Unsure,
Frank
A-1-
Dear Frank..
I appreciate your concern...and I admire your concern for your customers..way to
go...Hi-Tech in not in the business of hurting cars..in fact there are hundreds of
thousands of vehicles currently using recycled coolant. When Hi-Tech first looked at the
idea of recycling (back in 1989) the first thing was ..Can it be recycled ??..the answer
is yes..to qualify that statement..when you go get a brand new gallon of virgin
anti-freeze..whats in the jug ??..well sir, there will be between 93.5% and 97% pure
ethylene glycol, not more that 3% distilled water, the rest are the inhibitors...taking
that a little further...the ethylene glycol does not wear out..it does not lose its
heating and cooling properties...it gets filthy (thats what the ARU does for a
living..cleanes it up)..you do lose your inhibitors (thats where the fortifier comes
in)..but the only way that you loose your freeze and boil points is when you stick a
garden hose in the radiator and turn it on..at which time you will need to add pure E.g.
to bring the freeze point back down to 34 below zero (OEM spec)..the fortifier locks back
in the inhibitor package..and you are ready to go..all of this will be done by the person
who contacted you in the first place...we have never had any cracked blocks..never any
rusted-out radiators...never any corroded water channels and never any cylinder linings
pitted with electrolysis...and that from all the way back in 1989...Frank as long as you
are considering having your coolant recycled..the only things that you are going to have
get used to is that when you go to use the recycled coolant...do not dilute it ..use it as
is..its pre-mixed for you and ready to go..also agitate or stir it up once a week ,or so,
to insure proper freeze point protection ..so to answer your question..I would say always
use recycled coolant..you come out better and the environment comes out better..if you
have any more questions or concerns..feel free to call 1-800-553-0509 and ask for John
Randall..thank you for your interest...John Randall....11-26-96
Q-2-
Dear High Tech...
I am working in a recycling company and last month we tried out a vacuum distillation on
antifreeze from cars. Unfortunatly the final product had an amoniacal odor and cannot be
used again. We think that additives like monoethanolamine an triethanolamine, both used as
stabilisers in Europe, decomposed during distillation. The max. temperature during
distillation was 130?C and the vacuum was 50 mbar absolute. Do you have more experience on
this problem? Please let us know.
Yours faithfully,
Frank
A-2-
Dear Frank..
My understanding on distillation is that if the temp and pressure are not set perfectly
you can get contamination boil over .. check your pH (you need to be between 9.5 and 11)
.. as far as odor try d'limonene (a derivitive of citrus orange, lemon & grapefruit
peels) it may mask the odor BUT watch for a drop in pH ....if the pH does go down use
either sodium hydroxide or pottasium hydroxide to bring the pH back up ..all of this is
assuming that you have a good re-inhibitor working for you .. because without a good
inhibitor you will be way off base and would be better off disposing of the waste coolant
.. we don't use distillation .. so I'm sorry that I can't be of more help
.. JohnRandall ..
Q-3-
What about Dex-Cool long life Coolant , does it really last longer?, is it good for
100,000 miles?? I've heard that the pH is different ... what can you tell me about it
???..
A-3-
Carboxylic Acid Salts are the base for long life coolants (Texaco and
GM hold quite a ring of patents around this) .. conventional coolants have
inorganic salts as a base, so the pH of Dex-Cool will naturally be lower. It
spec's out between 8.5 to 9.0 pH . We have also heard that it should be changed every
2 years or 30,000 miles or when the pH gets down around 8.0.. we feel
conventional coolant will last just as long as the long-life and we feel that GM
could be facing some warrantee problems with the claim that you don't have to
change it until you hit 100,000 miles .. time will tell ...
Q-4-
What can you tell me about R.O. (reverse osmosis) and distillation antifreeze recyclers??
A-4-
Our understanding is that with distillation unless your temperature and pressure
is exact you can wind up with contamination boil over .. if you have the right
settings it will give you full strenght (not diluted) glycol .. R.O works great !! until
the membranes become irreversibly plugged to the point where they will have to
be replaced, which from what we hear is very expensive and in turn we feel that
R.O is doomed to failure because it is not cost effective. If you take the money issue
away, both distillation and R.O. can deliver a beautiful quality recycled antifreeze
and are hard to beat for clarity and quality .. we just don't know of anyone who is
willing to pay the price for that process ...
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