Products Freezing In Car

C

CharlesW

The Rainmaker
Anyone know the freezing points of some of the detailing products we use? What I am curious about is the likelyhood of a product freezing, breaking the container, and making one big mess.

Some of the products and my thoughts.

QEW = Not good, mostly water

APC+ = Not good, another mostly water mix

Platinum UPP = Enough mineral spirits to keep it from freezing?

AIO = I have no idea

S100 = Still no idea

FI = No idea

Platinum Gloss Enhancer = No idea



The QD's would be the products I would most like to keep at least one of in the car.



0 degrees fahrenheit to -10 or -20 is possible, although most of the time 10 to 20 degrees above 0 is more common.

Any thoughts?



Charles
 
When I Have Products In The Car, I Keep them in A Big Box With A Lid, So It Is Less Of A Concern About Mess, But A Concern About Products Being Affected By The Freezing. Some Products Will Not Be As Effective After Freezing, And Thats Why I Try To Always Take My Stuff Inside.
 
I kept my products in the trunk one winter. Not a good idea. Even if they don't freeze completely they will expand slightly. In my case they expanded enough to pop some lids off and really make a mess of things. My wheel cleaner suffered as did my QDs. I don't think that AIO froze but SG got a little thicker. My Absorber was definatly not a good thing to leave in the trunk. That thing was a block of ice all winter. Carnauba waxes in a jar should be fine. Blackfire was fine.



What I have done now is just keep a bottle of GE under my front seat with a MF for emergencies. Other than that my car is pretty much detail supply free. The rest of it just chills in the garage.



If you are going to keep anything that can freeze in your trunk then my suggestion would be to squeeze a little of the air out of it so that the bottle has some room to expand if it freezes. That may save you some of the problems that I had. I had a few nearly full bottles of product bust open and get all over the place. It wasn't a huge monetary loss, but it made the rest of my products look really crappy. Just a thought.
 
I did a quick search and found this thread... I was going to ask the question: What happens when AIO and SG freeze?



The answer: The containers no longer contain :nono

That is to say, I need to buy some new stuff because both leaked and created a quantity of protoplasm in the wash bucket not so thoughtfully left in a freezing Michigan garage.



I forgot all about the stuff... another mistake I will not make in the future.



:sosad
 
I make it a habit to leave spray bottles of Final Inspection and 20/20 Glass Cleaner in my trunk. Due to the recent cold spell we had, the FI froze. According to the label on the back of the gallon of FI, it says "Do not allow product to freeze." Guess I will toss the contents of the spray bottle.



Still, I'm not sure what exactly happens to the chemicals in the QD when it freezes. I'm kind of curious...



For the record, the 20/20 Glass Cleaner did not freeze.



-ema
 
I doubt that freezing is going to alter the FI chemicaly. It probably says that because if it freezes then the bottle will crack. And it probably doesn't work very well as QD Slush either. :p I'm sure that once it is thawed out that it would still work just as well.
 
Thanks! The bottle cracking explanation makes sense to me.



My other frozen car care products story... In New Jersey, all the gas stations are full-serve. Last week, one of the local gas stations spilled gas all over the side of my car. I was somewhat upset as I had just detailed the car. When I went to grab the QD, it was slightly slushy but I was desperate. Sprayed it onto the side of the car and it froze. :eek:



For the record, Final Inspection froze for me around 12 degrees F.



-ema
 
The small bottle of FI that I left in the garage appeared to be no different after having been subjected to some 10 degree nights.

The temperature in the garage was probably quite a bit warmer since the temp has not stayed in the teens for the entire 24 hour period. (Yet)

The bottle is only about a 2-3 oz. eyeglass cleaner spray bottle that I filled about 3/4 full to allow for some expansion if it does freeze. It is in a plastic jar that once held peanut butter. If the spray bottle breaks, the P.B. jar should contain the spillage. A 16 x 16 MF towel in a zip-loc bag and I feel like I have the stray water spot or bird crap covered. It isn't like I plan to detail the car in the bad weather, just wanted to be able to clean up the little messes that always seem to crop up.



Charles.
 
Just a guess, but I don't think that glass cleaner would freeze easily because it probably contains significant amounts of alcohol. Other water-based stuff probably won't freeze until some temperature south of freezing because the more "stuff" dissolved in the water, the lower temp it freezes at.
 
For winter glass cleaner in freezing conditions, I use windshield washer fluid. Just pour some in a spray bottle, use it like any glass cleaner.



Charles
 
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