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I bought some windscreen washer concentrate whilst I was there. A new line in that the fluid is colour coded for different ambient (freezing) temperatures they also have different smells - mine was a nice cherry whiff....how long do we have to wait for a child to drink a gob full mistaking it for cherry Coke...?
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Only if YOU are stupid enough to let them drink it!!
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Well it won't happen here !
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I read in their advertising blurb that it contains "Bitrex" the most bitter taste known to man. A child would not like the taste and the amount that they would drink would not harm them.
Maybe Halfords are not as stupid as you think, especially with their prices. :-)
tinyurl.com/q6y3xma (Halfords)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 24 Nov 13 at 15:36
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Trust you bought and have subsequently fitted those bulbs to the Fiesta while you were there ? Just knowing about that has been giving me indigestion for weeks now.
Edit - Having now read another thread I see you have at least bought them. Please say they are now in situ. I may have to come and do it myself soon...
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sun 24 Nov 13 at 15:44
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Ok Edit of edit. Just read your "Ford" thread now...
Feel better already.
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Do you mean one has to buy different fluids for different temperatures? Or that it is concentrate that changes colour and aroma at different dilutions?
The latter would be science-fiction clever. The former would be stupid - who wants a range of different fluids for the chuffing washer bottle?
I use the Holts concentrate, 10% for summer, 20% winter.
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I use blue, it matches the paintwork.
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>>who wants a range of different fluids for the chuffing washer bottle?
I know, that would be bonkers. Bit like changing your tyres around because it might snow on Wednesday, and again one day after Christmas and maybe one Friday night in mid-February.
;-)
( I've bought the strong stuff for the washer bottle mind )
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There are three colours/aromas.....all with different temperature ranges.
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I just buy cheapo Wilko stuff and mix it to suit. Am I missing something or is there an advantage to buying more expensive stuff?
I don't think I have ever had much issue with it freezing, the tank is right next to the radiator anyway so even if it does freeze it will soon melt.
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>> There are three colours/aromas.....all with different temperature ranges.
I'd noticed the different 'flavours' but not the temperatures. After checking supplies I find I'm using citrus - effective to -20. It was the only scent that I didn't retch at the thought of.
Seems over prone to smeariness compared with Halford's old recipe.
I try to avoid the 'ready to use' stuff on grounds of price and the environmental cost of shifting all that water around in lorries. OTOH it's cheap in Aldi and I can pick it up along with the other odds/sods when passing. Other than needing a bit of meths added for extra frost resistance it seems as effective as anything.
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I wish Lidl would stock their washer concentrate again soon, I need to stock up!
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i filled mine up straight from the container...i let it dilute when it hits the frost/snow on the windscreen
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When I used my car at 1am today I lifted the wipers off the screen and used the strong mixture of LIDL screenwash in the washers to defrost the windscreen. I do miss the Focus heated front screen.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 24 Nov 13 at 18:23
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Could idea that. If I am in a rush I have sometimes used luke warm water, I know it can increase the risk of the screen cracking but I have never had issues doing that.
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I wish, Grandbrat sitting. Not sure who was looking after who. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 24 Nov 13 at 18:31
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ALDI have ready to use at £1.99.
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>> I wish Lidl would stock their washer concentrate again soon, I need to stock up!
They have around here for a couple of weeks, gone up another pound though at £5.99 (was £3.99 3 years ago).
Thankfully last spring there was a load of concentrated pink stuff at wilkos with 75% off, so I bought 4 x 2.5l @ 1.25 each.
i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h455/Rover-75-Club/Misc/7ad66816.jpg
Last edited by: sooty tailpipes on Sun 24 Nov 13 at 20:47
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I use concentrated Fairy Liquid but do wonder why when I use it, I can never see out of my windscreen as the front of the car is covered in as sea of foam all the time. I was thinking of changing over to a biological laundry detergent to see whether that improves matters.
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Bad idea Oldgit. Don't you know Fairy has a lot of salt in it?
Try Stardrops, with a bit of Domestos in it.
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>> Bad idea Oldgit. Don't you know Fairy has a lot of salt in it?
>>
>> Try Stardrops, with a bit of Domestos in it.
>>
For many years I have carried a tiny bottle of fairy liquid to ensure I can get road film off the screen when the washers do not clear it.
Perhaps the salt is the reason my rear wheel arches have rusted :-)
Swop suds for bleach ??? :-(
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Salt in detergent is used to thicken the product in order to give the illusion of concentrated strength!
Many years ago I worked in the industrial soap manufacturing industry.
One of our products was a liquid detergent, which we made by tipping a few 40 gallon drums of Teepol (remember it anyone?) into a large vessel with a mixing paddle.
We then added an equal quantity of water which thinned it considerably. In went the salt to re-thicken it,: in went a yellow dye and in went bulk citronella to overcome the nasty smell.
Mix well, put into cans and there you are - a good profit for selling nearly 50% water at detergent prices.!
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"Classic" Fairy liquid is well and has been well regarded by motorcyclists for many years as an anti-fogging agent for visors, largely redundant now due to high tech pin-lock systems.
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>>Teepol (remember it anyone?)
Yep! - good stuff m8, I used to use it at work in the 70's.
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>> >>Teepol (remember it anyone?)
>>
>> Yep! - good stuff m8, I used to use it at work in the 70's.
>>
Me too. There was a "supplier" of this magic stuff and I used to get my container regularly refilled for a small fee.
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Teepol (remember it anyone?)
Remember it? - you can still buy it. Teepol make lots of useful stuff.
teepol.co.uk/?file=products/mpd.page
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...a good profit for selling nearly 50% water at detergent prices.
So how much additive do you get in a £1.99 bottle of 'ready to use' water - I mean screenwash?
