propylene glycol

[in house worker]

We use no burst for chilled systems I'm told we can use it for heating system so I thoght why can't we use regular vehical anti freeze. Any thoughts?
Martin

[gosteelers]

if the vehicle ante freeze is propylene glycol it most likely can be used.. i know ethylene glycol is toxic and propylene is considered non toxic.. in which case if a check valve or backflow failed, mixture would not be harmful .. i also believe that certain glycols (anitfreeze) are for certain applications because of the metals within the system(aluminum, copper, steel, etc...)in which damage may occurr.. anyway i hope i was of assistance to your question ... i also hope im right .. lol

[hvac-tech-lane]

Originally posted by in house worker
We use no burst for chilled systems I'm told we can use it for heating system so I thoght why can't we use regular vehical anti freeze. Any thoughts?
Martin

Not recommended, not approved, and a really bad idea, the treatments in automotive antifreeze can/will mess up your system by reducing the ability to transfer heat. I know this sounds odd but cars etc.. are designed for the treatments our systems are not. I've heard of systems that used auto antifreeze and were ruined and could not be cleaned out.

[roc service]

Never, never use Automotive Antifreeze in an HVAC system. It contains silicates and other chemical that will clog the stainers and foul up the condensers. Use only ethylene or proplyene glycol without the automotive inhibitors. Trust me on this one. This information is from a very personal and expensive lesson learned a long time ago by a young service manager. He got a great deal on 30 drums of the automotive stuff and it cost over 15 thousand dollars to rectify the mistake.

[coolwes]

I agree.
Try this site for DowTherm products for chillers etc.

http://www.chillers.com/AntifreezeMain.htm

[in house worker]

Thank you for the info!

[acrman]

Never never use auto antifreeze in a chilled application, It is designed to be used in a "hot" enviroment, not cold. Its not BS I have personally seen the effects of using for 10 years or so. What happens is over time you get this what appears to be a wet, glassy, thick coat on everything, thus losing your heat transfer abilities. When this glassy coat dries, it is hard as cement. The clean up is major, time consuming process, not what a customer wants to hear when production has to stop to clean the chiller to do this... dont do it TRUST ME

[clydemule]

Automotive antifeeze also has agents in it that act like scouring pads for inside of your engine. Every time I see someone put it in one of our process chillers, it winds up turning the chilled water reservoir into a tank of snot.

Also, those scouring agents score pumps seals and create major leaks.

[jimp]

Originally posted by clydemule
Automotive antifeeze also has agents in it that act like scouring pads for inside of your engine. Every time I see someone put it in one of our process chillers, it winds up turning the chilled water reservoir into a tank of snot.

Also, those scouring agents score pumps seals and create major leaks.

Hows it going?

I went out to replace a bad PCO on a MED 15 Thursday for Philips and found the system filled with the bright yellow stuff, I'm assuming its car antifreeze.
If it is they will have me flush the system and install propylene glycol.

[Randy S.]

Doesn't propylene glycol turn corrosive at typical gas fired boiler temperatures?