Coolant replacement.

Thoughts on coolant replacement?
The company I work for, changes our coolant on February 29th. In other words, hardly ever.
I’m sure that can’t be healthy with bacteria growing in it.

im sure your last sentence was correct.

simple fix...replace it

If your company changes coolant strictly because the date they set has arrived then it's probably not the best bet. coolant replacement should be based off of numerous metrics, not just a date.

Date has nothing to do with it being good or bad ... when I worked for the government years ago we had a couple guys that chewed and would spit in the coolant and it would not make it a week,,, I skim my coolant every week and drain it out of the sump and clean the sump as needed and have some that is 4+ years old and still working like new ...

so the bottom line is simple ,, how are you treating the coolant?

At the big shop guys were caught Pzing in the coolant just to have a longer break time.

I have seen so MANY MANY MANY posts on here about coolant. Does the average shop only run one type of material and part? If so then I say skim,bubble and whatever as much as you want to.

Coolant to me is a consumable. Get's lost when parts get taken out, get's contaminated with stainless,cast iron,steel,brass,bronze etc etc. FFS it is used up, wasted, evaporated.

When it is dodgy, clean the whole damn tank. When it is bearable run it as long as you can.

Unless it you are working for strict customers that cannot have certain coolant on their parts then I think most people fuss about it too much.

and on edit... I get rashes from dodgy bacteria infested coolant. So I notice it straight away, but I still don't bitch about my coolant being a tiny off the 8% concentration that so many strive for. We don't pee, throw cigarettes, spit,puke etc etc???? in our coolant but it WILL still go off if machine tools actually get used.

Castrol said:

If your company changes coolant strictly because the date they set has arrived then it's probably not the best bet. coolant replacement should be based off of numerous metrics, not just a date.

Click to expand...

You guys are getting worse at spotting spam.


3 month old thread about oil bumped to the top by a guy named CASTROL...

The sales pitch will be coming soon.

TeachMePlease said:

You guys are getting worse at spotting spam.


3 month old thread about oil bumped to the top by a guy named CASTROL...

The sales pitch will be coming soon.

Click to expand...

SHIIIIT, didn't spot that one. And weirdly enough I am using the damn C@strol name brand at the momnet. Bought 2 210L of the stuff.

OK I'll bite. We just switched to Oemata and couldn't be happier so far. Their way lube mixes with the coolant and doesn't foul it out. Is that the product you were trying to sell?

TeachMePlease said:

3 month old thread about oil bumped to the top by a guy named CASTROL...

The sales pitch will be coming soon.

Click to expand...

Ya' know, if this is an actual coolant engineer (not just a sales rep), I'd welcome an even-handed expert on coolant issues. I mean, we grouse about coolant all the time, so having someone around who really knows the stuff could be useful.

So, Mr. Castrol, tell us about yourself. Are you in Naperville? Engineer, or sales guy?

Milland said:

Ya' know, if this is an actual coolant engineer (not just a sales rep), I'd welcome an even-handed expert on coolant issues. I mean, we grouse about coolant all the time, so having someone around who really knows the stuff could be useful.

So, Mr. Castrol, tell us about yourself. Are you in Naperville? Engineer, or sales guy?

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in who it is, I likely know him. I worked at Castrol back in the 90's as a chemist and field service engineer. I am still in the business but I work one step up the food change and coolant companies are my customers now.

Coolants are like anything else in the machine shop they have to be maintained, but most shops don't maintain them. At a minimum machine tools should have a dump, clean and recharge once a year. But if you are running 24/7 more like every 6 months or sooner, if you are running heavy on Cast Iron, more likely every month or 2.

But thing like oil skimmers, filtration, removing fines from the system all play an important part.

Any questions, please send them my way...