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

Following this thread and this OC thread, this is where we discuss the results.

Hopefully we can identify a good, effective solution to a good coolant!

A good selection for CLEANING is to run Pine Sol and Lysol through your system in high concentrations. It scours your components clean. I have pictures ... hehe.

I compiled the data into 33 entries (some got more than one entry).

There really isn't anything conclusive, either because of lack of precion in some of the responses, or because there's not enough data.

I haven't found any clear patterns, of any kind.

Except...

A lot of people report having the white film appear on their tubing, regardless of the type of water, or additive(s) used.

It seems to me that there ought to be a cleaning procedure that we should be looking at, when we first fill up our rigs. I'd venture to guess that there's something left on some of our components, as a result of manufacturing (assuming the part is new), and that the water (any water) seems to bring it up/out.


Does anyone have any ideas about that?

Could it be that leak testing prior to installing in a system was performed with tap water?

Could it be that the bucket they used was aluminum/steel and they filled an otherwise 100% copper system with the water from that bucket?

I think I notcied that most/all of the people running straight water with no problems had entirely dark systems (no case windows, and no internal lighting to speak of).

Lots of questions, and no answers.

I've got 5 entries for tap water. 1 of them reports having a lot of sunlight, 1 with "some" sunlight (+ light from CCFL), 1 with dispersed sunlight, and 2 exposed to a 60W bulb.

The one with the CCFL reports a white deposit on the tubes, but only once they are dry.:shrug: Other than that, there's only the one with a lot of light, but he's got a cloudy fluid, possibly because he uses an odd additive: bandsaw coolant.

OK, GOT TO ARGUE.

I have had my system running for 2 years. Every 6 to 8 months i do a water change.

Using distilled water (Bottled) with 2.5 cap fulls of watter wetter I have not noticed any white calcuim build up.

Pink tubes yes.

firstly, does anyone really know what this white stuff is?? (haha, reminds me of that dumb movie :p DONT MAKE ME EAT IT!!11). k...lol

also, water wetter, purple ice and hy-per lube all do the exact same thing (lower surface tension and inhibit corrosion) and from what ive read so far, seem (for the most part) to result in this white coating. i believe its been said that this is a film that these products leave to prevent corrosion. if so, i would'nt think it'ld be a good idea to get rid of it.

as far as the tap water w/ white stuff when it dries; maybe its from crud that was in the water? :shrug:

I get a heavy white-green buildup which I assumed was copper based. I soaked it breifly in HCl and noticed no change. Ditto for bleech. Oddly enough it appeared INSTANTLY when WW was added.

Come this summer I will take it apart and see if I can get some more answers.

coolant
 

Interesting stuff -

One thing I've been wondering is about possible effects of deionized / distilled water - I've always used filtered tap water in my system, mostly for convenience ( I have only copper, nylon fittings and tygon tubing, no brass or Alu)
I always kinda thought deionized water was very aggressive compared with normal filtered tap water - if you do a google search you'll find a lot of people talking about the same thing.

Here's an interesting anecdote,
At the college I attended there was a light water nuclear reactor on campus that you could take tours of. One of the best parts was when you got to see the reactor itself with only water around it - very nifty blue glow, and it was amazing to think that only water was between it and you. One of the tour guides used to explain that it was perfectly safe and would take a drink of the water to demonstrate. Well it turned out it wasn't so safe - the tour guide ended up in the hospital, not because of radiation but because the water, which was deionized, was leeching all the minerals from his body - which later caused him to become ill.

This is just an example that I can't help thinking of when deionized water comes up - from the google results it sounds like most metals have possible problems

As far as my coolant I've tried plain filtered water with or without various combinations of - 'green' antifreeze (haven't tried the other colors), JetDry, Sodium Percarbonate and concentrated windshield washer
So far I like the windshield washer best - I use very little, about 4oz in 5 gallons of water (I have a large res designed for a phase change chiller) I use the sodium percarbonate to flush and clean the system every once in a while - I let it run through for 2 days and it's crystal clear again. Antifreeze gives me the worst problems with the 'white stuff' so far.

It's funny, there are some places that make such pure deionized water that it would literally suck the fillings right out of your teeth.

Carry on.

any progress as to what the 'perfect' coolant is?? lol

i suppose ill just use the water wetter i have; milky-white residue (protective film?) be damned! also, i'll look into waterbed addatives as a possible solution to controlling bacteria / algea.

just wanted to see if anything is new...:p