16-04-2018, 08:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 16-04-2018, 08:26 AM by Andy Bennett.)
I was involved in cooling mediums for copper anodes for vacuum tubes. The simple answer was always that deionised or demineralised water was best, but needed careful management to ensure it didn't become corrosive. Oil was a more stable but less efficient medium and of course had more environmental considerations.. Oil/water emulsions offered the worst mix since they needed the careful management of water but the lower efficiency close to that of oil and higher cost and management.
The biggest enemy of high efficiency cooling were from things like silicon contaminates which coated the anodes and added a barrier to cooling.
Having said that I also visited steel tube mills in India where the waterways in the cooling jackets were blocked with weeds. They were using pond water. The water cooling itself was fine, it was just the weed and physical blocking that caused problems.
I have always used filtered water butt water with bluecol antifreeze.
Lesson was simply that in anything less than the highest level cooling water works, just keep the weeds and fish out...
Andy B
The biggest enemy of high efficiency cooling were from things like silicon contaminates which coated the anodes and added a barrier to cooling.
Having said that I also visited steel tube mills in India where the waterways in the cooling jackets were blocked with weeds. They were using pond water. The water cooling itself was fine, it was just the weed and physical blocking that caused problems.
I have always used filtered water butt water with bluecol antifreeze.
Lesson was simply that in anything less than the highest level cooling water works, just keep the weeds and fish out...
Andy B
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think!