W/S washer fluid Summer to Winter

Hey gang. I live in USA/New England/N. Rhode Island, where there is a distinct change in climate around this time of year. It's our Fall/Winter season rolling in.. and with it; comes certain jobs which need to be done in preparation. One of those jobs is making sure that your automobile is ready for freezing cold weather. Good tires.. good wiper-blades, good heater/defroster.. and W/S washer fluid that won't freeze.

But what if your W/S washer-fluid tank is full of "Summer" mix? .....   The Summer mix will freeze when the temperature drops below freezing.. so we need to either dilute it.. or evacuate it.

This year I decided to try evacuating the tank using a little pump that connects to a drill (a cordless drill.. which most of us have) The subject-pump is a common article and has an inlet and outlet with standard garden-hose connections.

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An old garden hose need not be thrown away.. before salvaging a few short lengths for siphoning.. filling watering-cans.. etc. Female repair-couplings do the trick. I had a std./light-duty 6-8ft. hose-remnant with connector (see photo) which was perfect for what I needed. Flexibility is preferred.. as some W/S washer-fluid tanks have a filler-tube which can be curved to reach a remote tank location.

The little pump instructions say to "prime it" with a teaspoon of the liquid to be pumped.. which I did; prior to servicing each of two vehicles. I used an empty 1 gal. jug labeled "Summer-mix",, and simply inserted the "outlet" side of the pump into the bottle. With hose connected and routed down into the vehicles reservoir, I started to "trigger" my cordless-drill.. and found that a medium rpm/speed produced better results than a higher speed. I could see the liquid flowing.. and filling the gallon jug I was holding. It only took 20-30 seconds to evacuate the vehicles W/S fluid tank.. and the proof was right there in the jug. Enough fluid was removed to confidently add "Winter" mix to protect well below the freezing weather in this region.