Date:         Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:31:17 -0700
Reply-To:     Mike Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mike Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Winterizing Newbie Question
Comments: To: Jim Arnott <jrasite@EONI.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <C2ADB355-8BBA-435F-8830-3AC5DDD5DF35@eoni.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 9/18/2008 9:02 PM Jim Arnott wrote:

> RV antifreeze is the same stuff they use to sweeten wine.  It IS food
> grade. Propylene glycol if I recall correctly.

"There is a popular misconception that some unscrupulous wine growers add
antifreeze to their products, in order to cheaply sweeten otherwise shoddy
vintages. This myth has been in part perpetuated by a classic Simpsons
episode in which Bart helps capture a French duo trying to pull such a
scam. While it's true that some Austrian winemakers were caught adding an
illicit sweetening agent in 1985, the substance in question was diethylene
glycol, not ethylene glycol. Though you probably wouldn't want to chug a
gallon of it, diethylene glycol is nowhere near as harmful as its
similarly named chemical cousin."

"For obvious reasons, there's been quite a bit of agitation for safer,
less scrumptious antifreeze [than ethylene glycol]. One solution has been
the development of antifreezes, including one called SIERRA, that replace
ethylene glycol with propylene glycol, a liquid that's nontoxic enough to
be used as a sweetener in children's cough syrup. But propylene glycol
costs significantly more than ethylene glycol."

See "Why Is Antifreeze So Delicious?" at http://www.slate.com/id/2103821/

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
>
> Yup. M.S.D.S. http://www.peakantifreeze.com/msds/
> msds_peak_rv_marine_af.pdf
>
> Jim
>
> On Sep 18, 2008, at 7:43 PM, Slloth wrote:
>
>> I like the idea of the vodka in the water tank rather than the anti
>> freeze!  I don't like the idea of having anti freeze in my water tank.
>