Survey: What's your coolant, and how well is it working?

bigben2k · Apr 29, 2003

Following Airspirit's latest stepback, and the recurring question: "what coolant/additive do I use?", BillA's misadventures, etc ...

I'd like to get a definitive answer as to the proper combination of various additives that'll successfully prevent algae and microbe growth, while keeping a good cooling ability, for the coolant we use in our rigs.

As any such discussion requires, I am starting with a survey!

Please report the following:

1-Did you use distilled or tap water (or other water)?

2-What type of tubing do you use? (Tygon specify grade, Clearflex, vinyl, silicone,...)

3-What anti-corrosion additive do you use? (Water Wetter, Hyperlube, Purple Ice, Zerex, Silkolene ProCCA, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, etc...)

4-What other additive, if any, did you use? (methyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol, Jet-Dry, soap, etc...)

5-What amount of light reaches your coolant? (direct daily sunlight, UV from my X CCFL, none, etc...)

6-How long have you been running with that solution? (First time, 6 months, 1 year, etc...

7-Have you noticed any color changes in your coolant? (yes, turned green, grey, red, clear, etc...)

8-What metals are exposed to the coolant? (Copper, raw aluminium, brass, stainless steel, Anodized Aluminium, all of the above, etc...)

and lastly:

9-What are your results? (white deposit on tubes, some algae growth, everything OK, etc...)

Please limit your posts to the results.

Thanks!

nebben · Apr 29, 2003

distilled water
I got it from Evco House Of Hose: it is 1/2" ID and the guy who sold it said it was gasoline grade hose. I figured it would be fine with anything I put in it.
I use a radiator treatment additive I got from AutoZone. I forget the name, but it is supposed to reduce surface tension. It is green
I got a bottle of anti-algae additive at a pet store. It is in pellet form. I just put a few pellets down into the tubing and let it circulate with the flow. It clouds the water just slightly.
One side of the case is removed, and it gets indirect sunlight every day for about 4 hours.
I have been running this solution for about 7 months.
No noticable color changes in coolant. It is a closed loop system with no reservoir.
Only copper blocks are used, and a Monza heater core (I think it's copper)
I have either a slow leak, or some evaporation out of my filling plug (no teflon on it, it might be evaporating through the threads?), so I have to replenish about a tablespoon of water every two or three weeks. Otherwise, it is so quiet, and so cool to look at.
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-ben

qwerty57 · Apr 29, 2003

distilled h20 90%
water wetter 10%
1/2in cheap vinal hose
chevy heater core
no change in color blocks look new insdie
still cooling flawlessly after months.

sVperbeast2k5 · Apr 29, 2003

1. Tap water
2. ClearFlex + Vinyl
3. Water Wetter
4. UV Blue + UV tracer dye
5. Limited sunlight + light from CCFL
6. Few Months
7. No change in coolant color
8. Copper
9. No probs... some white stuff on the inside of tubes after they dry.

BabyEater · Apr 29, 2003

1. Tap water
2. Braided vinyl + some green garden hose.
3. Bandsaw coolant.(can be used for drilling etc.)
4. none.
5. Its an open res on the top of me case so it receives a lot of light .
6. Longest i went without changing water was about 4 months.
7. No it goes a whitly colour when i mix me stuff in then it stays like that.
8. copper , raw aluminium, mild steel.
9. stuff is a bit oily otherwise everything ok.

pokpok · Apr 29, 2003

1-Distilled 75%
2-Cheapo Vinyl from homedepot (im paying for it now

)
3-PEAK antifreeze coolant 25%
4-none
5-3 green LED fans some sunlight when i leave my shades open
6- 3 weeks)
7- 2 days ago i took it out because the green looked like it disapeared from my system. poured the water into the bowl and it had a tint of purple in it. i used a white bowl so i dont think its from the reflection of anything
8-just copper, and the brass fittings
9- no leaks no corrosion so far. one of the tubes though, just one has white film. i thought it was algae so i switched it out with another tube

wolfio · Apr 29, 2003

1. Distilled water
2. Clearflex
3. Hyperlube Super Coolant
4. few drops of Iodine
5. Sunlight minimal to moderate
6. running for 3 weeks
7. No color change
8. Brass, Stainless Steel, and Copper
9. Everything OK so far.

UberBlue · Apr 29, 2003

bigben2k, I'm glad you posted this here too.

1-Did you use distilled or tap water (or other water)?

Distilled

2-What type of tubing do you use? (Tygon specify grade, Clearflex, vinyl, silicone,...)

PVC

3-What anti-corrosion additive do you use? (Water Wetter, Hyperlube, Purple Ice, Zerex, Silkolene ProCCA, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, etc...)

None

4-What other additive, if any, did you use? (methyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol, Jet-Dry, soap, etc...)

None

5-What amount of light reaches your coolant? (direct daily sunlight, UV from my X CCFL, none, etc...)

None

6-How long have you been running with that solution? (First time, 6 months, 1 year, etc...

