Spent $300 on a coolant refractometer and it paid for itself in a week

We kept having issues with rust on parts and tools wearing out too fast. I finally shelled out for a proper digital refractometer to check the coolant concentration. Turns out we were running it way too weak, like 3% instead of the 8% the brand calls for. After adjusting the mix, the rust stopped and the tool life on our aluminum jobs doubled. I was skeptical about the cost, but it fixed a problem we'd been fighting for months. Anyone else track their coolant mix this closely, or just go by look and feel?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelac637d ago

We had the same rust problem on our cast iron parts. Bought a cheap refractometer for about eighty bucks. Found our mix was all over the place, sometimes under two percent. Locked it in at five percent and the rust vanished. The cheap tool saved us a ton in ruined stock.

henry5976d ago

Man, that's a classic case of the right cheap tool fixing a huge headache. @angelac63, it's wild how something simple like the mix being off can wreck so much material. So many people just guess at that stuff and pay for it later. Getting that number locked down makes all the difference. Really smart move to just test it and stop the problem for good.

lisa_white3d ago

Wait, only two percent sometimes? @angelac63, that's basically water, no wonder everything was rusting!