Here Is Why Premixed Antifreeze Is Better Than Concentrated Coolant For Your Car
Antifreeze or coolant is a major requirement of cars running in Pakistan. In 8 out of 12 months, we get high weather temperatures and our cars take a lot of beating considering conditions of our roads and traffic jams. It is antifreeze’s job to keep your car cool and running.
In this article, we will debate whether you should go for premixed antifreeze or buy the concentrated antifreeze and add it to your car’s cooling system yourself.
You can buy a lot of off the shelf concentrated antifreeze brands from your local market, and add it to your car’s cooling system yourself, but there can be couple of issues here. First thing is, you need to know the optimal ratio of the antifreeze to water; usually its 1 part antifreeze and 3 part water. Some recommend 50/50 ratio. It all depends on factors like what car you own, what antifreeze you are buying, the average ambient temperature of the city/area you live it, etc. Antifreeze manufacturers also have instructions on the bottle for making the perfect mix. You can waste your one weekend afternoon off from work and measuring the water and the antifreeze mixture, but most of the people do not even know how much coolant does their car use. And also, you can’t just pour the whole concentrate in the system and top it up. That can be very harmful and can lead to disintegration of metal and rubber parts of your engine.
Second thing is the quality of water we have in Pakistan; “Peenay ko milta nahi, car mein kya dalna hai”. All the impurities it has in it can lead to antifreeze not performing to its fullest. The use of tap water can have extreme detrimental effects on the finished mixture depending on what it contains. The acidity in the tap water itself can break the chemical compound of antifreeze, rendering it less effective.
Here comes the benefit of getting a premixed antifreeze. If you are buying a antifreeze of some reputed manufacturer, you can have peace of mind that they have not also used deionized or distilled water for mixing but also the mixing ratios have been kept taken care of. Another plus point of getting a premixed antifreeze is that they usually have longer service life span than whatever you can cook in the name of coolant, in your garage or at your mechanic’s. You don’t end up replacing it every other year. Some premixed antifreeze last as long as 5 years.
Premixed antifreeze can save you a lot of hassle in your everyday life, and in longer run, can save you money in repairs that could have been easily avoided in the first place.
Some good pre-mixed antifreeze brands please…i am a noob in coolant matters help would be appreciated.
Try FUCHS, ZIC, Caltex or any other reputable barnd’s. As long as you trust the brand, you can trust the coolant.
I used NASA Anti Boil , Anti Rust it was premixed Coolant but Anti-Freeze wasn’t mention… Are there 2 type anti freeze and anti boil ? for instance anti-freeze for cold environment & anti boil for hot temperature?
The writter of this article rraiseraised some valid points to aware people about the benefits of using premixed radiator liquidds over the concentrates. Noverthless, coolant and antifreez are not a same thing. Even though we can found many rad liquids which hav additives for the both puposes but still not the same thing. Rather than using coolant as a term the writter used Antifreez more persistently which is wrong in context of describing a liquid for hot boiling conditions. In Pak summers or even in winters of most of areas except some in north, one dont need a coolant which have anti freez additives.
Secondly, I want to add one one more thing, which is the premixed coolants are also of two types Glycolic and non glycolic. The later one shouldare eferable over its predecessor as it has more life, better heat coefficient and anti rust abilities.
Anti freez additives isareo avoid freezing of the Radiator liquid togetherin freezing cold weather.
You need not to worry this if dnt live an area where temperature drops below 0C.
And one more thing. Never mix two different coolants together especially when trying to utilise a left over from a prev fill and then adding up the new one of diffrent brand or even a different type from same maker. They ought to react with each other at high temps and can cause sagging or rust in the cooling system. BEWARE!!!!!
Anti-Freeze, Anti-Boil, Engine Coolant, Coolant, etc. are all different names of the same thing which is used in engines to prevent the water from boiling and freezing.
The chemical name for the coolant is: Ethylene glycol
The word Antifreeze is conventional, or in other words, you can say general. The literal meaning, that is, to protect the liquid from freezing, is one of its properties. Another property is that is has a higher boiling point and hence it elevates the boiling point of the solution, which goes into radiator. These are known as freezing point depression and boiling point elevation respectively. The radiator mixture with antifreeze remains in liquid state for a wider range of temperature (both upper and lower bound extended). If the mixture freezes, the water will expand and the radiator pipes will crack, if it boils and changes to vapors, the pressure will rise and radiator will burst.
Thank you for your reply. Please consider writing for PW blog as well. We would love to have knowledgeable people like you on our writing panel.
My 2 cents:
Water is the best coolant because of its high specific heat. However, use of water from Tap is detrimental due to few reasons.
1. it causes scales buildup in the radiators and engine block.
2. It causes rust due to dissolved oxygen.
3. It boils at about 100 degC (In closed system, Boiling point is little higher due to pressure exerted), if the temperature of water is raised to near boiling, significant pressure can build up it the radiator and its cooling can be severely affected.
4. In cold weather, it can freeze near Zero degree. Volume of ice is higher than water. Freezing of water can exert tremendous pressure and can cause the leak in radiators.
Therefore, to alleviate the Boiling point and to depress the freezing point of water, Ethylene Glycol or Propylene Glycol is added. (With a small tool REFRACTOMETER, you can see easily how much EG or PG is added to water. Along with EG and PG there are other additives also added. For example anti-fouling agent, antirust (different for Aluminum and copper radiators) and sometimes anti foaming agents.
One should prefer premixed over concentrated. In premixed, deionized or distilled water is used and this prevents scales buildup.
Hope this will help those who want to know about Antifreeze / Coolant.