Test tank, rv anti freeze

[RKH]

I use a 30 gal. thick walled plastic barrel (kept outdoors) as a test tank for my outboard motors. I would prefer not to drain the water out for winter and am considering adding RV antifreeze to keep it from freezing in case I buy another motor that I may want to test during cold weather. I am not sure though if this would damage seals or sealer/gaskets .
Any one know for sure or have an opinion?

 

[Scott Danforth]

you would need about 15 gallons of RV AF to be effective. at $5 a gallon, that is a lot of money vs simply draining it and spending the 2 minutes to refill when you eventually need it.

and unless you have a tight lid on it, critters will be coming to the AF to drink it. bugs will be in it, etc.

 

[alldodge]

Being an OB, could fill it with any automotive antifreeze, and depending on how cold it gets, could be mixed more then 50/50

 

[Chris1956]

Automotive Antifreeze is toxic and has a sweet flavor. Any animal, wild or domestic will like to drink it and will die. Unless you have a foolproof method to keep the neighbor's dog or cat out of it, you will likely need to explain yourself to the dead pet's owner. Not something I would want to do...

 

[H20Rat]

Why not drain it? I see zero upside to keep 30 gallons of standing stale water around on the off chance you might need it. In any case, you would need to add about 60 gallons of standard -50 RV AF to your existing 30 gallons of water to keep it from freezing... see a problem?

 

[Leardriver]

You're trying to find a way to do it wrong, which may work great, or cause great disappointment.
RV antifreeze is $2.65 a gallon at Walmart, so $80 for 30 gallons. If you were to pull the plugs and drain the motor, then put them back in and dip it in the tank which is now filled with AF, run it, and pull the plugs and drain it again afterwards, I would call that a decent plan. That sounds complicated, but I bet you could do all of that in 20 minutes.

 

[Sprig]

Unless you are an outboard mechanic how often do you need to test your outboards? Seems to me you can go a few months during the winter without testing your outboards. If it’s that cold where you live you probably can’t use your boat/motors anyway.
Last thing I would ever do is put antifreeze in that barrel. As others have said animals are attracted to antifreeze and it is deadly to them. Drink a little bit and it fries their liver resulting in death within 48 hours. When you dump it you’ll have a real problem as you can’t just dump it down the sewer. Bad bad idea.

 

[MTboatguy]

Animals are not attracted to RV AF like they are Auto AF, but it is still a bad idea, expensive and not needed in the real world.