Zerex amount disparity?

squasher · Jan 21, 2006

I have read around on the forums and people say that you want 10%/1:10 zerex in your loop. However on performance pcs(where I just bought my zerex it says

Performancepcs said:
MIX at a 1:20 ratio - Coolant : Distilled Water

I don't see why they would lie, in fact it would be better for them if it was 10:1. So which is it? I have a large loop so it would be better for me to use 20:1, but if 10:1 is better I will go with that. Thanks guys

batboy · Jan 21, 2006

10% or 5%, do whatever you want. The antifreeze is used mainly for anti-corrosion anyway.

Aidenswarrior · Jan 21, 2006

90:10 distilled:coolant

Otter · Jan 21, 2006

I'm curious about this too. Racing coolant is meant to prevent corrosion in a car that does not use any antifreeze. Watercoolers dilute antifreeze much more than they would for their cars, partly because we don't need to worry about the system freezing or boiling over. But corrosion is less of an issue for us too. Our cooling systems don't run anywhere near as hot and we often have only copper and brass in the system.

If 10% is recommended for cars, we can probably get away with less. But how much less?

CCUABIDExORxDIE · Jan 21, 2006

just go for a mix with the color you like, any ammount over 5% should do fine. it shouldnt adversely effect you as long as you dont go higher then like 15:85 or like 20:80 coolant to water.

Otter · Jan 21, 2006

CCUABIDExORxDIE said:
just go for a mix with the color you like, any ammount over 5% should do fine. it shouldnt adversely effect you as long as you dont go higher then like 15:85 or like 20:80 coolant to water.

Really? What are the thermal properties of Zerex? I would think this is one of those cases where less is more unless the specific heat and thermal conductivity of Zerex are similar to water, which seems unlikely.

CCUABIDExORxDIE · Jan 21, 2006

we are talking like 1ºC max. i cant see it being horrible to add too much.

Aidenswarrior · Jan 21, 2006

the more you add, the more you take away from the heat transfer properties of water. the less, the better, 90:10 is recommended

squasher · Jan 21, 2006

Aidenswarrior said:
the more you add, the more you take away from the heat transfer properties of water. the less, the better, 90:10 is recommended

I don't think that is right. It says that it improves heat transfer and I assume that means it transfers heat better than water. Also, the entire point of this thread is that 10% is NOT recommened. If you can back this up with facts then I would believe you.

Otter · Jan 21, 2006

squasher said:
I don't think that is right. It says that it improves heat transfer and I assume that means it transfers heat better than water. Also, the entire point of this thread is that 10% is NOT recommened. If you can back this up with facts then I would believe you.

Few liquids transfer heat better than water. Mercury maybe. I've never heard of anything else that beats H2O. I think the reason they say Zerex improves heat transfer is that it reduces the surface tension of the water.

10% is recommended for cars, and for computers too, though I suspect that for the latter it's overkill.

batboy · Jan 22, 2006

Actually, in cold climates a lot more than 10% is recommended to keep the coolant in cars from freezing. Where they have sub-zero temps in the winter, you might need 40%. But, I think 10% is a nice round number for us computer water coolers. Gives us corrosion protection and a pretty color without adversely decreasing cooling capacity. If you want to only use 5%, that's perfectly fine. I don't see a problem with up to 20% if you wanted a stronger color. It's not that big of a deal.

ƒÓÒl · Jan 22, 2006

Zerex racing super coolant is NOT antifreeze guys. It's the additive in the small bottles to stop corrosion in racing engines running primarily water during races. Even racers know that antifreeze sucks in (strictly) cooling systems.

Zerex does make antifreeze that's sold at nearly every gas station and auto store in America, but that's not the product that performance pc's is selling. This stuff is purple.

Stick with 20:1 mix ratio (distilled:zerex) for corrosion protection.
If it were antifreeze, I'd say run anywhere from 20:1 to 10:1, according to how much it changes your temps.

Aidenswarrior · Jan 22, 2006

squasher said:
I don't think that is right. It says that it improves heat transfer and I assume that means it transfers heat better than water. Also, the entire point of this thread is that 10% is NOT recommened. If you can back this up with facts then I would believe you.

you may wanna do some reading in the watercooling section of the forum before being so sure...

Perseus · Jan 22, 2006

Aidenswarrior said:
you may wanna do some reading in the watercooling section of the forum before being so sure...

I THINK his point is that he isn't sure, based on contradictory statements.

Moto7451 · Jan 22, 2006

squasher said:
I don't think that is right. It says that it improves heat transfer and I assume that means it transfers heat better than water. Also, the entire point of this thread is that 10% is NOT recommened. If you can back this up with facts then I would believe you.

It "improves" thermal transfer by lowering the thermal resistance, raising the boiling point, and thermal capacity of the water which is actually a bad thing for cooling systems. If you want to boil water really quick its a good thing to have a lower thermal capacity. If we were running cooling systems at high temperatures or if our radiators worked best ~200°, then it would be a good thing to have antifreeze. In our case, a better coolant would be a chemical with a high thermal capacity so that we could dump 100W of heat into the fluid before it was raised 1°C ;-) (so long as it conducted heat as well as water does).

Zerex amount disparity?

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