I wonder if anyone has ever poured a brand new jug of window washing fluid into their car, and then sprayed their window wiper fluid non-stop… to see how many seconds one jug lasts.
A quick internet search didn’t yield any results. But how about the new AI chatbots? Maybe they can give some insight?
Chat GPT does not have the answer
I asked Chat GPT. It didn’t know. Here’s Chat GPT’s response:
While it is certainly possible that someone has conducted such an experiment, I am not aware of any published studies or reports on this specific topic. However, if you are interested in conducting this experiment yourself, you could try measuring the volume of the jug of window washing fluid before pouring it into your car’s reservoir, and then time how long it takes to empty the reservoir by continuously spraying the wiper fluid. This could give you an estimate of how many seconds one jug lasts. Keep in mind, however, that the amount of fluid used by the wiper sprayer can vary depending on factors such as the speed of the spray, the size of the nozzles, and the frequency of use.
I suppose that’s helpful that Chat GPT tried to suggest how I’d go about finding the answer. Even if the process is rather obvious. But hey, that’s what Chat GPT is here for—giving answers.
Bing’s AI didn’t know either, but it gave a great guess
I haven’t tried Bing’s AI chatbot yet. This would be a good time to try, right? What a great first question! I wasn’t expecting much from Bing, because well, it’s Bing. But boy howdy. Bing admitted it didn’t know the answer. But then it actually did research and tried to guess. It even showed how the math and assumptions made in its guess. Wow! Way to go Bing!
Since Bing’s answer wasn’t just plain text, here’s a screenshot of Bing trying to figure it out. Notice how it first shows you what it searches for at the start. And then it includes the sources. Even the math formulas are formatted differently.
Bing thinks one gallon of windshield wiper fluid would last 20 seconds. That seems incredibly short. Maybe I’ll give it a try one of these days. Heh. That would be fun to record it as a YouTube video. Then who knows, maybe someday when someone else asks Bing the same question, Bing will see my YouTube video and use that as a source!
The most likely answer
I also asked the question on Quora. Here are the answers given.
Robert said, “Wouldn’t that depend on the season?” I clarified my question of how I want to see how long I can spray the windshield wiper fluid until it runs out. Then he kindly responded, “Wouldn’t it just be easier to do it yourself to find out?”
Yipes. Users on Quora have gotten a bit sassy.
Thankfully, a couple of others gave a nice answer:
Mats Petersson:
Not sure there is a specific standard, but a quick google indicates that at least a typical value is 250 ml (0.25 liter) per minute, or one liter every 4 minutes. A US gallon being 3.8 liter makes it last 4 * 3.8 = ~15 minutes. (That’s if you have the nozzles attached – without the nozzles, the pump will have much less resistance and produce a much greater volume per minute – at lower pressure, so it will be more like the spout of a tea-pot than the spray of the nozzles).
Chad Courtney:
That would really depend upon the flow rate of the windshield washer fluid pump. A typical one is 250ml/min based on a quick google search which at 3785ml/gal that would take 15.14 mins, and at 60s/min -> 908s. A lot longer than I would have expected to be honest.
They both arrived at about the same answer. 15 minutes. Cool!