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Originally Posted by Der Brewling
what additives are you all personally using?
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I've been using Zerex Racing Coolant for a number of years - in a number of systems I've built for other folks as well as the one I'm personally using. I'm using it in a 10% mix with distilled water, as
recommended by the manufacturer. I suspect there are more appropriate additive packages, but I've used racing coolant in automotive applications (race bikes) with good luck, had a couple of gallons on hand, tried it in my very first system and it was fine... The comment about anti-corrosion additive packages for hydronics heating systems has me thinking - although hydronics are typically all copper/brass or copper/brass/steel/plastic, aren't they?
On a related note, there's a (IMHO very wrong-headed) discussion of water cooling additives over on
the silent pc watercooling forum (reserator-land). I'm not chemist, so maybe using a 3% mixture when the manufacturer recommends 10% is actually fine - but it seems like a fairly dumb idea to me
Caveat - the no-problem systems using ZRC:
- are built with opaque silicone tubing - I don't care about water color or staining, if any.
- tend to run 24/7 - so very little heat cycling
- don't demonstrate any biocide-capabilities of ZRC (even though no problems) as there's no exposure to light - I've never seen anything growing in the "top up" bottles of pre-mix I leave with system owners so maybe it actualy discourages growth - I dunno.