Alternatives to windshield washer fluid??

Sheesh, ya gotta be kidding!

At max, a gallon of washer solvent might cost $1.89.

I can't believe I responded to your post!!!

 

Jimbo,
I don't think that you are totally out-of-line with your wondering about a homebrew windshield cleaner. Yes, the store jugs of the blue stuff are cheap - but the formulations are many times poor in effectiveness. The store jugs are probably just water with a blue dye and some type of alcohol added to lower the freezing temperature. I recall that after testing various cleaning products, Consumer Reports magazine would try to create a product in their lab that was superior to the commercial product but with readily available ingredients. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be doing this any more in their tests. The commercial products work for me with dirt, but not so good with the splattered insect on the windshield or the road oil with water spray after a recent rainstorm. Perhaps, someone has a special homebrew formula that works wonders on a filthy windshield that beats all the commercial products.

 

Fact is, the store bought brew works great. And it does remove the scum on the inside of the windows.

Another trick is, when the car won't be driven for awhile, crack the windows open. This is what I do when I store my cars.

Let the interior breathe!

 

I'm a Rain-X believer, and use it on my windows, and use the pink stuff in my washers. I also use distilled water in the mix because the tap water up here is full of nasty stuff. I also use it in the coolant for my cars. In fact I use so much of it I bought a lab distiller (Dura-Still) about 20 years ago - one of my best investments. It makes a gallon in about 3 hours which costs about $0.25 (@8.5 cents a kWh). You ought to see the junk left in the bottom of the boiling tank. Uggggh!

 

re:"Is there any real benefit to the orange "Rain-Ex" type"
Well, it's good and...
It leaves a nice water repellant film on the windows. Water beads & blows off at any speed above 15 mph or so. Often don't need to use the wipers.

If your wiper pump has a very slow leak that lets it drip onto your spare tire's rim, it'll dry to a purple stain that's impossible to remove w/o stripping the paint(Been there, done that). Even called their customer servce dept that swore 'mineral spirits' would always remove it. I'd already tried it, didn't work after soaking overnight!. I'd then escalated to lacquer thinner after ms didn't work. When I told him that he talked to his supervisor & insisted I must have used something that wasn't mineral spirits(sigh). One of these days I'll get the right color silver paint & strip the rim.