Eco friendly windshield washer fluid

Is there an earth friendlier version of the blue windshield washer liquid? I don't know of any, especially in cold weather...

From this page at Your Mechanic, it looks like there are two options that look good and seem environmentally friendly:

- one of them is a mix of distilled water, rubbing alcohol, and vinegar
-another is a mix of castille soap, distilled water, and rubbing alcohol

Thanks Dave. Looks like for cold weather it is still necessary to include rubbing alcohol in the mix. (Or vodka! LOL. I can't see too many people following that recipe!). I suppose that is likely better for the environment than methanol. Maybe evaporates cleaner if spilled?

You're welcome, Andrea. Another option might be to try Qwik Mix Windshield Wiper Fluid; this one is biodegradable. I'm not sure how toxic or non-toxic it may be, though.

I took a quick look at the Qwik-Mix link and it looks like you buy it in concentrated form and dilute it with water. That would eliminate a lot of plastic waste so it's inching closer to eco-friendly.  I didn't see what potential toxins might be in it, but there was a warning label shown on the image of the bottle so it obviously contains some kind of gick. Not methanol apparently - it must not be freeze-proof as the directions on that Amazon link said to add methanol in cold weather. So we haven't gotten away from methanol yet.

I think it may not be too difficult to use a non-toxic product in warm weather. Probably a vinegar-water or vinegar-soapnut (or castile soap)-water solution like you might use for window washing in the house could do the job. Unless the baked on bugs are resistant to that - I haven't really checked, as to be honest the toxicity of windshield washer was a bit of a blind spot for me and I never questioned it until two days ago when I posted the inquiry that started this thread. Here, the summer wash fluid is some kind of pink gick and the winter is blue. The blue has the methanol. Not sure how else they differ. I think maybe the pink has more soapy stuff for bugs. Still toxic though.

In the big picture perhaps this is not such a huge issue, but in the context of starting to look at one's own lifestyle and try to find ways to transition away from industrial products where possible, pretty much anyone driving a motorized vehicle whether fossil fuel or electric needs to use this stuff. And many of us live in places or have personal circumstances that require use of a vehicle. I assume the relatively low numbers of responses to this thread mean that I am not the only one stumped by the question of what to use instead of the industrial gick (although Dave Burton definitely found some good leads, and thanks for that!). Unless one is distilling alcohol at home, there don't seem to be a lot of home-made options.

I'm thinking the risk of experimentation is kind of high, in winter. The risk of either destroying the fluid delivery system through freezing/expansion, or suddenly driving blind on the highway because unable to clean the windshield is potentially both dangerous and an expensive repair. I'll probably end up continuing to use blue gick this winter. Qick-Mix appears to be out of stock on Amazon, plus considering one then also has to add methanol, the main advantage of that product seems to be reducing plastic waste. Which in itself is good, but not the whole story. Playing around with formulas next summer to start to find a better way to do this during the non-freezing season might be the way to go, and worthwhile even if using a more toxic formula in winter.

Just a query, why are you worried about methanol but not ethanol? both are toxic to humans (the former in smaller amounts) but both are created inside the human body and both evaporate fast in air without leaving any residue on the screen. Methanol and ethanol are both readily biodegrade. So long as you use proper precautions while filling the reservoir and don't decide to take a swig of the stuff there is not going to be any environmental difference between the pair of them.

Hi Andrea! If you're going to be doing experiments with finding better alternatives to current windshield wiper fluids, it might be worth your time to record or document your experiments in some way.

I think you could potentially make a book, like Raven's Clean with Cleaners You Can Eat, except make it about eco-friendly and non-toxic automotive maintenance. There's probably a market out there for a book like this.

Skandi Rogers wrote:Just a query, why are you worried about methanol but not ethanol? both are toxic to humans (the former in smaller amounts) but both are created inside the human body and both evaporate fast in air without leaving any residue on the screen. Methanol and ethanol are both readily biodegrade. So long as you use proper precautions while filling the reservoir and don't decide to take a swig of the stuff there is not going to be any environmental difference between the pair of them.

