Radiator Cap

Allan

What you need is antifreeze in your water tank. Glycol (Ethyl alcohol) does the job but a minor side effect is it will send you blind.

The obvious thing Methyl alcohol. Proven safe by 60 million Russians I would recommend you pouring in to your house tank 200 bottles of vodka to stop freezing. Even if it did not work you would not give a stuff.

Now I wonder if that would stop COVID 19? A shot of Vodka with every glass of water?

You do not need expensive glycol additives to prevent freezing. Common things like sugar, salt and calcium chloride will knock the freeze point down to about -6 degrees. Sugar can leave residue in overflow pipes when it dries and salt is probably not a good idea corrosion-wise long term (although they use it on icy roads everywhere in the world).

Calcium Chloride, which is found as a preservative in many foods and bottled water, is pretty benign and very effective. Calcium Chloride is a salt and is used on icy roads very extensively to melt the ice. As they spread thousands of tons every year, common salt - Sodium Chloride - kills all the roadside vegetation and contaminates the waterways. Calcium Chloride is now the road salt of choice because it does not harm vegetation or the environment once diluted.

According to expert opinion, calcium chloride is safe to consume. It's added to water for taste and serves as an electrolyte to keep you from getting dehydrated.Jul 24, 2020

Lang

allan wrote: Doesn't happen every year, but I have household water pump freeze up every now and then (3 times this past year.)

.

Might want to get some old carpet underlay and just lag the pipe with a few layers

Had a heck of a frost one morning and it froze the air start valve on the tank and couldn't start Mrs Mack



Brrrr

Have read that over in Pomy land they parked the crawler tractors up on railway sleepers to stop the tracks freezing solid over night

Paul

I thought glycol destroyed solder in radiators.

Here is everything you never needed to know about coolants from Penrite.

www.penriteoil.com.au/assets/pdf/tech/Nov2015/Coolants.pdf

Mrs
gudday m8
is your mack start
electric ovr air ovr air
if so have u tried pushn a ball point pen up the orofice of the electric start gizzmo
we mainly start m th@ way with a flat battery
butt may help with a iced up air line
cya

Tried that Swishman, in the end a few kettles full of hot water got things warm enough when poured over the valve

Paul

Were I live in Australia the choice is simple, anti freeze or split block even in the shed, 1100 meters -8 common, -14 not uncommon

Louis where do you live? Here are the state all time records. I am sure it is cold but the BOM all time cold record for Oberon is -0.5 degrees. You are probably higher than the town and temperature drops 3 degrees every 300m in height.

−23.0 °C (−9.4 °F) New South Wales Charlotte Pass 29 June 1994 The coldest place in Australia. This is a freak recording (as are all the records below) with the Charlotte Pass average annual lowest -6 Degrees
−13.0 °C (8.6 °F) Tasmania Butlers Gorge 30 June 1983
−11.7 °C (10.9 °F) Victoria Falls Creek 3 July 1970
−10.6 °C (12.9 °F) Queensland The Hermitage 12 July 1965
−8.2 °C (17.2 °F) South Australia Yongala 20 July 1976
−7.5 °C (18.5 °F) Northern Territory Alice Springs 17 July 1976
−7.2 °C (19.0 °F) Western Australia Eyre Bird Observatory 17 August 2008

Lang wrote: the BOM all time cold record for Oberon is -0.5 degrees.

www.farmonlineweather.com.au/climate/sta...jsp?lt=site&lc=63063


Edit, The All time January Low is -0.5 degrees

Don't know what you are looking at Lang but -8 is not unusual here and I have seen -14. A lot of official temps are taken at post offices so quite sheltered from frost. What I do know is that when it comes to forecasting frost BOM wouldn't know it's arse from elbow, totally and consistently hopeless.
Also, frost falls to the lowest point in the landscape, so to escape the cold you go up the hill. Different situation to flying at altitude in open air.