Clean recycled cooling water

[Andrew]

Any success (or failure) stories on keeping tanks of cooling water clear of funk?

I was thinking a weekly capful of bleach or some pool supply chlorine tablets, but outside of the unlovely poolside smell, I suspect concentrated chlorine might be bad for plastic tanks and associated fittings.

[Rich Morgan]

Any success (or failure) stories on keeping tanks of cooling water clear of funk?

I was thinking a weekly capful of bleach or some pool supply chlorine tablets, but outside of the unlovely poolside smell, I suspect concentrated chlorine might be bad for plastic tanks and associated fittings.

Chlorine is really only a problem with Stainless Steel, and long exposures at that. PVC, Polypropylene are fairly stable in low (around 10mg/Liter) Cl concentrations, so is copper and most other metals (except stainless).

To keep the water clean 1) keep the pH as low as possible (without inducing corrosion), 2) maintain the Cl levels around 10mg/Liter, 3) keep out the sunlight.

[Andrew]

Thanks much, Rich.

[delaware_phoenix]

There's also little chlorine test strips (like pH paper) you can use to easily test the concentration in water.