Prestone 50/50 dexcool

[lanceslambos]

was at Wally world & i needed some antifreeze so i decided to "save" a few bucks by getting the 50/50 blend. Well the difference was about 4 bucks but now i wish i had just went ahead and got the pure stuff. i figure it's only half as much dexcool, the other half being water. well that was no biggie, but i tested its strength. right out of the bottle it will only float 4 out of 5 balls. apparently Prestone is watering down the mix a little too much. in my opinion it should be full strength, be it 50/50 or not. so unless you want weak antifreeze don't buy the Prestone 50/50 dexcool mix. spend the extra 4$ and get full strength.

[Deleted]

i noticed that after I had the coolant system flushed and they replaced with prestone 50/50 green my cars temp sat higher, I added some pure antifreeze and it took care of my problem..I guess all 50/50 mixes are like that

[scottydl]

How would you say that you are saving money by buying the 50/50 mix? If it were a true bargain it would be half the price of full strength, which it never is. Any more than that and you are just paying extra for water.

I know that the outside of the bottle says "50/50" but somewhere on that packaging they would have to disclose what the percentage really is. I'm sure there's a margin of error, but if the blend is substantially less than 50% then I'd have a serious issue with the manufacturer claims.

lance I'm betting that Prestone has a customer service contact e-mail on their website. Get ahold of them and describe your test, and they will likely refund you for the purchase or at least better describe their blend method if it is indeed supposedly 50% strength. I don't know how accurate those ball gauges really are.

[lanceslambos]

saved money in that i didn't have the extra bucks at the time for full strength. that's a good idea but as you say how accurate are the ball checkers?

[Deleted]

prestone is very good with their customer service. They have refunded my uncle countless times after having issues with their steering fluid with stop leak additive.

[centennialman]

Jul 27, 2009 21:50:18 GMT -6 aura1 said:

i noticed that after I had the coolant system flushed and they replaced with prestone 50/50 green my cars temp sat higher, I added some pure antifreeze and it took care of my problem..I guess all 50/50 mixes are like that

That's interesting, because it is exactly opposite of the physics. A 50/50 mixture of ethylene glycol and water has about 80% of the cooling capacity of pure water at engine operating temperatures. If only antifreeze is used, and no water, then the cooling capacity drops to less than 70%. That's one of the reasons that you never run pure antifreeze. Increasing the % of antifreeze will always place more stress on the cooling capacity of the system, so I don't know why you would notice a drop in operating temperature. That's not the way it works.

[scottydl]

That's a good point cman. And you're right, "antifreeze" is a more accurate term than "coolant" even though we interchange them most times. The reason cars use it is because it doesn't freeze in the wintertime like water would. But water is actually a more effective cooling substance in hot weather.

[Deleted]

Aug 24, 2009 8:51:12 GMT -6 centennialman said:

Jul 27, 2009 21:50:18 GMT -6 aura1 said:

i noticed that after I had the coolant system flushed and they replaced with prestone 50/50 green my cars temp sat higher, I added some pure antifreeze and it took care of my problem..I guess all 50/50 mixes are like that

That's interesting, because it is exactly opposite of the physics. A 50/50 mixture of ethylene glycol and water has about 80% of the cooling capacity of pure water at engine operating temperatures. If only antifreeze is used, and no water, then the cooling capacity drops to less than 70%. That's one of the reasons that you never run pure antifreeze. Increasing the % of antifreeze will always place more stress on the cooling capacity of the system, so I don't know why you would notice a drop in operating temperature. That's not the way it works.

I'm not sure myself, but I know it did. the car did sit idly at 210-220 and after adding more anti freeze the temp will sit idly at 180-200

[lanceslambos]

well i know that straight antifreeze needs water to induce the thermal properties. distilled water however! tap water has minerals that will stick in radiator fins and clot

[roxie60]

so what coolant do you guys use? the manual lists DEX-Cool but I'm seeing some negative comments about using DEX-COOL and its long term effects on the engine/radiator.

