# How bad is it to have 100% water as coolant during this time of year? **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** chevrolet, cavalier, coolant\ **Created:** [October 20, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-bad-is-it-to-have-100-water-as-coolant-during-this-time-of-year/81856 "2013-10-20T05:33:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 13
**Author:** ![Manolito](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/manolito/32/3070_2.png) [@Manolito](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Manolito)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-bad-is-it-to-have-100-water-as-coolant-during-this-time-of-year/81856/13 "2013-10-20T21:15:48Z")
In summary of the other posts: The only concerns here are: 1. Poisonous liquid on the street or garage floor. 2. The lack of corrosion inhibitors in pure water. If your antifreeze is old, you had that problem anyway. A little bit of antifreeze will prevent freezing until it gets really cold this winter. If the water looks colored, you still have a little antifreeze in it. If your windshield washer has pure water, that can be your indicator. A night that dips to 25F for a few hours will probably freeze the lines to the windshield washer nozzles, but not the reservoir. If the reservoir does not freeze, it is highly unlikely that the water in your radiator will freeze, and the water in the block won’t freeze until sometime after that. As for other possible concerns - water has a higher specific heat than antifreeze/water mixture, so it is technically a better coolant, BUT water has a lower boiling point than coolant mix. Normally the boiling point is not a concern if the system holds pressure, (higher pressure = higher boiling point - that is how a pressure cooker works) but your system leaks, so pure water may boil under normal engine operation. --- _[View the full topic](https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-bad-is-it-to-have-100-water-as-coolant-during-this-time-of-year/81856)._