There are people who have been misled by claims that Aquafina Water does not freeze. The claims have been circulating around the internet for quite a while now.
Let’s get it straight. The question Why Doesn’t Aquafina Water Freeze is nothing but just a silly question. In school, we have learned that all water in this planet will freeze at 0oC or lower, and Aquafina Water is not an exception.
Since there have been cases where bottled water was shown to be resistant to freezing, the goal of this post is to offer a scientific explanation for that, and that’s exactly what we are going to do here.
Why Doesn’t Aquafina Water Freeze the Way Other Bottled Water Do?
To be direct and scientifically sound, water is water, like x = x, and Aquafina is nothing different. It has all the properties of water, unless someone tinkers with it, or puts an additive to it.
If the manufacturer has indeed included something, then as per the law, they should have indicated that on the label. If they say it is water, then it is water, and they can prove that in a court of law. So, what we can surmise is the claims are a hoax with the end of deceiving people or discredit the manufacturer, which is PepsiCo.
Aquafina Doesn’t Freeze Hoax
Here’s how it all started.
Someone reported a bizarre incident, and posted about it on the internet sometime around 2007. The weird case involved some Aquafina bottles the man bought for the purpose of keeping his fish cold and fresh on long fishing trips. He proceeded to put them in his freezer, and came back later to check them.
He found that only half of the bottles were frozen. Nonetheless, he brought the frozen bottles and left the unfrozen half for later use. After a couple of trips, he came back home and went on to check the bottles that were still in the freezer. To his surprise, the bottles were still unfrozen.
After posting about his experience on the internet, the rumor spread like wildfire, and gave birth to misguided speculations.
Did PepsiCo put something in Aquafina that makes it resistant to freezing? There must be some scientific explanation behind the phenomenon.
Explanation 1 – Aquafina Is Pure Water Free of Impurities
This is how freezing water works. First, freezing requires small particles of another solid to be present, but pure liquid water is devoid of such presence, making it unable to form ice crystals.
We can then surmise that the inability of Aquafina water to freeze is perhaps due to its high level of purity. We call this property to stay in the liquid state below the freezing point as the ability to be in a super-cooled state.
Super-cooled water remains in its liquid state at temperatures below freezing point because:
- It is free of impurities.
- It is cooled slowly.
- It is cooled without disturbance.
Explanation 2 – Aquafina May Contain Chemicals
The claim that Aquafina contains ingredients/chemicals other than water does not hold water.
On the level of good business conduct, it leaves no doubt that PepsiCo is a trustworthy beverage company existing and doing business for as many years you can imagine. We can be sure that all their products, including Aquafina, undergo regular testing.
What about the assumption that Aquafina contains propylene glycol, an antifreeze agent? There is no available evidence as to that claim. To date, no distilled bottled water has been shown to contain such a chemical.
In fact, it would take a considerable amount of the chemical (which tastes sweet) to be included for it to significantly lower water’s freezing point.
How Water Freezes and Why This Matters for Aquafina
Though PepsiCo admitted that they use local municipal water supplies in producing Aquafina bottled water, they also assured consumers that they use a stringent method of filtering that can possibly result to super-pure water that is highly safe for human consumption.
Now, tap water is understood to start to freeze at a temperature lower than 0oC, but that is not the case with the Aquafina bottles that the man found to be still unfrozen.
According to scientists, for pure water to start freezing, the surrounding temperature should be -36oF (-38.78oC).
Following this explanation, we can surmise that the unfrozen Aquafina bottled water that the man found is purer than the frozen one. How different are they in terms of purity is something that the scientists concerned should work on.
The Final Verdict
This post explains the science behind Aquafina’s behavior or ability to resist freezing. The false claims spreading on the internet has wrought damage on one of the most reputable beverage companies that ever existed in the industry. Luckily, they have science in their defense.
You will find more questions that people ask about Aquafina and other distilled water brands. Check out some articles that delve on matters such as why Aquafina produces bubbles and other interesting questions that warrant scientific elucidation.