[TR] Best Anti-Rust Coolant

[Don Hiscock]

Mixing some other sort of molecule with water raises its boiling point
and depresses its freezing point.  Part of a set of properties called
"colligative properties" of materials.

Antifreeze has a real function -- irrespective of the heat capacity
advantages of water (and it makes an excellent heat transfer fluid),
ya got that pesky freezing point to deal with.  The ratio of ethylene
glycol (or other material -- nuthin' magic about glycol) to water
determines the freezing point depression.  Plenty of websites show
freezing point as a function of blend ratio -- your jug of ethylene
glycol should as well.  Adding more ethylene glycol than needed for
the temperatures expected reduces heat capacity of the fluid
unnessarily and wastes ethylene glycol.

Anti-boilover properties come along for the ride, but if you're adding
something to raise the boiling point of water in a TR you have bigger
issues.

Don

PS:  My mom smiled for years at the memory of my dad checking a
boiling over radiator before I was born by holding a match in the dark
to the filler neck.  Whoosh!  The alcohol vapors of the pre-ethylene
glycol antifreeze flashed and burned off his eyebrows.



- Show quoted text -

On 9/22/12, Randall <TR3driver at ca.rr.com> wrote:
>> is there a chemist on the list who can explain what effect, if any,
>> antifreeze has on the boiling point?
>
> I'm not a chemist, but adding antifreeze does raise the boiling point.  For
> commonly used concentrations, it's only by 10 or 15 degrees F, but it does
> raise it some.  There is a chart at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol
>
> Whether that is enough to compensate for its otherwise poor effect on
> cooling, I don't know.  In my limited tests though, it would seem not.
>
> -- Randall
>
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