Water Coolers

[Richard]

Greetings
I've read that water cooled torches can be connected to any clean cold water supply and the return hose allowed to drain outside, in the garden or anywhere safe. Assuming that the source water is clean , no minerals, not too acidic,etc. and then run thru an activated charcoal final filter, is there a down side?
Thanks, Richard

[Wrenchtamer]

the down side is that the system is not a closed loop and you are basically pouring water right down the drain. I got myself a big fountain style pump from HD for about fifty bucks and three gallons of RV coolant (the pink stuff) from NAPA. I have run my machine up to maybe three minutes wide open (DC tig with pulse) and the torch has never gotten warm. The garden hose method I hear has been widely utilized however I have not tried it myself.

[Richard]

the down side is that the system is not a closed loop and you are basically pouring water right down the drain. I got myself a big fountain style pump from HD for about fifty bucks and three gallons of RV coolant (the pink stuff) from NAPA. I have run my machine up to maybe three minutes wide open (DC tig with pulse) and the torch has never gotten warm. The garden hose method I hear has been widely utilized however I have not tried it myself.

Greetings Wrenchtamer,
Thanks for your reply. This is my second attempt to reply to you. My first attempt seems to have vaporized ?? In the dry months I need to water the vegetables and landscaping any way so no water wasted. In the winter I'm going to try running the drain through a filter and back down my well. My concern was for the equipment so based on your info, and what I've read else where , I'm going to give it a try
Thanks again,Richard

[footboarder]

. . . .I understand that a water cooler should maintain 50 psi. My w/c torch hookup has 25' of hoses. A garden pump would have to have a 'lift' of about 100 feet to get that pressure. Not a small pump.
. . . .I have come into a 'leaking' 40 gal water heater tank that my neighbor 'donated' to me. I am assuming the leak is towards the bottom of the tank, and when the snow gets away from the bottom of my butt, I'm going to locate it and repair it.
. . . .I may then use this tank 'upside down', and put a garden pump on the discharge side of the tank bottom (less pressure in the tank then, maybe none), with the filter between the tank and the pump suction.
. . . .I imagine I will need at least 20 gallons of RV anti-freeze to get the freezing point low enough.
. . . .My plans were to put a 'whole house' filter between the pump suction and the tank bottom. My city water is very hard but I do not really know why I would need an activated charcol filter, just a fine mesh one may do. I believe the carbon filter is for taste. I just put my SR-20 w/c torch on my lines and they are very small ID diameter. But I would be happier if I had a filter that removed lime, magnesium and iron. Those torch copper water lines are very small and I fear lime build-up there because of the heat.
. . . . Anyone reccommend a filter for this?
. . . .40 gallons should give me enough cooling reserve because I doubt I could weld long enough to heat it up before I would need to make a 'latrine' call. And as a hobbist I can't imagine any job that big.
. . . .Since my tank is a repair job I am even considering putting a small hot water furnace expansion tank on it to keep the pressure from building. Or running a small ID vent line up to the ridge of my garage. Maybe even a small vented expansion tank there too.
. . . Anyone have a pump in mind that would serve my purposes?
I had been thinking about a type of hydrophonic gardening pump, but the 100 foot lift may be too much for those.
. . . .Finally. Yes, I am going to remove the tank insulation.

[performance]

I think I posted a link to a 115 volt sprayer pump with a diaphraghm, on demand pump. In fact most of the things you are looking for can be bought cheaply by looking for parts related to agricultural sprayers. They have many parts that will work.

[ryanfull]

Richard,
I don't know what kind a well you have but running any water from the surface back down a well is always a bad idea. Contamination of water sources is a big concern. Even if the well you are talking about is not used for drinking water the ground water can be contaminated and then eventually contaminating drinking water supplys. Your best bet would be to just let it run out where it can freeze in a place where its out of the way and then in spring it can be naturally filtered back through the ground.

