screen washer solution

Eh?

Here's my method:

Top up using either the water at the petrol station or from a 5 gallon bottle I keep in the boot for topping up either the washer fluid or the header tank.

Who said anything about difficult? It takes time that's all. Ready-mixed stuff goes straight in the bottle before I even drive the car out of Halfords' car park. It's around 30 seconds from pulling the bonnet catch to driving away. With concentrate, I can't do it until I get home, then I have to go and fetch water from the house, finding something to put it in on the way. Whatever container I get is always too small, so I have to do the trip about three times. The washer bottle is hidden behind an inner wing, so I can't tell how much it needs and I have to bugger about mixing it a bit at a time. My pre-school kids always need to "help" etc. etc. etc. Believe me, for the sake of a couple of extra quid, I'll take ready-mixed every time.

Cheers,

Colin.

The message from Colin Stamp contains these words:

Ah, my time isn't precious.

Yep. 5 minutes as opposed to 30 seconds sounds about right at a guess, assuming all goes well with mixing the concentrate, which often isn't the case.

I'm afraid I don't apply any planning whatsoever to keeping my washer bottle full (and I have to say I don't feel at-all unusual in this respect). As a result, I end up wasting precious minutes over your well-honed procedure, more than wiping out the price difference between ready-mixed and concentrate. I like to think I make some of the money back anyway by not having to haul 5 gallons of screenwash-standby-water everywhere I go.

Cheers,

Colin.

How can anything go wrong?

You're just pouring it into the washer bottle, ffs!

You *should*, especially in this weather, have some sort of backup in case you need to fill the bottle. I generally ensure all of our fleet at least have a litre of washer fluid and a 2 or 5lt bottle of water in the boot.

Which is a bit shit if you need to top up the coolant.

Asda do a gallon for £3

You want a list? Here's a few that've happened to me in the past.

1. You can't find/have trouble finding a container for the water (No.1 timewaster this - normally good for at least an extra 3-5 minutes).
2. Your three-year-old son catches you in the act and needs to "help". Doesn't happen that often, but if it does, add half an hour for the job, and ten minutes for a change of toddler clothes.
3. You mis-judge, and end up completely filling up the bottle with plain water. You need a hdden-under-the-inner-wing washer bottle for this to happen, and a syphon-pump to sort it out properly - add twenty minutes, fifteen of which are to find the pump.
4. You absent-mindedly read something like "dilute to 10%" on the bottle in the shop and buy nothing like enough, since it turns out it needs to be "50% for winter conditions". As you can't do the job in the shop car-park, you don't get to find this out until you get home - double the time for the job since you can now only half-fill the bottle.

I bet there's a few others that I'll be lucky enough to find out about in the future too, but you get my point. None of these is a major catastrophe, but they all add to the time taken - time I resent giving up.

I guess your diligence in the planning and execution of screenwash replenishment makes you immune to all of these problems but I, like a lot of other people, am all too susceptible.

My car tells me when it's getting low and I fill it up whilst it runs lower. i.e. I do carry backup screenwash, but it's in the washer bottle along with all the normal screenwash.

Cheers,

Colin.

I think they've done that with the water dispenser in my company canteen.

Cheers,

Colin.

See that big plastic / metal thing in the kitchen that boils water to make cups of tea?

Found it?

There you go..... one made for the purpose container.

Radical idea. Pour a non-specific quantity of concentrate in first, then fill with water.

Doesn't matter. I tend to empty a 1lt bottle of concentrate in there no matter what the bottle says.

You must have a very busy life if 30-60 seconds extra to fill up a washer bottle is worth nearly a fiver to you.....

Well, no. I just apply a little common sense.

Obviously, I must use mine more often than you as once the light comes on, I often don't even make it home on what's left.

Also note Astravanman's point about topping up your coolant. You never know when you might have to..... I've learned from bitter experience that it's worth keeping at least a couple of litres of water in a container in the boot 'just in case'.

If it's got a warning light then it's even easier - look in handbook to find out capacity of screenwash reservoir (write it somewhere handy, like on the screenwash filler cap with permanent pen, and you won't forget it), wait for warning light to come on (normally gives a reasonable amount of notice), pop to garage, buy concentrate (if you've got none in a bottle in the car already), put the appropriate amount of neat concentrate in, and keep on topping up with water until it starts to overflow a bit. Then stop. Job done.

And stand it, connector-down, in the mud or the wet grass whilst I'm buggering about with concentrate? I'd rather not thanks.

It's made for a purpose alright - just not *that* purpose.

Well I know that *now*, but I can't pretend it didn't happen. Perhaps if I'd put as much thought into my screenwash as you obviously have, I'd have ponced around for much longer trying to make sure didn't make any schoolboy errors. Alas, I didn't and a major over-dilution incident occurred. It's a miracle that no-one was seriously hurt.

So, for all the farting around mixing the stuff up, you still either risk the thing freezing up or waste some of the money you were trying to save.

I haven't taken any figures (my life is too busy), but I'll bet the cost difference is much less and the time difference is much more.

So do I. I buy ready-mixed, and hang the expense. I'm just that outrageously extravagant.

I used to drive cars that needed that kind of backup. Not any more. My car is no more likely to suddenly need water than it is to suddenly need any one of hundreds of other things. I carry no spares, beyond a tyre (and I can't remember the last time I needed one of those). I must just like living life on the edge.

Cheers,

Colin.

My method is even easier still - Remain blissfully ignorant of screenwash capacity. Write "I couldn't give a toss how big this bottle is" on the screenwash filler cap. Do no waiting at-all for the warning message and have it just turn up one day. Manually cancel the message each time you start the car for about a fortnight. Visit shops that sell screenwash several times during this period without remembering to buy any. Eventually buy some ready-mixed screenwash and dump it into the bottle. Job done.

Cheers,

Colin.

I've only ever needed water twice. Once in the newest car I'd owned - only 2.5 years old at the time, and the second time was when I hadn't learned the lesson from the first time, so ended up paying a few quid out for expensive mineral water to top it up.

I don't advocate carrying a bootload of spares and tools, but water is something I'd consider an essential.

The message from Colin Stamp contains these words:

No, but since my job /is/ bringing up a three year old I consider it time well spent.

Buy 2 bottles, leave one in the shed. Pour whatever amount of screenwash into the tank (VW were nice enough to print "4L" on the top of the bottle, and make it so you can see it), then top up with water. If it's winter, I'll need half a bottle, and I can fill the rest up with water to have it ready mixed next time...

Certainly is, but for the sake of this argument, that time comes straight out of my screenwash budget ;o)

Cheers,

Colin.

I'm willing to take the risk in the interests of improved acceleration ;o)

Cheers,

Colin.

That still needs far more planning and general brain-power than I can possibly afford to allocate to my screenwash arrangements.

Cheers,

Colin.