Four months

7-Have you noticed any color changes in your coolant? (yes, turned green, grey, red, clear, etc...)

Crystal clear (in sight glass)

8-What metals are exposed to the coolant? (Copper, raw aluminium, brass, stainless steel, Anodized Aluminium, all of the above, etc...)

Copper and anodized aluminium (MCW 462UH)

and lastly:
9-What are your results? (white deposit on tubes, some algae grow

Nothing so far.

EDIT: fixed the anodized thing.

Mike K · Apr 29, 2003

1. Distilled
2. ClearFlex60
3. SuperCool from D-Tek
4. None
5. Some sunlight, Blue and UV Cold Cathodes
6. First Time, about 3 weeks
7. Turned water to green
8. Copper, Anodized Aluminum
9. A little white, powder-looking stuff and the bottom of my resevior, but I think I may have added too much.

Bubba · Apr 29, 2003

What purpose does the amount of UV light serve?Am I supposed to be allowing a certain amt. of light in every day?

Mike K · Apr 29, 2003

No, I think he is just trying to account for every variable possible to get the most accurate results.

HighFlowRod · Apr 29, 2003

1. Distilled Water
2. Tygon
3. Water Wetter
4. None
5. est. 0%
6. 2 months
7. No
8. Copper, Brass, and Al
9. Everything ok.

Doomer87 · Apr 29, 2003

1 - Distilled
2 - 1/2" Tygon R-3603
3 - Purple Ice
5 - Indirect sunlight that shines through bay-res
6 - Ran for about 6 months
7 - No change in coolant color
8 - Copper, Anodized Aluminum
9 - Well... all I have to say is that this coolant totally stinks at anti-corrosion. When I changed my water a week ago, i found so much white film throughout my tubes and reservoir. I had to stick pipe cleaners into my bay-res in order to get rid of that all the white stuff. Other than that, I didnt find anything bad about this coolant. It doesnt have any odors unlike what I've heard about water wetter

RBX · Apr 29, 2003

I heard that watered down rocking horse $hi7 is wikkid

fnarr fnarr

Daemonfly · Apr 30, 2003

1- Distilled
2- Home Depot braided reinforced vinyl
3- Prestone Antifreeze
4- Green Dye-Lite
5- Some UV light on & off.
6- 4 months now.
7- No color changes yet
8- Brass & copper
9- Only some faint white deposits in the fill tube where theres no coolant - I'd guess from evaporation.

Daemonfly · Apr 30, 2003

Bubba said:
What purpose does the amount of UV light serve?Am I supposed to be allowing a certain amt. of light in every day?

Doesn't UV light kill bacteria, etc... ? If so, it's a good question to have.

RonnieG · Apr 30, 2003

-distilled drinking water, 60-70%.
-vinyl tubing
-I've tried using Dex-cool, Whiz super coolant, whiz radiator anti-rust, Cyclo coolant, Caltex radiator protector, certain orange coolant, Prestone long-life coolant. I've yet to try Toyota red coolant, I think the red will look cool/weird.
-no other additives
-blue LEDs and ambient light
-average 3 months for each of those coolants
-when I used to have aluminum the green Cyclo coolant turned pale when corrosion started to happen. The anticorrosive seems to have been depleted.
-copper, bare aluminum, lead/tin solder, lead-free solder, brass.

Results:
-The orange coolant seemed to have abrasive silicates. My pump impeller got abraded at the shaft sleeve.

-All of them leave a white deposit on my vinyl hose.

-Cyclo coolant doesn't adequately protect aluminum. Dex-cool is probably better for aluminum (long-lasting organic acids).

-Prestone long-life doesn't adequately protect lead-free solder. I noticed some powdery white corrosion in just a week of use.

-I'm currently using Caltex Radiator Protector. It's got organic acid inhibitors and NO glycols. 2 weeks is too short to draw conclusions.

-Anything with ethylene glycol seems to prevent growth.

-Whiz radiator anti-rust, despite the name, has very limited corrosion protection.

-Dex-cool, caltex, and prestone have built-in UV/blue light dye.

bigben2k · Apr 30, 2003

Lots of good info, so far, please keep it up!

Note: please try to be as accurate as possible: aluminium and anodized aluminium are not the same. (that means you: HighFlowRod.

If you have a heatercore, you can include brass as part of the metals in your loop.

If you soldered anything, include solder (and the type of solder) in your metals.

If you picked up your tubing at a local hardware store, it's probably vinyl.

Bubba & Mike K: yes, I'm trying to account for everything. It is known that sunlight will promote algae growth.

Daemonfly: UV-B and UV-C are used to kill bacteria, yes. The UV CCFL tubes are UV-A only, and are quite harmless.

pokpok · May 6, 2003

bump...

Daemonfly · May 7, 2003

Daemonfly: UV-B and UV-C are used to kill bacteria, yes. The UV CCFL tubes are UV-A only, and are quite harmless.

Well, I was close

Survey: What's your coolant, and how well is it working?

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