Does regular green antifreeze/coolant have a shelf life? Dollar General has regular green Texaco antifreeze/coolant for $5.00 a gallon and I have several $2.00 off coupons on Texaco antifreeze/coolant.
Antifreeze/coolant shelf life
- Thread starter BlueOvalFitter
- Start date
If you're referring to traditional antifreeze/coolants which use silicates, nitrites, borates, amines, and phosphates as their corrosion inhibitors and stabilizers, the answer is, "a definite maybe". Read what Peak has to say about their conventional antifreeze/coolant's shelf life:
"If the product is still in the original sealed container, then it has a shelf life of many years. We recommend that antifreeze be used within one year of purchase."
(Someone kindly explain to this humble pilgrim [me] why the stuff will last "many years" on a store shelf, but less than one year stored in my garage.
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"If the product is still in the original sealed container, then it has a shelf life of many years. We recommend that antifreeze be used within one year of purchase."
(Someone kindly explain to this humble pilgrim [me] why the stuff will last "many years" on a store shelf, but less than one year stored in my garage.
Probably because on paper, they would have to assume responsibility for saying it can last many years after being purchased, should anything go wrong of course. Luckily, in reality, not much degradation is likely to happen to coolant concentrate, sitting harmlessly in its bottle.quote:
Originally posted by Ray H:
(Someone kindly explain to this humble pilgrim [me] why the stuff will last "many years" on a store shelf, but less than one year stored in my garage.)
Two years is a good general estimate. I wouldn't use anything older than 3 years old for sure though.
Just a note, you definitely do NOT want to mix your concentrate with water and then store it. You should only mix it with water right before you are going to add it to your engine.
Really? What does distilled water do to concentrate in a jug that it doesn't do to concentrate in a cooling system? How would 50/50 mix sitting on a shelf at room temperature tank when it is good to go for 4 or 5 years' worth of heat-cool cycles in the radiator? How do the antifreeze formulators get away with marketing pre-mix that's sat on store shelves for who knows how freakin' long?
Water destabilizes the chemicals and you are more likely to see precipitation. The formulators can get away with premix because it can be argued that the fallout is negligible. Just a rule of thumb is that a fresh premix is better than one that has been sitting around forever. Trust me on this... I do stability studies a lot.
Yes, but again, some are more stable than others. As an example, silicate is stable at higher pH. The concentrate pH will be higher than the corresponding premix. The lower pH on the premix will cause silicate to fall out more rapidly. It is not a critical problem, but like I said, a fresh premix is better than one that has been sitting around for a long time.
So when you buy that concentrate, don't just make all the premix you will need for the next few years. Make it as you use it to maintain its quality.
So when you buy that concentrate, don't just make all the premix you will need for the next few years. Make it as you use it to maintain its quality.
What about for a top-off? Any risks using some (quite) old conventional coolant concentrate (regular green, ASTM D4985 low-silicate) from a sealed bottle, properly diluted now at the time of use, for topping off? I'm aware that silicates can cause problems (see quote below), but perhaps the pH of coolant concentrate is high enough to mitigate this problem?