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>> ...a good profit for selling nearly 50% water at detergent prices.
>>
>> So how much additive do you get in a £1.99 bottle of 'ready to use'
>> water - I mean screenwash?
>>
Hold on, I'll just go and do a Karl Fischer titration on mine. That Karl Fischer reagent was a nasty brew with its overwhelming odour of Pyridine - luvvly jubbly.
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I think its pointless to buy the ready-mix...I mix mine at home....water comes from the tap.
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Do homeopaths sell screenwash?
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Two grey paving slabs in a bar, a red paving slab walks in, "Don't upset him" says one of the grey slabs, "He's a cycle path"
Had to be done...
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I was lead to believe that by adding meths to the screenwash it eventually ended up smelling of cats pee.
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When I was in Germany in the 70s vodka was cheaper than proprietary screen wash but knackered one's wiper blades ISTR.
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I buy blue and pink and mix it in the tank to make a rather pleasant purple colour.
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>> Bad idea Oldgit. Don't you know Fairy has a lot of salt in it?
Does it? IIRC that was discussed here before and the conclusion was it doesn't?
Anyone tried dishwasher detergent? I believe it's non-foaming and quite powerful. I've heard of it being put into cooling systems after head gasket failure to clean the oil out.
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>> >> Bad idea Oldgit. Don't you know Fairy has a lot of salt in it?
>>
>> Does it?
Well it has some. Quite how much is anyone's guess.
www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/behind_the_label/268721/behind_the_label_fairy_liquid.html
So what’s really in the bottle? No one outside the P&G labs really knows. The ingredients label is woefully inadequate (see above) and P&G told us to find what we were looking for on the internet. After an extensive web search we did indeed find some - but not all - information on the components that make up Fairy Liquid.
• Aqua
• Sodium laureth sulphate
• Alcohol denat
• Lauramine oxide
• C9-11 pareth-8
• Sodium chloride (commonly known as salt)
• 1,3-Cyclohexanedimethanamine
• PPG (polypropylene glycols)
• Dimethyl aminoethyl methecrylate/hydroxyproply acrylate copolymer cirate
• Parfum
• Geraniol
• Limonene
• Colourant
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But isn't there tonnes and tonnes of salt on the roads as well ?
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Oh heck, I think OG was being droll and I replied in kind.
Serious point on the salt though. Yes there's salt on the roads but mixing it with a wetting agent (washing up liquid) will get it into every tiny cranny.
For the avoidance of doubt I do not recommend Domes-tos.
I've had no bother for years while using Holts screenwash.
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Being slightly obsessive about "stuff" like this I would never, ever use washing up liquid to in my windscreen washer mix.
Had to laugh (thread drift alert) - I dropped into a second hand bike gear shop down the coast on Saturday - really low rent place but a treasure trove for the odd bit of motor-cycling retro. The owner was an older, street-wise type. As I was browsing another chap entered and mentioned he'd managed to de-frost his car windscreen...." With what ?" queried the crusty shop-keeper - "Oh" the other not so crusty oldster replied "WD40"......"WD40 ??? - You Cock" - brilliantly funny...
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Back in my youth, stupid, Land Rover owning, unable to justify/afford screenwash when it ate into beer money, otherwise a bit skint, most weekends skiing at Aviemore days, we used to wee on our windscreens to de-ice them. Had to build up a bit of pressure to get to the Defender screen (or stand on the wing). Guess that's why it had lorry plate panels on top of them.
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>> we used to wee on our windscreens
Done that to top up a radiator. Careful not to touch anything hot and it don't arf pong when you empty it.
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Do I have to own up and reveal my tongue in cheek reply?
Trust me, I am/was an Industrial Research/Analytical Chemist for over 37 years.
Incidentally a dear cousin on mine used to, in the late '50s/60s, wash his Riley Kestrel and other cars of that time, using a bucket of hot water containing one of the powder laundry detergents of the time. His shiny white car soon became matt and developed a lot of rust behind all those wretched bits of chrome trim.
Last edited by: Oldgit on Mon 25 Nov 13 at 15:49
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>> Do I have to own up and reveal my tongue in cheek reply?
Not at all...maybe I should have suggested a dash of Henderson's Relish along with the Stardrops and Domes-tos.
Apart from purpose made glass cleaner, meths is probably as good as anything for shifting resistant greasy film.
It's only happened three or four times here in a dozen years, but on those occasions we have noticed a smell of paraffin and that greasy business on the windscreens. I put this down as something to do with the planes going into Luton, which pass over us at about 3000ft when the wind direction puts us on the approach. Why they should leak, or chuck the stuff out, I have no answer for. On the worst occasion, one damp winter week, it actually made the roads noticeably slippery.
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>> Why they should leak, or chuck the stuff out, I have no answer for.
Engines at full throttle often chuck out some unburnt fuel. If the throttle is then suddenly closed or partially closed they chuck out even more. Carburetted cars used to do it, a puff of white smoke during gear changes wasn't smoke but a cloud of petrol droplets.
Take-off paths out of airports are always sprinkled with paraffin. A friend spun his BMW under acceleration on the Paris-Brussels motorway where it passes CDG airport, in the rain which whips the dry paraffin in the road surface into a nice slippery amalgam. He was lucky not to be hurt as the car rolled as well, ending up facing the wrong way on the verge.
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>>Take-off paths out of airports are always sprinkled with paraffin
>>
Sure are. When I worked near Heathrow, that was when I started carrying a tiny bottle Fairy Liquid as screen wash on its own did not work.
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>> >>Take-off paths out of airports are always sprinkled with paraffin
Probably lucky we are on the western approach and more than 10 miles away. We don't usually get the departures when the wind is the other way.
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Halfords Stupid ?? - jc2
