Water additives... car coolant enough?

[DKPowers]

So I'm rebuilding my watercooling system and I'm concerned about the water additives. My supply of WaterWetter has run out and I can't find it here anywhere.

So would car radiator coolant be enough of a additive? I bought two different brands; one's blue and the others green. The blue's bottle says that it includes corrosion inhibitor and stuff that reduces foaming but I have a feeling that the green one is the same stuff except for the colour. My system consist only of copper, brass and acrylic parts.

[bigben2k]

What's the name of the blue stuff?

[DKPowers]

Originally Posted by bigben2k

What's the name of the blue stuff?

It's just some Korrek Coolant... I doubt you've heard of it... basic supermarket stuff...

My local auto parts shop has blue, green and pink coolant. The pink coolant leaves some kind of layer on the bottle when I shake it...

[RedPhoenix]

Well. I used Zerex ( Green ) for a long time, until I ran out of that so now Im using Prestone ( green ). Same basic thing, should be fine. I thought WaterWetter was antifreeze?

[bigben2k]

There's a great article by Scott Gamble a.k.a. RockstarBob on overclockers about coolants:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles609/

[jhurliman]

A quick note on Hyperlube, I saw a lot of people posting that they were using 10% Hyperlube and 90% distilled water. If you are going below freezing this mixture will NOT prevent ice or slushing! I tried 10%, then 20%, and my evaporator coil was still freezing over. You have to run about a 50/50 mixture with this stuff, but the upside is it's very UV reactive (gotta love the aesthetics). Of course if you properly insulated the lines this is kind of a moot point...

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by RedPhoenix

Well. I used Zerex ( Green ) for a long time, until I ran out of that so now Im using Prestone ( green ). Same basic thing, should be fine. I thought WaterWetter was antifreeze?

Water wetter isn't anti-freeze in the sense that it doesn't change the freezing point of water significantly. It's a racing coolant system additive which is primarily designed to inhibit corrosion and reduce surface tension.

DKPowers: the blue stuff sounds like ethylene glycol based anti-freeze, it should do just fine.

[funbun]

I use water wetter and Bar's Leaks. Both help prevent corrosion and Bar's Leak's will prevent leaks and stop leaks.

[Butcher]

Not sure I'd be comfortable running bar's leaks in my water cooling - all those suspended particles could plug up places they're not supposed to, especially in something like the cascade.

[DKPowers]

Well... I'm just in the process of bleeding the system. Using very small amount of anti-freeze... mainly to kill the "bugs". But as I don't have WaterWetter anymore, those bubbles are soooooo eager to stick to the tubing... drives me nuts. No one around here sells WaterWetter or anything similar...

[funbun]

Just try some antifreeze.

[arterius]

I am using bidistilled water and citric acid in my loop.
Is that a good combination after all?

[Jason_The_Angry]

i never thought to use orange juice concentrate. brilliant!

[funbun]

Citric acid to kill microbes?

[arterius]

Originally Posted by funbun

Citric acid to kill microbes?

Of course.
I am running this combination for about 10 months and never experienced a problem. The guy who gave me this advice said that this combination was perfect for all copper loops.

[Stang_Man]

i'm gonna use the orange antifreeze by Zerex in my loop.

this should prevent any sort of algae or lifeform growing in the water, and looks cool

what would be a good ratio to mix it in at? i dont need to prevent it from freezing, just enough so things dont' grow in it

[funbun]

70%/30% is what they recommend on the bottle right?

[Razor6]

I think 30% would be overkill for this application, 10% or 15% should be good.

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by arterius

I am using bidistilled water and citric acid in my loop.
Is that a good combination after all?

I'd be cautious of acidic solutions - they're corrosive to metals.

[RedPhoenix]

acidic may not be so good in the end.

Oh yeah, be sure you DO put something in it.. dont want it to look like my last setup

[funbun]

Wow. Call in the National Guard. Bio-Chemical Harzard

[arterius]

It shouldn't cause any corrosion at all because copper is a noble metal.
It should remove the oxid layer but nothing else.

[HammerSandwich]

Originally Posted by DKPowers

But as I don't have WaterWetter anymore, those bubbles are soooooo eager to stick to the tubing... drives me nuts. No one around here sells WaterWetter or anything similar...

Add 1 drop of liquid dishwashing soap (e.g. Dawn) per gallon of coolant. More is not better.

[Tachyon]

Hammer ... I was waiting for someone to mention Dawn ... it is a great surface tension breaker. But you're right ..... more is definitely not better. Just a little dab-il-do-ya.

[funbun]

Dawn, it takes grease out of your way