How to clean Windshield Washer Fluid Reservoir?

[Transporter]

You could have just drain it with a 1.5m clear flexible tubing and then fill up with very hot water and vinegar let it sit and suck it out again. Most bacterias don’t like heat. After that just use the windscreen washer every time you drive to clean your windscreen, people who do that don’t have bacteria and smelly water in the windscreen washer container.

[Amalgam]

After fully emptying the reservoir (about 3-4 mins of constant on off ), I checked the washer fluid bottle and could see the biofilm hadn't been removed. It was still there, it had just been bleached. Maybe some if had been removed, but it was impossible to tell and there was obviously still a lot of it.

I sprayed water into it using the Jet setting on my hose nozzle and that disrupted it, more so than before using the Miltons, so the Miltons at least seemed to make it easier to remove. After filling the bottle and pumping it out again I could see bits of stuff coming out through the tubes.
I repeated this flushing about 6 or seven times (partly because I was going to add another chemical and didn't want their to be any reaction).

The treatment is working. It sounds like you have very heavy biofilm and multiple treatments are required.


Just a point of clarification from my original post

1/ Miltons denatures biofilm (kills it). It does not dissolve it. For heavy growth, the biofilm may fall to the bottom of the container as semi clear slime. For very heavy growth you need loosen the denatured biofilm before rinsing it off.

2/ Miltons is corrosive at higher concentrations. 5% is a very low dose. I didn't want to damage a forum members car/paintwork etc. You can increase the concentration for faster results, being aware that it is a bleach.

3/ For very heavy deposits multiple overnight treatments may be required.

4/ Yes there are many other treatments available but Miltons is easily available to the general public, safe to use, and less likely to damage your car. Chlorine dioxide is a gas at room temperature . https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/com...de#section=Top

5/ At work, we use Miltons to disinfect our water lines weekly at a 10% concentration and hyper dose at 50%. Once again our equipment is resistant to Miltons. Your metal water pumps and paintwork are not. It would be safer to put a hose into the reservoir to flush out the solution and slime rather than pump it out through the jets.

6/ This is a "off label" use of Miltons and the representative would either have no idea of treating biofilm or afraid to recommend it. It is used to disinfect baby's bottles and they routinely take calls from new mothers.

I hope this clears up a few points and fills in the gaps.

Bests

George

[thedriver]

fill it up very hot water and vinegar

All great ideas, but I had been through this.

I tried vinegar first (see my OP)... it didn't work. Just made me want chips everytime I used the washers.
The vinegar kills the mould, but it doesn't actually remove any of the crap (biofilm) from the sides of the bottle. My main concern was about this biofilm clogging up my spray nozzles. So I needed a way to actually clean the washer fluid bottle. Because of the shape of the bottle, there's no way to use any type of brush effectively. And there's no easy way to remove it without taking off the front bumper and headlight.

And because of the awkward shape of the washer fluid reservoir, the flexible tubing wouldn't have worked either. My only options are to either dump a hose into the reservoir and try to flood it out, or pump it through the lines (which I figured would perhaps help clear them of any biofil too).

I'm ordering some Cl02 and will see how that goes.

[thedriver]

The treatment is working. It sounds like you have very heavy biofilm and multiple treatments are required.


Just a point of clarification from my original post

1/ Miltons denatures biofilm (kills it). It does not dissolve it. For heavy growth, the biofilm may fall to the bottom of the container as semi clear slime. For very heavy growth you need loosen the denatured biofilm before rinsing it off.

2/ Miltons is corrosive at higher concentrations. 5% is a very low dose. I didn't want to damage a forum members car/paintwork etc. You can increase the concentration for faster results, being aware that it is a bleach.

3/ For very heavy deposits multiple overnight treatments may be required.

4/ Yes there are many other treatments available but Miltons is easily available to the general public, safe to use, and less likely to damage your car. Chlorine dioxide is a gas at room temperature . https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/com...de#section=Top

5/ At work, we use Miltons to disinfect our water lines weekly at a 10% concentration and hyper dose at 50%. Once again our equipment is resistant to Miltons. Your metal water pumps and paintwork are not. It would be safer to put a hose into the reservoir to flush out the solution and slime rather than pump it out through the jets.

6/ This is a "off label" use of Miltons and the representative would either have no idea of treating biofilm or afraid to recommend it. It is used to disinfect baby's bottles and they routinely take calls from new mothers.

I hope this clears up a few points and fills in the gaps.
Bests
George

Cheers George, much appreciated.

I realise it's off label, but I expect some expertise.

I'm still dubious about Miltons ability to actually removed the biofilm, which is what I need to ensure it doesn't clog the spray nozzles.
I would expect some parents would be concerned about the safety of ingestion and would expect some technical expertise and understanding of the science. Unfortunately, they didn't have that at all. When I asked them if it removes the biofilm, they told me it "Yes, it will kill it." I responded by saying I understand it will kill it but will it actually remove it, to which she replied, "Yes, it kills it, so it's not there any more." I tried other ways of asking the question too; trying to explain that killing something is not the same as removing it, asking her if it would dissolve the biofilm or make it fall off. She just kept on with the "it's dead so it's gone" theory ... I didn't want to use the analogy of killing her but leaving her body to rot in the call centre.

I tried to use your recommended rate, it just might have been marginally stronger because of minor measuring errors.

I don't know what a heavy biofilm looks like. It certainly wasn't covering the whole plastic. Unfortunately, there's no way for me to loosen it with any type of manual agitation; it's too difficult to access.

Whilst it's a gas at room temperature, it can be easily made and is highly soluble in water. I've ordered some Cl02 and will report back.

[Transporter]

All great ideas, but I had been through this.

I tried vinegar first (see my OP)... it didn't work. Just made me want chips everytime I used the washers.
The vinegar kills the mould, but it doesn't actually remove any of the crap (biofilm) from the sides of the bottle. My main concern was about this biofilm clogging up my spray nozzles. So I needed a way to actually clean the washer fluid bottle. Because of the shape of the bottle, there's no way to use any type of brush effectively. And there's no easy way to remove it without taking off the front bumper and headlight.

And because of the awkward shape of the washer fluid reservoir, the flexible tubing wouldn't have worked either. My only options are to either dump a hose into the reservoir and try to flood it out, or pump it through the lines (which I figured would perhaps help clear them of any biofil too).

I'm ordering some Cl02 and will see how that goes.

Any kind of film on the inside is best mechanically removed with a very coarse sand, 1/2L or so of water and shake the bottle with the openings blocked of with hand and rags. It works every time for me on slugged up cooling system reservoirs.