[A/C Guy]

. . . .I understand that a water cooler should maintain 50 psi. My w/c torch hookup has 25' of hoses. A garden pump would have to have a 'lift' of about 100 feet to get that pressure. Not a small pump.
. . . .I have come into a 'leaking' 40 gal water heater tank that my neighbor 'donated' to me. I am assuming the leak is towards the bottom of the tank, and when the snow gets away from the bottom of my butt, I'm going to locate it and repair it.
. . . .I may then use this tank 'upside down', and put a garden pump on the discharge side of the tank bottom (less pressure in the tank then, maybe none), with the filter between the tank and the pump suction.
. . . .I imagine I will need at least 20 gallons of RV anti-freeze to get the freezing point low enough.
. . . .My plans were to put a 'whole house' filter between the pump suction and the tank bottom. My city water is very hard but I do not really know why I would need an activated charcol filter, just a fine mesh one may do. I believe the carbon filter is for taste. I just put my SR-20 w/c torch on my lines and they are very small ID diameter. But I would be happier if I had a filter that removed lime, magnesium and iron. Those torch copper water lines are very small and I fear lime build-up there because of the heat.
. . . . Anyone reccommend a filter for this?
. . . .40 gallons should give me enough cooling reserve because I doubt I could weld long enough to heat it up before I would need to make a 'latrine' call. And as a hobbist I can't imagine any job that big.
. . . .Since my tank is a repair job I am even considering putting a small hot water furnace expansion tank on it to keep the pressure from building. Or running a small ID vent line up to the ridge of my garage. Maybe even a small vented expansion tank there too.
. . . Anyone have a pump in mind that would serve my purposes?
I had been thinking about a type of hydrophonic gardening pump, but the 100 foot lift may be too much for those.
. . . .Finally. Yes, I am going to remove the tank insulation.

First, the 50 PSI is the max rating for the torch, Less is ok, less is preferred, more will ruin the torch.
Second, a used water heat has such high concentrations of corroded metals and minerals that you will ruin the torch.

If you compare the weight of an old water heater to a new water heater, you will quickly see that they retain over 40 or 50 pounds of deposits. You don't want that crud in your tig torch.

[Wookie]

if you value your torch run Distilled water in a closed loop chiller any minerals in the water will eventually plug your torch head and if your in an area that freezes add a lil bit of glycol to the distilled water

[Nikola Tesla]

I am abolutley ashamed of my cooling set up. A 5 gallon bucket and a small pump. It cools just fine. Now you got me paranoid about jamming up my torch. There is a small prefilter on the pond pump I use. I dont think its much more than 20 PSI. It seams to be cold enough. Then again I havnt done any thick enough stuff to get it too hot. Thanks for this information. I do have a reverse osmosis machine. I will have to think about what I am going to do for a better filter.

Thanks

[Canada]

When designing your cooling system remember that the filters are going to add load to you pump and reduce the water flow so some additional sizing may be required to compensate. I would consider using a side stream filter system that are used with boiler systems. You can go from 20 down to 1 micron filters. There would also be no issues using additives like glycol, rust inhibitors, etc. as these are routinely used in heating loops. House filters may not be able to tolerate `mixed water` or coolants.

[wruehl]

Richard,
I don't know what kind a well you have but running any water from the surface back down a well is always a bad idea. Contamination of water sources is a big concern. Even if the well you are talking about is not used for drinking water the ground water can be contaminated and then eventually contaminating drinking water supplys. Your best bet would be to just let it run out where it can freeze in a place where its out of the way and then in spring it can be naturally filtered back through the ground.

Just for referance industry does this all the time, we use well water to cool chillers and send that water back down the well. You have to prove that you are not adding anything to the water beyond heat but we typicaly might dump kilowatts of heat, much more than a little bitty tig torch. I still think the small pump, automotive heater core, muffin fan, resevoir is the way to go AND can be a fun little project.

[Wookie]

also running tap water will errode your power cable alot faster then not using distilled when it errodes it no longer works and has to be replaced ... also HF doesnt carry as well over tap water