Old timer told me coolant concentrate is a waste, now I'm out $200

Last month I stopped buying pre-mixed coolant and switched to concentrate like the guys at my shop said. They swore it saves money and works the same. Mixed it at 5% like the bottle says, but after two weeks my machine started overheating and the coolant smelled like a swamp. Now I'm buying expensive disposal stuff to fix the mess. Anyone else had a bad experience switching to concentrate?

3 comments

3 Comments

williamw7519d ago

Got burned the same way man. Had an old Foreman tell me to run 6% concentrate in our Bridgeport and we got rust spots inside the coolant tank within a week. I switched to 12% and added a little squirt of anti-fungal additive from the chemical supply place. Never had a problem since. The key thing for me was buying a cheap refractometer off Amazon, like 25 bucks, so I could check the mix myself instead of guessing. Once I hit that 10-12% range the smell went away and the machine ran cool as a cucumber.

davis.olivia19d ago

Yeah I feel your pain, I mixed mine at 5% too and ended up with a coolant tank that smelled worse than my gym socks after leg day. Guess we both learned the hard way that old timer advice needs a second opinion.

max_cooper2119d ago

...and that old timer probably forgot to tell you it's not just about the ratio. You mixed it at 5% which is way too low for most machines. Most concentrates need to be 5-10% for basic protection but 10-15% for decent cooling and anti-corrosion. At 5% you basically had mostly water in there, which is why it started growing bacteria and smelling like a swamp. The concentrate itself isn't bad, you just got bad advice on the mix.