I kind of jumped in with my question without fully explaining my thinking. It's not just the end toxicity to humans and animals, but the 'lifecycle' costs - manufacturing of the product including raw materials, energy use and environmental emissions, plastic bottles with its own costs in those things, shipping of all components, disposal of the plastic, etc. So I think anywhere we can try to find ways to replace industrial products with a simpler home-made and locally grown option it is worth considering how to do that.

I was thinking about methanol because it is what is usually used in North America. There are other chemicals too but this is most common. After you asked why I wasn't thinking about ethanol I read that in Europe the methanol based formulas have been replaced by ethanol a few years ago. I think the same considerations for life cycle impacts also apply to ethanol etc.

Dave Burton wrote:Hi Andrea! If you're going to be doing experiments with finding better alternatives to current windshield wiper fluids, it might be worth your time to record or document your experiments in some way.

I think you could potentially make a book, like Raven's Clean with Cleaners You Can Eat, except make it about eco-friendly and non-toxic automotive maintenance. There's probably a market out there for a book like this.

Dave, thanks for the suggestion! I fear you may be crediting me with more chemistry and automotive skills than I actually have, though! I kind of saw windshield washer fluid as the 'low hanging fruit' - a lot of other car stuff would be a lot harder to replace.

Then again, at some point in the not too distant future we want to switch the tractor over to used vegetable oil biodiesel and I kept my old diesel VW after the timing chain broke in hopes of putting it back on the road on biodiesel some day. So who knows...maybe an eco friendlier car book could be a project one of these years. <grin>

I guess it depends on whether you live in a freezing climate.

In always-warm climes, I can see water and vinegar working quite well. Road goo is slightly oily, and the vinegar would cut through. It would break down quickly though, in the heat.

In freezing climates, a suitable concentration of some form of alcohol is necessary. Not only to prevent freezing (and damage) to the reservoir, pump and piping, but to prevent windshield frosting while the vehicle is in motion. In my climate, I won't use anything that's rated for less than -45C. I will sometimes bump the concentration with methyl hydrate if needed.

The one thing I would never do is add soap. All that skinny tubing is vulnerable to fouling, and with many vehicles you would have to tear down half the car to replace it.

Ethanol vs. methanol? Both have energy inputs when produced commercially. Ethanol additives for fuel and industrial uses seems to be more about a backdoor agricultural subsidy than anything IMO; there are energy inputs growing and transporting feedstock, and more in distilling. Methanol is mostly made from natural gas (IIRC) at lower cost. Take your pick, I guess. You can produce your own ethanol at home; the first distillation will even have some other trace alcohols, including methanol.

BTW: Fun fact from my winshield installer/repair guy. Solutions like RainX that have silicone make it impossible to reliably repair chips and cracks in a winshield. The silicon gets in the crack and prevents the repair adhesive from bonding properly.

Yes, to claify, summer windshield washing is low hanging fruit, winter definitely a lot higher! I spent over 20 years living where winters went to -40 so yes that's absolutely a climate where homemade concoctions could be a major safety hazard if not up to the conditions.

Good to have your input on avoiding soap, Douglas. I do think diluted vinegar (which is surprisingly easy to make at home from apple scraps) is probably the way to go for summer.

Even though my present climate isn't nearly as cold we will have at least 4-5 months with temperatures below freezing so I am going to pause experimentation until spring and start with warm weather formulations.

If you're in Canada you should try the EcoTank Canada system. We dispense our fluid directly into the vehicle at Gas Stations and Electric Charging Stations, so there is no need for jugs EVER!!! We deliver to our tanks in bulk, so there is no single use plastic in our stream. We are currently in the Toronto and Montreal area and soon to expand in Edmonton and other metro areas.