Anti-Freeze Or Coolants

There is much debate about the use of traditional anti-freeze and the new coolants which have appeared over the last couple of years, and many people buy the considerably more expensive coolants instead of traditional anti-freeze on the advice of retailers, and do not even know the differences between them; or which is better for their vehicles.

One thing we do know is that retailers are making considerably more profits on the much more expensive coolants which are little more than concentrated anti freezes and water ready mixed, so what is the difference? Basically it is the water in them, most are based on de-ionised water which is purer and cleaner than tap water, and the concentrated element is slightly altered. This gives it a longer working life that traditional concentrated anti-freezes, but can this be replicated? yes is the simple answer.
Traditional concentrated anti-freeze is usually mixed in various concentrations according to vehicle conditions, but most manufacturers recommend a 50/50 mix for maximum life and optimum protection.

This posed an interesting question recently, a friend carries spare water ready mixed with in his expedition vehicle to ensure the quality of water and anti-freeze mixture, but wanted longer life, he also wanted to avoid running weak on anti-freeze, particularly as he often explores cold climates, but wanted to avoid variable local water quality abroad.

So how do you improve your anti-freeze life, and get similar quality to the coolants:

If you have a water filter jug then you can do this, simply filter water and put it into a clean kettle, ensure there is no limescale in your kettle, then boil in the normal manner, pour into a heatproof jug and place in the fridge to cool. Place in a sealed container and mix 50/50 with traditional concentrated anti-freeze and you have a ready for use mixture for topping up. This is equal to the more expensive coolants as the filter jug removes many of the harmful contaminants, boiling removes many more, and the concentrated anti-freeze can be mixed with this treated water as it contains compounds to negate the few contaminants which remain.
In testing we have found this method is actually of a better quality then many branded coolants currently on the market, and you can double the recommended working life of any quality traditional concentrated anti-freeze, most being two years, to four years, as long as you top up with your stored mixture.

May I assume that the improvement is all about the coolant working life, rather than its ability to corrode collant system components or indeed transfer heat from the engine to the air ?

There used to be something about addining wetting agent to get the coolant to adhere more closely to the rough surface of the block and head castings to improve heat extraction (mostly in race cars if I recall), but it may have been a racer's myth, like so many.

Regards
Richard

Concentrated anti-freeze contains many compounds to deal with most types of the numerous types of water we have in the UK, and by filtering and boiling the filtered water a lot of these contaminants are removed, thus giving the mixture a much longer working life. This ensures its corrosion inhibition works for much longer also as the much improved water is not deteriorating the additives in the anti-freeze, so its entire working life and corrosion protection are considerably longer.

Which anti-freeze gets you drunk quicker?
That's what I want to know.

Don't say that, I very nearly croaked in Sweden once due to my dopey mate handing me a bottle of anti-freeze to drink!

I ought to explain ...

Seven blokes all downing spirits on a plane over to Sweden once (the cabin crew - all girls - were all but pouring them down our necks as they were obviously bored as we were virtually the only ones on the flight) so by the time we reached Swedishland we were 'swaying' ... including a couple of the girls I might add. We thought it was hilarious at the time the girls joining i with our little in-flight party, but thinking back now - scary!

Anyway, next stage was a trip up country to a place called Villingsberg, an army tank-training range which was the base for the off-road weekend we were attending. Having staggered off the plane we piled into the rental VW Caravelle mini-bus with one of our crowd, the only sober one, driving all the way through the night. Hours passed, rugby songs sung, rolling about in the back giggling, having drunk all our duty-free booze my mate handed me a plastic bottle and said "try this Tom". In the dark I took a giant mouthful (as you do) and before swallowling, even though I was well gone, my taste buds kicked in to say ... something ain't right. Sure enough, after letting it go back into the bottle I turned the interior light on - anti-freeze!!!

I've have some close shaves in my time, but that was a little too close for comfort. Mates eh?

TOM:

The moral is very simple, always keep your beer in the fridge for Health and Safety reasons:

1/ It is always cool, so if you pick up something warm, its not your beer.

2/ You only keep beer in the fridge, then no confusion.

3/ With a fridge comes a light, when you open it you can see which brand you have.

Problem resolved, simples.

Makes perfect sense to me, how have I ever survived all these years? I LIKE HEALTH & SAFETY!

Thank you for share.

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