sure what this thread is getting at..?

I use washer fludi from asda (pink girly stuff) and it also freezes..I never thought anything bad though tbh. Just thought, oh its cold as its frozen..

atm I have a bottle of water in the car so should I be on the motorway etc and the windscreen gets full of grime/grit from the roads and the washer fluid is frozen then I have water to chuck over my windscreen.

EITHER that or spit on it

if it was normal washer fluid why are you expecting it to not freeze up? You need the anti freeze stuff.

would have also thought it a good idea to stop on hard shoulder ASAP rather than drive for a mile with a limited view

it was the antifreeze stuff

was the tesco normal brand as opposed to value or finest

as for stopping i seriously considered it but concluded that as i couls sort of see the cars that were going past me and had nothing in front of me, but couldnt see the crash barrier on the hard shoulder, and i would have eitehr hit it trying to stop, or been too far away and got runover on a motorway that i was safer keeping going, all be it more slowly, knowing there were no cars in front of me.(and no junctions coming up for cars to join)

if its cold throwing plain water over the windscreen will freeze... even more so than washer fluid that is designed not to freeze

fluid doesnt = freezing at 0C... just think of saline solutoion or alcohol... there are loads of fluids that remain liquid at 0C

So was it undiluted in your washer tank? you hadn't added water to it?

YES

completey undiluted... (and when i fileld it the tank was empty... not even any diluted stiff for it to mix with!)

(thats why i really didnt expect it to freeze!)

Since I was a young rep I've always followed some advice I was given way back then and used a cap of FLASH instead of screen wash. It works just as well, never freezes and won't damage paintwork.

nanny I think that is worth an email to Tesco to see what they have to say

But surely if you didn't dilute it as you are supposed to, you have no comeback with Tesco or anyone else. You are supposed to dilute it. It says so on the bottle doesn't it? or have they changed it since I bought the Tesco's one? How is it worth an email?!

you drove a mile on a motorway in the dark with a 1 x 6 inch line to see out of? Forget Tescos, you are, quite frankly, an idiot and could easily have caused a serious accident. Better a bumped bumper on the hard shoulder than that.

in my experience, all washer stuff freezes i this kind of eeather

you can dilute it but in extream cold weather they recommend you dont dilute it, so i didnt.

you dont have to dilute it. you can if you want to make it go further, but the more you dilute it the warmer it freezes, and for extream winters they say u can use it undiluted so i did

i could sort of see a bit.. see enough to see there was nothing in front of me, as i could see the cars as they went past, just blurily.. and culd see them blurily in the distance, but its a A-M road that turns into just an A road... started on the M motorway bit as was just before it changed, i was then on an A road without a hard shoulder to stop on and didnt fancy stopping with half my car in the carageway and getting out, when i culd see enough to know there where no cars in front of me and i knew therer were no junctions coming up either.

not ideal obviously but i honestly felt it was safer, then stopping abd veing hit and being killed

So was it the concentrate nannyL or ready mixed? ready mixed you don't add water to, but concentrate you do.

I was just asking DH (science teacher) about the water/vinegar thing he reckons it won't work because vinegar freezes at minus 2.

Alchohol freezes at much lower temperatures though, any one keep their voddy in the freezer? Which is what anti-freeze is essentially. So cheap household meths or MrT's finest value vodka might work.

we have never had problems with tesco windscreen wash nor with tesco antifreeze windscreen wash

i just dug out our bottle, its tesco concentrated screenwash with antifreeze. you ARE supposed to dilute

not sure exactly which one it was as i threw the bottle away...

but it was definitley one that wasnt supposed to freeze and you had to dilute it a certain amount for summer, a less amount for winter and use neat for 'extream winter' and i used it neat, as i figured it was forecast to be quite cold!