Walmart is a pretty cool place...

Here is an image of a gallon of pre-diluted coolant I picked up, when I get my new pump or even sooner during a system Revision I plan to just run this stuff w/ no additional water added and compare the results to those of the usual 20%/80% mix recconded for watercooling...

I want to hear your predictions...

It says on the label "50/50 Pre Diluted". Isn't 50% Antifreeze a little bit much unless you have some major corrosion concerns?

I think that your results will probably be the same as you would find with a 50% anti-freeze mix anyways - keeping in mind that Water's thermal capacity isn't helped at all by Anti Freeze.

it's 50/50 because it is for cars radiator fluid is to be mixed 50/50

i think they have the 50/50 becasue its cheaper then the 100% bottle.
For my car, i always buy the 50/50 because here in california, it doesn't go much below -2c during winter. SO! if u don't plan on running a water chiller, 50/50 is already too much. With my setup, i used 2cups water, 2cups coolant making it 25/75 mix. some may argue that its still high, but i don't care.

Korndog said:

With my setup, i used 2cups water, 2cups coolant making it 25/75 mix. some may argue that its still high, but i don't care.

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bro 2cups water and 2cups antifreeze is a 50/50 mix
for 25/75 you'd use 1 cup antifreeze and 3 cups water

Actually, he is right:
2 cups of coolant, pre-mixed @50/50
2 cups of distilled water
OR
4 cups of coolant: 3 cups water and 1 cup of regular, full strength antifreeze.
Same thing.

25/75 is not a bad mix- decent protection and minimal loss of cooling capability.
50/50 is way too high unless you are concerned about freezing.

but does it really matter? Does it make such a difference that it matter how much you add?

thats what I am going to find out...

um question not addressed here....you think they are using distilled water in that premixed antifreeze? YEAH RIGHT! they useing tap in that factory you can count on that...I have solid proof tap water is bad bad!

iNSiGMA said:

but does it really matter? Does it make such a difference that it matter how much you add?

thats what I am going to find out...

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You could find out by doing a search for 50/50 or antifreeze. There are plenty of people here that have played with the mixtures, and unless you are running chilled water and sub-freezing temps, the 50/50 will hurt your performance. I don't think I've ever seen anyone post that they got better temps in a normal non-chilled setup by increasing the amount of antifreeze.

From http://www.ocforums.com/vb/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39039&pagenumber=1 :

#5 Antifreeze/Water (50:50 ratio)

"last and least good for your system... if you're hard up, don't have a leg to cut off for something better, on a desert island and only have this crap, well go for it. a 50:50 ratio will quarantee you down to -10 but the results are so disgusting compared to what you could get if you used any of the above items. i've included it here just because so many people consider this a viable option and actually do it.
Keep in mind that water is the best stuff around for heat transfer. The closer we can get our liquid to the efficiency of water, the better. Water is the standard in all these figures and the standard in which we are trying to meet or exceed (when possible) when choosing an effecient coolant."

You should take a look at this article also.

FizzledFiend said:

um question not addressed here....you think they are using distilled water in that premixed antifreeze? YEAH RIGHT! they useing tap in that factory you can count on that...I have solid proof tap water is bad bad!

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doesn't matter what they use, coolant fixes everything.
my bottle of zerex says 50 distilled water/ 50 coolant, i added a 100% TAP water to the mix about a year and a half ago. Opened my water block about a month ago to modify it (nemesis mod) and it was clean, aluminum top and all.
tap water is only bad when used alone

Boil any water you decide to use making it free from any minerals. That is the best way to get clean water for use in these water cooilig systems and by the way the cheap way out.

Korndog said:

doesn't matter what they use, coolant fixes everything.
my bottle of zerex says 50 distilled water/ 50 coolant, i added a 100% TAP water to the mix about a year and a half ago. Opened my water block about a month ago to modify it (nemesis mod) and it was clean, aluminum top and all.
tap water is only bad when used alone

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Tap water can be bad even when used with antifreeze if the water has too many disolved minerals (hard water). This will vary by region and source of water. It sounds as if your tap water is not too bad based on your success.

On the other hand, if the tap water is too hard, the disolved minerals will accelerate the depletion of the corrosion inhibitor additives in commercial antifreeze. Note: glycol based compounds in themselves do not prevent corrosion, it's the additives in antifreeze that retard the effects of corrosive metal salts and ions. At one time, auto stores sold such additives alone to suppliment antifreeze, but I think those days are gone as witnessed by now selling "ready-to-use" 50-50 antifreeze (as if we would be too dumb to mix it ourselves or notice getting only half the amount of glycol per gallon!)

KK

diehrd said:

Boil any water you decide to use making it free from any minerals. That is the best way to get clean water for use in these water cooilig systems and by the way the cheap way out.

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This would work only if you collect and condense the steam into a another, clean vessel. Simply boiling within the same container will actually make the water worse as it increases mineral concentration.

KK

Koooler King said:

This would work only if you collect and condense the steam into a another, clean vessel. Simply boiling within the same container will actually make the water worse as it increases mineral concentration.

KK

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Yeah, I was just about to say that. I requires more than just heating the water up.

And anyway, don't car cooling systems have copper parts in them? And aluminum parts?

They also run antifreeze.

iNSiGMA said:

And anyway, don't car cooling systems have copper parts in them? And aluminum parts?

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Yes, radiator can be copper or aluminum, Aluminum heads or block, then some engine blocks are steel with steel heads.

All sorts of metals in a car cooling system, so make sure you also flush your car's cooling system as well

sandman001 said:

They also run antifreeze.

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WTF are you talking about? How about making complete statements?

That sentence has both a subject and predicate, so is therefore a complete statement. Car cooling parts are mixed, and also use antifreeze. So corosion wouldn't be an issue cooling cars.

Car engines stay out in -40 below weather, hence the high concentration of antifreeze.

Pure water is the best coolant around. The more water in the system, the better cooling you're going to get.