Linus... Windshield Washer Fluid != Coolant

[DarkSwordsman]

*facepalm*

I'm sure if you used actual Coolant, or a 70/30 or 80/20 mix of water to actual coolant respectively, the temperatures would have been much better.
 

 

[AntiTrust]

lmao

[DarkSwordsman]

Actually, I didn't consider that Winshield Washer Fluid is likely alcohol based, so they probably used it on purpose... my bad.

[Guest]

But what about blinker fluid?

[TheGlenlivet]

Change the muffler bearing, while you're in there...

[trag1c]

And the piston return springs...

[Syntaxvgm]

Why's methanol not a coolant? Lol it was used in cars before antifreeze, but wasn't the best idea because of the corrosion it caused. 

 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

Why's methanol not a coolant? Lol it was used in cars before antifreeze, but wasn't the best idea because of the corrosion it caused. 

 

I think you just answered your own question, my friend.

[Syntaxvgm]

4 hours ago, Netivity said:

I think you just answered your own question, my friend.

but its a coolant still, corrosion or not. OP asked why linus used it and says it might have hurt temps nothing about corrosion, I'm pretty sure it performed just fine. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

but its a coolant still, corrosion or not. OP asked why linus used it and says it might have hurt temps nothing about corrosion, I'm pretty sure it performed just fine. 

Fair enough

[Razor Blade]

Possibly because with antifreeze it would lower the performance of the coolant. There must be a good reason since that washer fluid is a pretty expensive choice compared to other coolant choices.

[DarkSwordsman]

On 9/4/2018 at 8:24 PM, Razor Blade said:

Possibly because with antifreeze it would lower the performance of the coolant. There must be a good reason since that washer fluid is a pretty expensive choice compared to other coolant choices.

Note: THANK GOD for cookies/whatever LTT uses for saving state. I was writing this and accidentally closed the window, but my response was still here.

It's actually pretty cheap. A bottle of the RainX washer fluid they used is about $2.20 at my local Walmart. I actually use it on my car.

Here are two spec sheets. One for the washer fluid they used and the other for prestone antifreeze (just the solution, without water).

It seems that the washer fluid is really just water, isopropyl alcohol, and 2-butoxyethanol. Isopropyl alcohol is used as the main cleaning agent it seems based on the wiki article, "Isopropyl alcohol dissolves a wide range of non-polar compounds. It also evaporates quickly, leaves nearly zero oil traces". The 2-butoxyethanol seems to be mainly used because it has a sweet odor and is used as a surfactant, which according to this wikipedia page, are compounds that reduce surface tension.

To note: Also according to that article, Isopropyl Alcohol seems to be used to "preserve biological specimen", so it may not be the best cleaning solvent if you need to clean out your lines from small organisms forming.

For the antifreeze, Ethylene Glycol, 2-Ethyl Hexanoic Acid, Neodecanoic Acid, as well as Diethylene Glycol, are used. Ethylene Glycol is to reduce the freezing temperature. It seems (according to this article) that its freezing point of -12ºC can be lowered to around -45ºC if mixed 60% Ethylene Glycol and 40% Water. 2-Ethyl Hexanoic Acid also seems to be used to help reduce freezing temperature, as well as boiling. Neodecanoic Acid seems to be used to help prevent corrosion from the Ethylene Glycol and 2-Ethyl Hexanoic Acid. Finally, Diethylene Glycol seems to be a byproduct of Ethylene Glycol but turns out to be useful in preventing skin from freezing (for example, if you are handling antifreeze that is below 0ºC. 

Therefore, if it's an even 80/20 mix of water to antifreeze respectively (to approximately be the same as the washer fluid), then the antifreeze would technically be better for thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance.

It would be cool if they could do a test with the following:

80/20 - Water/Antifreeze
80/20 - Approximate pre-mix of (100%) Washer Fluid
80/10/10 - Water/Antifreeze/Washer Fluid
100% water

The 80/10/10 solution may be able to be done by mixing the 80/20 Water/Antifreeze with washer fluid and mixing them 50/50, unless they can get their hands on just pure washer fluid not pre-mixed. 

[Razor Blade]

3 minutes ago, DarkSwordsman said:

Note: THANK GOD for cookies/whatever LTT uses for saving state. I was writing this and accidentally closed the window, but my response was still here.

It's actually pretty cheap. A bottle of the RainX washer fluid they used is about $2.20 at my local Walmart. I actually use it on my car.

Here are two spec sheets. One for the washer fluid they used and the other for prestone antifreeze (just the solution, without water).

It seems that the washer fluid is really just water, isopropyl alcohol, and 2-butoxyethanol. Isopropyl alcohol is used as the main cleaning agent it seems based on the wiki article, "Isopropyl alcohol dissolves a wide range of non-polar compounds. It also evaporates quickly, leaves nearly zero oil traces". The 2-butoxyethanol seems to be mainly used because it has a sweet odor and is used as a surfactant, which according to this wikipedia page, are compounds that reduce surface tension.

To note: Also according to that article, Isopropyl Alcohol seems to be used to "preserve biological specimen", so it may not be the best cleaning solvent if you need to clean out your lines from small organisms forming.

For the antifreeze, Ethylene Glycol, 2-Ethyl Hexanoic Acid, Neodecanoic Acid, as well as Diethylene Glycol, are used. Ethylene Glycol is to reduce the freezing temperature. It seems (according to this article) that its freezing point of -12ºC can be lowered to around -45º if mixed 60% Ethylene Glycol and 40% Water. 2-Ethyl Hexanoic Acid also seems to be used to help reduce freezing temperature, as well as boiling. Neodecanoic Acid seems to be used to help prevent corrosion from the Ethylene Glycol and 2-Ethyl Hexanoic Acid. Finally, Diethylene Glycol seems to be a byproduct of Ethylene Glycol but turns out to be useful in preventing skin from freezing (for example, if you are handling antifreeze that is below 0ºC. 

Therefore, I would assume that antifreeze would actually be better in this cooling system than the washer fluid since it seems to be less corrosive and able to handle lower temps. 

In the use case shown in the video regular water would have been the best since they did not go below the freezing point of water. Adding ethylene glycol or propylene glycol in any amount will reduce the specific heat capacity of water.

[DarkSwordsman]

1 hour ago, Razor Blade said:

In the use case shown in the video regular water would have been the best since they did not go below the freezing point of water. Adding ethylene glycol or propylene glycol in any amount will reduce the specific heat capacity of water.

True, though the heat capacity change doesn't seem to be too drastic, especially if it's only 20-25%. If it were that they wanted to go subzero, then a 70/30 to 60/40 mix of Water/Antifreeze seems to be in their best interest.

Water has a heat capacity of 4.186 J/g. Here is something I found showing different mixes of antifreeze to water and their respective heat capacities. It seems a 75/25 mix at 4ºC (closest to 0ºC), is 3.82 J/g, and 60/40 is 3.54 J/g. Theoretically, if the speed of the pump is increased, then it may perform better since it could introduce a colder solution faster to compensate for the lower heat capacity.

I am wondering, though, if the reduced surface tension with Washer Fluid would reduce its effectiveness at cooling. 

Edit: It seems it's the opposite.

Also, sorry if anyone was notified because of the best answer. I pressed that by accident.

I would be interested to see if they could push the temperature down to -10ºC to -20ºC with that cooler since it's meant for much larger masses of water.