EGW Wordle
Many customers ask us what concentration of ethylene glycol we recommend they use in their chillers, cooling systems, and/or liquid cooling loops. It depends quite a bit on your thermal and mechanical requirements, such as required thermal performance, how often you replace your fluids, if you are concerned about corrosion, etc. For most applications, however, we recommend using a solution consisting of 30% ethylene glycol and 70% water (EGW). Water has the best thermal performance, while the inhibited glycol provides freezing point suppression and corrosion protection.
When higher concentrations of glycol are used, it can cause problems within your cooling loop. Over time, the concentration of glycol will increase due to evaporation of water from the system. When the glycol concentration is too high, glycol will collect in pump seals forcing them apart and creating a leak path.
What concentration of glycol are you using? Have you experienced any problems in the past because of your glycol concentration? Please share your experiences.
How often should we replace the liquid inside of the chiller?
Best regards,
Carlos jorge
We generally recommend replacing the coolant in the chiller annually if no contamination is found during routine inspections. This application note, Recirculating Chiller Tune Ups: Operation and Maintenance of Your Coolest Equipment, which was written by our service manager, is a very helpful overview of chiller maintenance.
We use 50/50 by volume trying to go for maximum freeze protection. If you look on the internet you should be able to find freezing curves of the EGW. Be careful if it is volume or weight. 30/70 sense like a good compromise if you don’t need peak freezing performance. We have seen a glycol gel in stagnet points in a close loop system. It has not been problem for us for leaks. We do see it break down with time and form acid when exposed to UV. How about Propylene Glycol? Is anyone using it as a substitue for ethlyene glycol. We know EG has toxicity issues and the freezing point of the PG solution continues to drop as the concentration of PG to water increases. It is widely used in automotive and hydronic heating systems.