[lanceslambos]

you can use the regular green antifreeze if you want. just flush the system good as its not recommended to mix the two. also dexcool is great just don't waste your money on the 50/50. spend a little more and mix it yourself with distilled water.

[roxie60]

Sept 3, 2009 15:36:10 GMT -6 lanceslambos said:

you can use the regular green antifreeze if you want. just flush the system good as its not recommended to mix the two. also dexcool is great just don't waste your money on the 50/50. spend a little more and mix it yourself with distilled water.

got it

[auroralover]

I have gotten the dexcool out of all my vehicles and replaced with the "Universal" coolant. Dont like Dexcool.

[scottydl]

I never had problems with Dexcool in my Aurora (never changed it either like I know I should have), but I did pick up several gallons of the Prestone Global coolant recently also. It's suppose to be able to be mixed with any other varieties of coolant out there, Dexcool included.

[lanceslambos]

see i'm very leary of a magical antifreeze that can be mixed with green and red too. water is universal the rest i'm not trusting

[scottydl]

What I would probably do with the "Global" is drain everything I could from the system, and then add that in. Try to have the majority of my system filled with the new stuff, in other words.

[bobsblue95]

around here (Dallas) they charge the same price for 50/50 as they do for full strength ($10/gal either way). I guess there's a lot of stupid people in this market. Even if it was exactly half price, I would never buy premix, if for no other reason than I don't trust them to put 50% product in there. I'd be surprised if it's even 40%.

Anyway... antifreeze also serves another purpose, especially important to us... anti-boil! It raises the boiling point of the water, so if you live in a hotter climate, there's a reason to run a higher %. If Aurora's typically run in the 200-220 range, pure water will NOT work! The coolant boils, which means air bubbles, which means ineffective cooling leading to a death spiral by degrees.

I generally use 30-50% antifreeze and NEVER buy premix. I have not had the Aurora long enough (without the blown head gasket) to really know where her temps run, to figure out what % works best for me. YMMV.

[dens95olds]

Dec 14, 2009 20:45:31 GMT -6 bobsblue95 said:

Anyway... antifreeze also serves another purpose, especially important to us... anti-boil! It raises the boiling point of the water, so if you live in a hotter climate, there's a reason to run a higher %.

That's incorrect actually. What raises the boiling point is the pressure in the system. The more antifreeze you have, the less the ability to cool down your engine. Antifreeze is meant to lubricate the pump, keep the cooling system fluids fluid in cold temps, and minimize corrosion inside the system.

[Aurora40]

Dec 14, 2009 21:05:03 GMT -6 dens95olds said:

Dec 14, 2009 20:45:31 GMT -6 bobsblue95 said:

Anyway... antifreeze also serves another purpose, especially important to us... anti-boil! It raises the boiling point of the water, so if you live in a hotter climate, there's a reason to run a higher %.

That's incorrect actually. What raises the boiling point is the pressure in the system. The more antifreeze you have, the less the ability to cool down your engine. Antifreeze is meant to lubricate the pump, keep the cooling system fluids fluid in cold temps, and minimize corrosion inside the system.

Antifreeze absolutely raises the boiling point of water (and lowers the freezing point). Just about anything dissolved in water will raise its boiling point (and lower the freezing point).

But if you don't believe it, you can put 50/50 on the stove with a thermometer and see if it boils at 212F.

You are correct that pressure will raise the boiling point as well. And you are correct that antifreeze has less heat transfer capability than water.

[dens95olds]

my bad, i was wrong about not raising boiling point - read part of cooling system topic, cuz it got boring i didnt finish. thanks for the correcting me. my humble apology.

[Aurora40]

Dec 15, 2009 13:52:03 GMT -6 dens95olds said:

my bad, i was wrong about not raising boiling point - read part of cooling system topic, cuz it got boring i didnt finish. thanks for the correcting me. my humble apology.

Not a problem.