Disastrous launch attempt :(

[Tim Chen]

ok, who wants to build a new winter launcher with a bunch of hair dryers arrayed around the rocket keeping everything toasty during pre-launch.

you know you want to... 8P

Maybe I can just shoot them out of the sunroof of my car? It's nice and warm inside!

[monboy10]

ok, who wants to build a new winter launcher with a bunch of hair dryers arrayed around the rocket keeping everything toasty during pre-launch.

you know you want to... 8P

Maybe I can just shoot them out of the sunroof of my car? It's nice and warm inside!

...until all of the water comes out and soaks you are your car LOL

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Well if freezing is what you're worried about we can confirm that you can use antifreeze windshield washer fluid if you want to fly when the temperature is below freezing. We have successfully tested Methyl Alcohol based washer fluid and found that other than the expected decrease in maximum apogee, the fluid worked well to prevent freezing. It probably has too much alcohol content for use in a competition launch, but for our testing purposes it served it's purpose. We had no problems with it except for a silly looking blue water column.

[dongfang]

Achtung!

As far as I remember, polyurethane cement doesn't like alcohol.

Regards
Soren

[Graveyard]

Yeah, cold weather really tests your equipment. If ya have stuff that operates in winter...you have good good designs!!
Later

[dongfang]

Hi,

Haha, yeah I tried yesterday. After the first launch, my crushing sleeve launcher froze stuck all the time, and I needed to warm the check valve on my pump with my hands to get it to work...

One flight video is quite funny, it goes like:

... five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... hnnnngnNGRRR? ... it's - STUCK!!!

;)

PS: thanks for enabling "Edit".

Regards
Soren

[andicirk]

Well if freezing is what you're worried about we can confirm that you can use antifreeze windshield washer fluid if you want to fly when the temperature is below freezing. We have successfully tested Methyl Alcohol based washer fluid and found that other than the expected decrease in maximum apogee, the fluid worked well to prevent freezing. It probably has too much alcohol content for use in a competition launch, but for our testing purposes it served it's purpose. We had no problems with it except for a silly looking blue water column.

mmmmm im not to keen on using this type of chemical product as its pretty toxic , salt water does not freeze as easily as normal water or maybe even just vinegar (alcohol at about 2-6%) or evn warm water i have a 20litre water barrel that i use in my workshop (which is unheated) ive wrapped it in neoprene foam and taped it up and so far it hasnt frozen (lowest registered temperature in the workshop has been -12°c, so if you insulated your water container and filled it with warm water it would stay above zero for a good while......

[Mark Chen]

Well if freezing is what you're worried about we can confirm that you can use antifreeze windshield washer fluid if you want to fly when the temperature is below freezing. We have successfully tested Methyl Alcohol based washer fluid and found that other than the expected decrease in maximum apogee, the fluid worked well to prevent freezing. It probably has too much alcohol content for use in a competition launch, but for our testing purposes it served it's purpose. We had no problems with it except for a silly looking blue water column.

mmmmm im not to keen on using this type of chemical product as its pretty toxic , salt water does not freeze as easily as normal water or maybe even just vinegar (alcohol at about 2-6%) or evn warm water i have a 20litre water barrel that i use in my workshop (which is unheated) ive wrapped it in neoprene foam and taped it up and so far it hasnt frozen (lowest registered temperature in the workshop has been -12°c, so if you insulated your water container and filled it with warm water it would stay above zero for a good while......

Sugar will lower the freezing temperature of water too!

[dongfang]

Hi,

I think I'll just just plain water in the rockets next time I go, but I will take one of those squirt bottles with alcohol or antifreeze with me, to treat the launcher after each launch.

Regards
Soren

[Spaceman Spiff]

mmmmm im not to keen on using this type of chemical product as its pretty toxic , salt water does not freeze as easily as normal water or maybe even just vinegar (alcohol at about 2-6%) or evn warm water i have a 20litre water barrel that i use in my workshop (which is unheated) ive wrapped it in neoprene foam and taped it up and so far it hasnt frozen (lowest registered temperature in the workshop has been -12°c, so if you insulated your water container and filled it with warm water it would stay above zero for a good while......

It can't be any more toxic than the paint I put on my rockets or the glue that holds them together, not to mention the soft drinks that come in the bottles!

[CSAldridge]

are you saying softdrinks are toxic? heh.

lets make super sugar saturated coolaid the official winter launch liquid. (preferably cherry)

[andicirk]

mmmmm im not to keen on using this type of chemical product as its pretty toxic , salt water does not freeze as easily as normal water or maybe even just vinegar (alcohol at about 2-6%) or evn warm water i have a 20litre water barrel that i use in my workshop (which is unheated) ive wrapped it in neoprene foam and taped it up and so far it hasnt frozen (lowest registered temperature in the workshop has been -12°c, so if you insulated your water container and filled it with warm water it would stay above zero for a good while......

It can't be any more toxic than the paint I put on my rockets or the glue that holds them together, not to mention the soft drinks that come in the bottles!

as methanol is flamable and also affects aquatic life forms ajnd is highly toxic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

and we will be turning this into a vapor mist , that will spread about a fair bit

i think if your worried about your wrocket actually freezing to the launch tube then take a cloth and wipe some of this on the launcher tube .... but filling your wrocket with it for me is a bit of a no no

[Alex]

Hey, it's winter. No time to do Water rockets then, It's Model rockets season!


I neeed to go out and launch my 6 foot Mean Machine

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

mmmmm im not to keen on using this type of chemical product as its pretty toxic , salt water does not freeze as easily as normal water or maybe even just vinegar (alcohol at about 2-6%) or evn warm water i have a 20litre water barrel that i use in my workshop (which is unheated) ive wrapped it in neoprene foam and taped it up and so far it hasnt frozen (lowest registered temperature in the workshop has been -12°c, so if you insulated your water container and filled it with warm water it would stay above zero for a good while......

It can't be any more toxic than the paint I put on my rockets or the glue that holds them together, not to mention the soft drinks that come in the bottles!

as methanol is flamable and also affects aquatic life forms ajnd is highly toxic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

and we will be turning this into a vapor mist , that will spread about a fair bit

i think if your worried about your wrocket actually freezing to the launch tube then take a cloth and wipe some of this on the launcher tube .... but filling your wrocket with it for me is a bit of a no no

No worries. This propellant is not pure methanol. It's diluted with water.
It's also sprayed as a mist and evaporated into the air every time you press the sprayer on your windshield washer. If this were a danger to anything, no matter how remote, it would be outlawed in the U.S.A. since this stuff is meant to be sprayed around we can be sure there's no danger.

We're very protective of the planet and wouldn't do anything that pollutes or will kill plants or animals. That's why we won't use harmful gasses like CO2 or even soap in our rockets either (we weren't aware of it's harmful effects until we tried it once and the next day discovered dead grass patches where we had set our launchers up). This washer fluid is very diluted and it also evaporates very rapidly. You would have to ingest it to get sick.

[Cloud Dancers]

You guys are really dedicated to launch when it is that cold. For me winter is more for riding the 4 wheeler or the snowmobile through the woods. Did you guys use one to haul your stuff to your launch site?