Murray's / Orielly's Auto Parts has the -50 degrees pink stuff on sale this week. 3 gallons for $10.

I winterize over 60 boats every year with the pink stuff and knock on Aluminum haven't had any problems as of yet. Just follow the directions given on this site and you'll be fine and back to enjoying your big in no time. I get mine directly from Mercruiser

By "pink stuff" I assume that we are talking about R V antifreese? Not the Pink or orange long life antifreeze.

Roger

Hey guys,

Pink smink & all that utter stuff a waste of time

Here’s a easy way to winterize your boats all it takes is a little cash put your in heated storage for the off season that way U get to work on her all winter long Now mind U it cost a few Penny’s more but I hear tell Jeff is giving bail out loans at 0% interest hear tell he ran outta room in his yard to bury any more leadlined cans full of cash

Norm,

Big s Live On

Below is a table that gives the freeze and burst protection temperatures for various propylene glycol mixtures. Spectrum Chemical determined these values in 1997. The data is sometimes hard to find. Print a copy and store it on your boat.

The freeze temperature is the point at which the mixture turns to solid – that does not hurt anything. The burst temperature is where the frozen solid starts to expand – that is what cracks the block and other things.

My friends and I are using -200 antifreeze. In our case, I recommend that we dilute 1 gallon of -200 with 2.5 gallons of water. This will provide a 26% glycol solution with freeze protection to 15F and burst protection to -35F.

If you are using a refractometer to measure the strength of the solution, target for 12F freeze protection to allow for refractometer error.

% PropGlyc Freeze Temp Burst Temp Comments
0 32 32
5 30 17
10 25 4
15 22.5 -9
20 20 -21
25 16 -33
30 9 -50 Pink -50 Antifreeze
35 3 -58
40 -7 -67
45 -17 -75
50 -31 -83
55 -51 -91
60 -70 -100 Blue -100 Antifreeze
65 -71 -101
70 -72 -102
75 -73 -103
80 -74 -104
85 -75 -105
90 -77 -107 Green -200 Antifreeze
95 -78 -109
100 -80 -110

Blending -200 1 gal with 3 gal of water yields 22.5% glycol with burst protection of -25F
Blending -200 1 gal with 2 gal of water yields 30% glycol with burst protection of -50F

I don't know how to attach a spreadsheet, but I have one. If you want a copy that is properly spaced, send me a message.

Paul

They have back up gen -sets that kick in when ever there is a power outage seen them test the unit last season while I was up there working on the boat the only thing that was a inconvenience was that the mercury vapor lights took a while to cool down & come back on, but I handled that well gave me time to open a Bud Lite while I waited dang they came on to soon didn’t give me enough time to hardly finish it

Norm,

Bigs Live On

But then you'd worry about hurricanes wrecking your boat.

You can't win...

Jeff (PA: No earthquakes for a century, a rare tornado, minor hurricane damage, no flooding problem where I am....)

Here in Northern Ky. we just got the -100 pink and it has directions for winterizing the water system and the engines. the -50 pink just the water system. At the boat shop he told me to use the -50 for the water and the -100 for the motor.

Mike

Tractor Supply
Pink Stuff
-50 burst
$2.79 a gallon

I'm not suggesting anyone follow my practice... but here in Maryland and w/boat on the hard, I use -100 (blue-green) AF diluted 50% w/water for the engine. It supposedly contains some anti-corrosion properties. For the fresh water system, it's the pink stuff (-50 degrees) at full strength. So far, so good, even in winters where temps dip into single digits.

I think I read long ago that water expands to its max in the 20 degree range and actually contracts a bit on the way down. But by then, of course, damage is done. Now, I may have that confused with the fact that water does contract until it drops down to 39 degrees, then goes weird when the molecules re-arrange and it starts expanding.