Trouble measuring anti freeze strength

It will surprise many here that the ethylene glycol component of antifreeze does in fact not oxidize or 'go bad'. This per an old chem prof of mine. I can supply the name of the prof and the university for the doubters. You can prove this to yourself by using your freeze protection tester every year , while not changing the ethylene glycol, and it will always test the same temp freezing point. What does oxidize, or 'go bad' are the antioxidants. If the antifreeze has a pH of 8, then the antioxidants are just fine. Once the pH hits 7, tho, time to replenish them separately by getting the small bottle off the shelf at the autoparts store. Armed with this information, I have not changed antifreeze, just added rust inhibitors, for more than 50 yrs, with no problems. This is important I think because the disposal of ethylene glycol presents such a problem
 
mantta said:
I lived in Duluth for three years and I seen it drop to -56 just north of there in Twig, MN.
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Mantta,
And that's why I live in "SUNNY CALIFORNIA":D I HATE COLD:eek:
I used to strain & save decent coolant, in the sun, in a metal bucket, with a wire screen on top, water would evaporate & it would become MORE concentrated! (CHEEP BILL!)
Bill W.
 
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I have the kind of "baster", about a foot long that measures specific gravity with a kind of floating buoy within. I would imagine it should work for every type of coolant, with different specific gravity readings for freezing points different coolant mixtures.
 
Have three of those el cheapo BALL type anti-freeze potency gizmos. It's my guess that the older ones get screwed up after awhile with the balls going bad. Maybe spoiled by being permeated with anti-freeze solution? And as the old timers say . . . "once an anti-freeze test ball goes bad, there ain't no setting it straight again".

Have one syphon style test unit that is of a better quality that seems to work okay and gives a good enough reading. As mentioned, we use the non-destructive PEAK green brand anti-freeze in all the vehicles around here and it looks to function okay. The Model A Ford is protected down to over 10-degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
 
Back in the '60s I bought an antifreeze tester that had a graduated float, a thermometer and a chart. You would take the float reading and the temperature, cross reference on the chart and get the antifreeze strength. Worked really good until the rubber parts deteriorated after 30 or 40 years of use. Tossed it and been kicking myself ever since for not keeping the important parts.
 
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