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Old 10-08-2014, 11:01 PM   #1
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Antifreeze

Canadian Tire will have Prestone RV antifreeze on sale this weekend. 3.78 L for $7.99 ( reg. $10.56 ). Same amount of Home Hardware house brand, not on sale, is $5.25 ( if memory serves ). But, I'm buying Economical brand at Rona. 3.78 litres for $3.25 this weekend.
They are all good to minus 50C.
Don't see a good reason to contribute to Prestone and Canadian Tire's marketing budgets.
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Old 10-08-2014, 11:12 PM   #2
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You are sure that those prices are for rv antifreeze rather than Automotive antifreeze? Seems pretty decent.
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Old 10-08-2014, 11:58 PM   #3
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The Rona "Economical" says non-toxic in the flyer. Doesn't have a big RV on the label.
I will read the label carefully before I buy, but I've learned to do that through many bad purchases in the past.

Looked it up online:
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Old 10-09-2014, 12:19 AM   #4
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The house brand prices seem appropriate to me. Typical RV plumbing antifreeze is much cheaper than automotive antifreeze concentrate, due to less expensive components. A couple of the Prestone products are an exception to this pricing; perhaps there is a reason for that, but unless I saw a technical difference that was of benefit, I wouldn't pay the premium.

The expensive Prestone is, unlike the inexpensive Prestone, listed as non-flammable. This suggests that the extra money may get you propylene glycol instead of alcohol, but that's only a guess. The Material Safety Data Sheets would likely confirm or correct this.


Okay, just checked... that's it. The MSDS also show that the Prestone-branded products are made by Recochem, just like the house brands.
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Old 10-09-2014, 12:35 AM   #5
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Thanks for the research Brian. You're a good man.
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Old 10-09-2014, 10:00 AM   #6
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Recochem | Economical RV Plumbing Antifreeze 9.46 L | Home Depot Canada
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Old 10-09-2014, 06:36 PM   #7
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Sounds good. Thanks.
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Old 10-09-2014, 08:57 PM   #8
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Interesting that the cheaper RV antifreeze in the states is propylene glycol ($2.70 a gallon) and the more expensive stuff (Peak) is ethanol ($3.50). I've only ever use the glycol and I think I will stick with it given the detrimental effect of ethanol on rubber seals - ie the toilet and the grey and black tank valves
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Old 10-12-2014, 04:31 PM   #9
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I went to buy more antifreeze while it was on sale and found that now the brand that in the past had been propylene glycol is now a mixture of it and ethanol. Apparently with all the ethanol production here in the states, it must be cheaper than propylene glycol. While ethanol is listed as non-toxic I worry about it degrading rubber seals like I mentioned above. My understanding is that ethanol dries out rubber seals thus hardening them. With it sitting in the toilet and in the drain pipes against the drain valves over the winter I would think it would be bad for them.

I just bought some of this: Camo Drain Valve Lube, drained all the remaining antifreeze in the toilet and grey pipe and put this in to soak all three seals over the winter.
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