60 below or 100 below?

B

buckeye

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Dec 30, 2002
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I store outdoors in Michigan. I have always used the 100 below anti freeze formula. Am I wasting my money? Is 60 below sufficient?
 
Have you ever even seen 60 below there? I doubt it, and wind chill has no effect on freeezing things in your boat because there is no "wind" where those things live. I think 60 below would be adequate at the North Pole! What freeze point do you keep your car radiators at up there?
 
Buckeye, it depends upon what I am winterizing. If you can't get all the water out, then the lower temp stuff will be diluted and freeze sooner. Good luck
 
Here in Ohio on the south shore of Lake Erie I have always used the 60 below and had good results. Get as much water out as you can and don't spare the anti-freeze.
 
Maybe but

OTOH that -60 rating is for bursting copper pipe. If your filling plastic fittings with it the temperature is conciderably higher IIRC. And then if there is water mixed with it that temperature rises even more.
 
At -20 ambient, the marine/rv pink is already a slushie. But it's hard freeze point is -50. The purple is -60.

Wind chill is for human skin, or other organics. Metal, be it in cars, boats, trucks, starts misbehaving at -25 or colder...simply because it's friggin cold and metal's physical properties change at those temps. Sh!t breaks at extreme cold temps. Watch any episode of "Ice Road Truckers"...lowest ambient temp I saw was about -48.

Marine/RV AF rated to -50/-60 (pink/purple respectively) will do you just fine.
 
I use the -100, yeah it's 2x the price of the -60 but if some water does not drain, you are better protected. Also, the -60 starts to slush at 7 degrees, that's cutting it a little close for comfort, even though we rarely see below 15 here, I like to sleep well all winter!
 
I'm with LouC...I live in Maryland and run straight -100 thru my RWC inboards. Of course it's overkill and I could save a few bucks a gallon by using -50 or -60 ... and even more by mixing 50/50 with water but I want to sleep peacefully at night when it's real cold out.

The way I look at it a few dollars extra on antifreeze is still cheaper than a cracked block.

Last winter I actually mixed some -50 with water at different dilutions and put them in my freezer and then outside when the temps dropped ....OKAY, I was bored... but anyway I was surprised by how quickly the weaker mix started to freeze up.
 
I put a gallon of un-diluted -60 in the freezer back when I was first learning how to winterize, and it slushed up pretty hard and even tho they say it wouldn't crack cast iron, that hard plastic gallon container did not inspire confidence. For a couple of seasons I mixed up 60/40 proplyene glycol AF (used the marine stuff) and had to use a proplyene glycol antifreeze checker to make sure it was right (they are hard to find BTW). Then I realized it is just less trouble, maybe a bit more money just to buy the -100 stuff and be done with it. And yes, just for fun I use the PG antifreeze checker and the -100 does give freeze protection down to -60.
 
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