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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Recommended Coolant Change Interval in Projectors (Page 1)

 
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Author Topic: Recommended Coolant Change Interval in Projectors
Mark Gulbrandsen
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 - posted 02-09-2015 03:37 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What are the recommended coolant change out intervals in D-Cinema Projectors? There doesn't seem to be any straight answers on this from the manufacturers....

Thanks!

Mark

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Nocevski Toni
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 - posted 02-09-2015 04:22 PM      Profile for Nocevski Toni   Email Nocevski Toni   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
For Kinoton DCP is once in the year.

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Dave Macaulay
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Barco annually, Christie 4 yrs (32000 hours)
Barco also wants new coolant pumps every 4 years.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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 - posted 02-10-2015 06:00 AM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
NEC only wants the distilled water topped off as needed with not scheduled change out.

Personally, I think the real answer is somewhere between what Barco and what Christie wants. Barco is probably seeking a form of revenue from the coolant but also preemptively ensuring that the coolant is at the proper levels and if there is any debris in the system that you are flushing it out rather than letting it build up. You are also more apt to find an aging cooling system (hoses cracking or connectors/fittings) if you are opening it up and changing the coolant.

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Marco Giustini
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how do you flush a Christie?

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Mark Gulbrandsen
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 - posted 02-10-2015 04:07 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Well, NEC doesn't use distilled water actually. Its some sort of orange colored coolant. There is a part number for it. They may just want it topped off with distilled water though and thats fine. I have yet to have any of them change. But in installing a new light engine is makes sense to me to dump the coolant, flush the system and add new. I have only done Barco's in the past and I can buy that coolant in bulk, so no big deal.

Thanks for all the input...

Mark

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Dave Macaulay
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I asked NEC, and they said the coolant was "lifetime" and not needing any changing. I suppose they can get you some if it leaks out...? I have changed the prism assembly on a 2000C and didn't lose more than a few drops of coolant.

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Marcel Birgelen
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 - posted 02-10-2015 06:13 PM      Profile for Marcel Birgelen   Email Marcel Birgelen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Well, NEC doesn't use distilled water actually. Its some sort of orange colored coolant.
Practically all common water based coolants are either green or orange. It's always basically just distilled water, glycol as anti-freeze and some corrosion inhibitor. The orange coolant is supposed to last longer than the green stuff and you're not supposed to mix them.

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Monte L Fullmer
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 - posted 02-10-2015 06:29 PM      Profile for Monte L Fullmer   Email Monte L Fullmer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Orange coolant is like what GM uses in their vehicle's cooling system, which is under the trade name of "Dexcool", yet prob not the same stuff designated for our digital units.

Ethylene Glycol is what is in the green coolant.
Propylene Glycol is what is in the orange coolant and doesn't corrode aluminum as the alcohol based coolant would.

-Monte

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Ron Funderburg
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 - posted 02-10-2015 06:57 PM      Profile for Ron Funderburg   Author's Homepage   Email Ron Funderburg   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes I have changed out three NEC light engines now and we lost about one drop from each of the two feed lines. I don't know what could get in the lines but corrosion.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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 - posted 02-11-2015 06:32 AM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I'm sure NEC's theory on the topping off is that if any liquid is down over time...what would have evaporated off is the water, not the glycol. If you constantly replenish with a 50/50 mix, you are in effect increasing the glycol to water ratio and thereby thickening the solution...which could cause flow problems.

Another reason is if you put your own "anti-freeze" in you may not match the chemical composition...safer to just say to top off with distilled water.

As for the others...Christie and Barco both use a "Blue" version of antifreeze. I would caution that not all glycol/water solutions are identical. One thing a projector manufacturer has to do is ensure that whatever mixture goes in has to not breakdown the components it comes in contact with. In fact, Barco got a bad batch a few years back that WOULD degrade the rubber. Remember, you are having that solution running through a light engine worth upwards of nearly $30,000 if 4K...do you really want to cheap out on the antifreeze to save a could of bucks on a coolant change?

The best stuff I've ever worked with (not on DLPs) was what Kinoton used...Tyfocoor. It too was a glycol based antifreeze but this stuff stayed very clear over time. It definitely kept things from growing in the lines.

Christie doesn't try to hide where they source their stuff. It is Jeffcool.

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Gordon McLeod
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 - posted 02-11-2015 10:04 AM      Profile for Gordon McLeod   Email Gordon McLeod   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The barco coolant was a 50/50 mixture of glycol and water but it did not have a corrosion inhibitor in several of their batchs and it caused a lot of grief with clogged pumps
Apparently the EU doesn't permit phosphates to be used in antifreeze due to a reaction with the high lime content in most water and there is a organic inhibitor that wasn't included in the barco stuff
We added DiPotasium Phosphate at 5%

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Dave Macaulay
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Current Barco blue coolant is 1/3 ethylene glycol ("ethanediol" to them) - I don't know when they switched the concentration. This could affect some drive-in systems: 33% freezes at about -15C, 50% at -37C.
I never saw any announcement of the change. The part number is the same I believe although I only have the old bottles with 50% solution, not the shipping carton with the PN.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
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 - posted 02-11-2015 01:09 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I think California also outlawed phosphates quite some time ago.

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Jason Raftery
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 - posted 02-11-2015 07:11 PM      Profile for Jason Raftery   Email Jason Raftery   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Dave Macaulay
Current Barco blue coolant is 1/3 ethylene glycol ("ethanediol" to them) - I don't know when they switched the concentration. This could affect some drive-in systems: 33% freezes at about -15C, 50% at -37C.
I never saw any announcement of the change. The part number is the same I believe although I only have the old bottles with 50% solution, not the shipping carton with the PN.

Was this a very recent change? I've got quite a number of bottles with a packing date of 2015-01-07 and the MSDS that came with them lists an ethylene glycol content of 45-55% and dipotassium phosphate concentration of 0.5-1.5%.

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