Diesel fuel biocide additives for machine coolants

Responding to a previous thread I thought my response should start a new thread. Any thoughts or experience on using diesel fuel additives designed to kill bacteria that can grow in diesel fuel? This one claims it works in diesel and in water. Seems like it might be useful machines that use pure cutting oil if not for water based coolant.
My electrical engineer neighbor taught me that even pure water was a better lube/coolant then dry air.
Bill D.

Bio Kleen Diesel Fuel Biocide - Power Service

Bill D said:

Responding to a previous thread I thought my response should start a new thread. Any thoughts or experience on using diesel fuel additives designed to kill bacteria that can grow in diesel fuel? This one claims it works in diesel and in water. Seems like it might be useful machines that use pure cutting oil if not for water based coolant.
My electrical engineer neighbor taught me that even pure water was a better lube/coolant then dry air.
Bill D.

Bio Kleen Diesel Fuel Biocide - Power Service

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Do your "due diligence" first in the Diesel fuel "polishing" realm.

Discover two major camps of biocide.

I alternate mine between Sta-Bil and D-Sol each go with the pumps and filters so as to "hopefully" smack-down any bugs that are adapted to surviving one.. or the other.

Safe to use in coolant that human skin, eyes, and lungs may be exposed to?

I don't know. Not sure I want to know.

The Diesel I am treating is meant to be burnt-up in a seldom-used gen set - not used for hand-warshing.

Prolly wiser to stick with products made FOR coolant biocide control?

Not as if it is new ground, not already well-served, is it?

2 biocides worth... where they were MEANT to be applied.

I run pure oil... Never had an issue with it growing bugs the way water soluble does.

From the SDS for the product you linked:

Combustible liquid. Harmful if swallowed or if inhaled. Toxic in contact
with skin. Causes skin irritation. May cause an allergic skin reaction. Causes serious eye damage.

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mTeryk said:

From the SDS for the product you linked:
.. toxic....

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Yah.. I mean.. it is meant to kill biological "things."

Last I heard from the grown-ups - or read in the funny-papers - humans were "biological", too?

I could be wrong.

Eric The Bold-without-??? Swallwell was just on the screen. Clockwork device, is he? God never built even a common rutabaga any dumber.

Kalifornickyah really, really needs to find a cheaper way of dealing with their homeless and senile-demented than sending them off to Laundry-Town at great expense to f**k up the rest of the country.

That's just not neighbourly.

Besides, New York and Ill-in-noise hold prior art on the patents for it.

We ran an old Hardinge turret lathe with straight oil. In several years, it never had bacterial issues. Same with our CNC cutter grinder. And our Sunnen hone.

Okay - stupid Q time (because I don't know the answers)

It's my understanding that the bugs - like we get in coolant can't stand / don't like low temperatures, ………...if this is so, why not run a chiller unit on the coolant tanks - taking the temp well down.

We've all had steaming coolant tanks at the end of a shift, ……...and as far as I'm aware, the colder a fluid cooling medium is the more efficient it is.


Retiring to find tin hat.

Limy Sami said:

Okay - stupid Q time (because I don't know the answers)

It's my understanding that the bugs - like we get in coolant can't stand / don't like low temperatures, ………...if this is so, why not run a chiller unit on the coolant tanks - taking the temp well down.

We've all had steaming coolant tanks at the end of a shift, ……...and as far as I'm aware, the colder a fluid cooling medium is the more efficient it is.


Retiring to find tin hat.

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Fair universal that living things or inorganic chemical reactions either one DO proceed more slowly at lower temps, but even so?

It ALSO tends to PRESERVE the buggers, so they are then lying in wait for warmup to activate them.

Chilling also tends to not be as cheap as heating.

"Tin hat" is not so irrelevant, either. Bear with me ...

Professional, "revenue" shops have made use of whichever of the proven methods (many!) suit their specific needs. There are entire INDUSTRIES have been working on that for easily a hundred years! With money. And laboratories, even.
Mostly, they have solutions. Already. LOTS of them.

"Smallholders", be they small shops, retirees. or hobbyists, are about as well advised to only MIX a "tin hat" worth of water-emulsion coolants at a go to begin with.

Don't WORRY about trying to make them last forever whilst sitting mostly idle.
Just treat and dispose of them more often is all.

Food-service industry used goods, or Asian market steamer or stock pot, bought new is all the "tin hat" volume worth of witches brew of Ho-Cut I actually need. Some use kegs or pails.

On casters, rack of tanks, pumps, filters and all. Not my idea. Saw some OTHER Pilgrim's clever example, PM or some other website - I don't even remember which.

Serves more than one machine, wheeled coolant service "truck" does.

One scavenge pump for recovery line off a sump.

One pressure pump for supply to the work.

Settlement & filter tank or tanks.

Clean(ed) supply tank. Gravity feed, even.

Preening & cleaning can go on at times when not at a machine nor even being used.

End of the day no machine even needs a coolant pump of its own, and that's even LESS money wasted lying about in sumps turning into corrosion and stink.

It's bad enough with regular coolants leading to dermatitis, and rusting problems, let alone tool wear and bad finishes.

And now you want to play "backyard meth lab" with the coolant tank ?....

Professional machine shops BUY coolant as a SYSTEM, and when problems come up, CONSULT the coolant vendor.

Anyone ever try those UltraViolet lamps to discourage
growth in their coolant tanks???

-D

TeachMePlease said:

I run pure oil... Never had an issue with it growing bugs the way water soluble does.

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TMP, I am with you on cutting oil. 25 years ago I had a little coolant in my imported cut off band saw. Since run it dry.
Every 10 or 15 years I do clean out the sumps on the rest of the machines using cutting oil. The chips I dig out will be smelly reminding you of an anaerobic septic tank. The oil will not be an issue before or after cleaning, not sure why. First guess is the bacteria only grow on the chips, probably helped out by sweat. We do run automotive oil filters or ag hydraulic filters on the oil per Carpenter's recommendations that filtered oil increases cutter life and improves surface finishes.

In another post someone said they added a little Clorox to their coolant for odor control. Can not see how that would be any better for the living organism running the machine than the diesel biocide. Clorox probably does a number on electrical connections as well as corroding the machine.