Anyone from the UK got any suggestions for coolant they bought and are using in their chiller? I don’t wanna wreck it before I even begin so asking here lol
Not from the UK, but anything that is compatible with aluminum, brass, copper and stainless steel should work, like automobile coolant.
I am running demineralized water and Havoline XLC in mine, manly because I use it in my ex-millitary Land Rover.
Most important is to avoid corrosion and bacteria growth.
Have even heard of someone using automobile window washing fluid…
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Another option would be RV / plumbing anti-freeze. Just make sure is says safe for both metal and plastic pipes.
It’s probably not good for you, but it’s almost certainly less dangerous than automobile coolant. Many auto coolants are fatal to dogs in even very small amounts.
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Thank you very much @mhotchin. This is very important information I was not aware of (that the type of antifreeze they suggest is pretty ugly stuff to introduce to a home environment). I’m glad I asked!
I’d rather use a non-toxic fluid. Ain’t nobody got time for dat nonsense.
Seems the RV anti-freeze is safe because it uses ‘propylene glycol’ instead of ethylene glycol, used as coolant in food-safe environments.
there is this one available: [non-toxic antifreeze]
Point of Information:
Freezing temperature is NOT a factor in my environment. I really don’t need the ‘anti-freeze’ performance of a coolant. The room barely changes 5-10 degrees from RT.
Questions:
- Any objections, anyone?
- It says it’s ‘ready to use’ but I guess I’d dilute it 50:50 with distilled water?
- Also, I’d rather keep coolant products to a minimum where possible and mostly use distilled water for my own H&S. Can I dilute the coolant more than 50%?
—> Like, have 90% distilled water and add 10% this non-toxic coolant instead of the 50:50 split? We got brand new carpets so, if there’s an accident with it, would be great if it was just mostly distilled water
. Also, since freezing temperature ain’t a thing for me, I just need distilled water + anti-bio
Okay.
Do not dilute rv antifreeze. It is not like car antifreeze. It will still freeze. It just doesn’t expand when it does.
Adding water will change this.
My only objection to rv anti freeze is that you should flush it once a year. I had rv anti freeze cause me issues. It caused some restrictions in my spindle cooling.
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Point of Information:
Just to clarify, my CNC is in my house so the heat-transfer fluid for this chiller will never come anywhere close to freezing temperatures.
Therefore, I don’t need the anti-freeze properties at all; that is really not an important factor. I’d run pure distilled water if I was told I could, as I assumed this when i bought the water-cooled spindle (coz of ‘water’ in the title). Primarily, I just want a:
- non-toxic fluid that will
- avoid corrosion and bacteria growth (as @BrokenEndmill says above).
- A bonus being I don’t have to worry if there’s a leak and it goes on my carpet.
I can just use the rv coolant @ 100% as that seemingly covers the key critical bases. However…
Question:
- considering the anti-freeze property isn’t important in my scenario/environment, I ask the community/@carbide3d if its possible I can use a mix of 90% distilled water & 10% rv coolant (only added for the anti-microbial and anti-corrosion properties), without degrading the spindle/chiller.
If that goes on the carpet, it’s hopefully less of an issue than 100% rv coolant that’s bright pink.
Just run distilled water and be done with it.
I have chillers on my routers and on my lasers and have been running straight distilled water with zero issues for 5 years.
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That’s pretty awesome you’ve been using distilled water-only in your spindles for 5 years with no issues! That’s really what I would rather do. I don’t mind adding small quantities of certain additives but I just want it to be as benign as possible
Any advice? e.g. how often you change it out and that
Thanks for this - I just need people with experience in this area to steer me and my ignorant self in this particular domain, just to be sure from the get-go I’m doing things with confidence.
I don’t change it. I top it off when needed. But I’ve never flushed out or changed the distilled water.
I have 2 c02 lasers a 2 spindles with it.
The water in them is 3.5 years old from when I moved.
Not sure if it makes a difference but none of it see sunlight. And they are in heated and cooled shops.