Hey guys,
I was checking to see what you guys in the cold weather states are using in your water or on your strip washers to prevent ice build up on the glass when the temps are below 20 ish. Right now we are using windshield washer fluid or methol alcohol/metholine and we are just pouring it onto the strip washer. Is there a more effective way to do this? I feel like we are pouring the additive all over the ground and being very wasteful. I am thinking maybe a seperate bucket that holds the windshield washer fluid or metholine. What are you guys using? And are you adding it to your water or is there a different method?
Thanks for the help.
Eric
Skip the water and just use total windshield washer fluid.
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I add enough methanol to keep my solution from freezing. I put that solution in a bottle I carry on my tool belt. When I find an area where I need more antifreeze I can simply add more methanol to my bottle and increase it’s effectiveness. I use less methanol this way and I can adjust the antifreeze volume in small batches.
I use methanol because the windshield washer fluid has terrible soap and that crummy blue dye.
We use rubbing alcohol added to our water. Use about 1 cup of alcohol to 1 gallon of your cleaning solution. This will keep the water from freezing to about 0 degrees F. Use more if it is colder than that.
Keeping your mixture in a bucket will help cut down waste since you can let the excess go back into the bucket. Unfortunately dirt from the mop will cut down the life of your mixture, so you’ll be shelling out more for supplies. But it’s better to still make pretty decent money than to just throw in the towel when cold weather comes.
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I should add that I don’t put my strip washer in my bucket anymore. I add solution w/ my bottle as needed.
Freezing temps don’t last more than a day or two so I just wait for it to warm up!
The only outside activity I do when it’s freezing is fish. A nice cold front really stacks the speckled trout up in the deep canals.
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when I was living in the north, I used to mix the meth in the water in a closed container and left it in a large tote container. I would wrap the water container in electric heat tape so it would not freeze in the truck. I only use about 1/2 gallon of water at a time and pour the warm water when I needed it.
When I am carrying gallons of water in a tank, I put a livestock “pond” heater I bought from the tractor supply store into the tank and plug it into the power supply box in the truck.
Growing up on a farm had its advantages…well, except when I had to get out before sunup and cut holes in the pond with an axe so the cows and horses could drink out in the field
If you are going to use any of these chemicals to keep water from freezing don’t forget to wear some gloves. That stuff can be nasty on the skin.
I use windshield wiper fluid. It depends on how cold it gets. Sometimes you can mix it 50/50 with water and it won’t freeze. You can sort of adjust as the temp do and I try and use as much water as possible. I also change my methods and carry a gallon of water/WWFluid around with me and pour on the washer as needed. If you’re careful you won’t be wasteful. I absolutely hate spending money if it’s not needed so I’m real careful when pouring it on my mop.
If you have employees you make some sort of incentive to use less wiper fluid. When I worked for FISH we had an employee who would pour 2 gallons in the bucket, work like half a day and then dump everything, and do the same thing the next day. I could use 2 gallons and it would last me all week. If it’s super cold I just use plain wiper fluid. I even put a few drops of soap in because washing with straight fluid sucks (no glide).
I’m just up the road from you in Billings, I use Rubbing Alcohol. $2.49 a quart at Walmart. I pour a quart in with my regular water/soap solution, and test it, if it freezes, I’ll pour more in, test again until it stops freezing. ONLY for outsides. Keep a separate bucket and washer for insides because that Isopropyl stuff really stinks up a place, that being said, I still prefer that smell to the smell of methyl or denatured.
Also, I’m at home on the internet instead of working, so there’s that to think about…
We use a mixture of windshield fluid, water, and GG3. If the weather is below 20 degrees F we use only windshield fluid and your typical amount of GG3.
We are starting to get into winter here, the temp today was below 20 degrees with 20 mile an hour wind.
The wind is the other thing. I can clean windows when it is 0 if the sun is out and no wind. The winter wind is what will sideline this company. The ice cold wind makes cleaning exterior windows impossible.
Just wondered? but has anyone tried just using a scraper? 
They don’t make 'em with 18" blades yet, do they?
It was -18c (-0.4F) this morning
just used the regular mix of gg4, but added about 600mls of methyl hydrate too two gallons of water
Seemed just fine? except when then wind really picked up…so i added another glug glug to the bucket and all was well 
Funny you ask that. Yes when I have overestimated the temp, the windows actually look pretty clean after scraping the ice off.
I’m only a fair weather window cleaner, but I do remember years a go in the UK - scraping the ice off with a 4" & touching up with a scrim.
That’s what I use most of the time. The colder it is the more you need but also if you leave it on the window too long it evaporates then the water freezes.
Just following up here.
I have been using Methanol mixed 50/50 with water. So far it has been working great. The past few days we have had air temps of 10 to -5 with wind chills reaching -20. We kept washing windows but had to mix the methanol water mix stonger. This seems to be the best that I have found thus far. I think the 55 gallon drum of it was about $155. That is not to bad when I see how far it got me.
Glad its working out for you.
