Does RV antifreeze go bad?

[dcb17b]

My neighbor gave me some RV antifreeze he's had in his garage. It has been a year or so since he has had a RV so I'm not sure how old it is.

[dieseltruckdriv]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
A "freeze test" is not a good way to test RV antifreeze. The propylene glycol and water mix it's made with will in fact freeze at some point. The difference compared to straight water though, is that the PG/water mix does not expand to cause damage when it freezes.

This is exactly correct.

[Dutch_12078]

A "freeze test" is not a good way to test RV antifreeze. The propylene glycol and water mix it's made with will in fact freeze at some point. The difference compared to straight water though, is that the PG/water mix does not expand to cause damage when it freezes.

[ktmrfs]

joelc wrote:
I am not at home base now, but I use it in my washer which is in my shed when the temps drop. I don't know if it has a expiration date on it. Mine is going on 2 years old and I know that it was good at 1 yr when used last year. Good question. Just thought of something. Take a cup put some in it and see if it freezes in your frezzer?? If it does it goes bad.

be careful. Many of the RV antifreezes will turn to a slush. It won't freeze solid and expand but it will become slushy. So if it does that in the freezer, it doesn't mean it is bad. That's just the way it is.

[joelc]

I am not at home base now, but I use it in my washer which is in my shed when the temps drop. I don't know if it has a expiration date on it. Mine is going on 2 years old and I know that it was good at 1 yr when used last year. Good question. Just thought of something. Take a cup put some in it and see if it freezes in your frezzer?? If it does it goes bad.

[ktmrfs]

joshuajim wrote:
Seeing as how vehicle manufacturers recommend changing coolant between 100,000 and 160,000 miles which might correlate to 10 years of severe duty, I don't think I would worry much about some virgin coolant in a jug.

well, rv antifreeze is entirely different than vehicle antifreeze,

RV is either propalene glycol or ethanol, vehicle antifreeze is ethalene glycol, very poisanous, along with other additives, and it is a sealed system.

But a sealed or even open rv antifreeze jug that has been kept capped should be good for decades IMHO.

[joshuajim]

Seeing as how vehicle manufacturers recommend changing coolant between 100,000 and 160,000 miles which might correlate to 10 years of severe duty, I don't think I would worry much about some virgin coolant in a jug.

[docsouce]

3X on what D3500ram said. I still have some of the blue -100 degree Quick Silver stuff that I bought just before selling my boat a couple of years ago. I use it for the sink traps, put some in the gray and black water tanks. Be all gone this year. New RV antifreeze is just to inexpensive to chance.

[JimK-NY]

It should last for years if not decades. If it has gunk in it, that was not something that happened without some human intervention.

[Bumpyroad]

d3500ram wrote:
If you are concerned about any funk in it, just use it in the toilet and traps and get the fresh stuff for the domestic water supply.

a winning suggestion.

bumpy

[kellem]

I would use it but if you feel uncomfortable, your looking at roughly 12 bucks for 2 gallons of RV antifreeze.

[coolmom42]

DrewE wrote:
It doesn't generally go bad. The dye may fade or change over time, but the ethanol and/or propylene glycol doesn't break down, at least over the course of a few years, assuming the container is closed so the contents cannot evaporate. If it's a few decades old or has evidence of some weird slime growing or something like that, I'd probably pass, but otherwise it shouldn't be any problem at all.

This.

[ktmrfs]

mfg often are required by gov't regulations to state a shelf life on a product. Now in some cases, there is a real shelf life, an example is DEF which depending on temperature has a shelf life of a few months to a few years.

In other cases rather than go through the testing to determine shelf life on long lived products,they create one.

The two compounds used for RV antifreeze are propalene glycol which has an very long shelf life under normal conditions or ethanol. Now ethanol has a shelf life of decades, even centuries.

If the antifreeze was sealed, I'd use it.

[ktmrfs]

mfg often are required by gov't regulations to state a shelf life on a product. Now in some cases, there is a real shelf life, an example is DEF which depending on temperature has a shelf life of a few months to a few years.

In other cases rather than go through the testing to determine shelf life on long lived products,they create one.

The two compounds used for RV antifreeze are propalene glycol which has an very long shelf life under normal conditions or ethanol. Now ethanol has a shelf life of decades, even centuries.

If the antifreeze was sealed, I'd use it.

[RKW]

I've found information that indicates that RV antifreeze has a shelf life of one year or two years depending on what source you choose to believe. Note that that info was for a sealed, unopened container.

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