Permanent antifreeze

[Gordon Maney]

Regarding ethylene glycol, permanent antifreeze, has anyone ever seen anything published about shelf life?

I am curious if it has an indefinite shelf life, or if there is some point where the chemistry of it starts to change and it would not be good to use anymore.

Any thoughts on this?

[MoparNorm]

Hi Gordon,

I do not know what the shelf life is but I do know that it weakens over time in a radiator. My military motor pool in Berlin, Germany would periodically test the PH of the coolant, apparently there is a direct correlation between it's ph and it's ability to protect the coolant from freezing.

Once below a certain point, it would have to be replaced. Unfortunately my time worn brain cannot recall what that scale was and what the point of rejection was either.

[Gordon Maney]

I know that in service it will decline in quality, including depletion of additives such as water pump lubricant. I am just not sure if it degrades when not in use, stored in a bottle.

I made the mistake of running antifreeze too long in a tractor once, and.... at least it seemed to me this was caused by the antifreeze, there was a thick buildup in the tubes, somewhere between a gelatin and a crystal. Evil stuff.

[MoparNorm]

Ditto,
Without the water, metals and air, the bottle is a better environment for storage, just don't have a clue as to how long that is, probably a year or two is OK, after that probably all you have is pretty colored water.
MN

[Matt Wilson]

One thing to add to the conversation: About 8 or 10 years ago, I had a college professor who was big into hot-rodding, and he told me that the secret to getting your radiators to last a long, long time is to use distilled water (along with anti-freeze, of course). I guess the distilled water eliminates the problem with galvanic (i.e., bi-metallic) corrosion that occurs and clogs up the radiator tubes. I haven't tried it myself, and I don't know why not, but I am going to try to make that a standard part of my cooling system maintenance.


Matt

[vbfadmin]

I agree with using distilled water in the antifreeze mix; it is also a good idea to use distilled water in a battery too if low and battery acid is not available. From what I have read, if the antifreeze product is still in the original sealed container, then it has a shelf life of many years. But it is recommended that antifreeze be used within one year of purchase. Some say no more than 3 years in sealed container. I would only mix what you're going to be using and shelve only the full strength product.