Why Water Quality Matters

[niky]

ya science is useless in societies where decisionmaking is based on tradition and supersition and mythology


plus the very pinoy characteristic of unwillingness to solve problems before they happen and/or the inability to identify problems before they happen


plus the unwillingness and/or inability to think long term

plus the unwillingness to spend to prevent breakdown

that's what your radiator soft water coolant science is up against here

Just because some people are hard headed doesn't mean it's not worth spreading the message.

[EVO-V]

Oppss, wag muna.
It's normal to have people think the other way. One drinks Pepsi the other is Coke.

Anyway, how to de-clog a radiator?

I usually haveit rodded by our on call rad guy. Then refill with the correct amount of manufacturer specified coolant. Apparently, thoughts differ on the practice but I have never had a rodded radiator fail on me since 1996 and we drive some of the vehicles very hard. We do get minor stuff like clamp failures or small pinhole leaks where the rad top attaches to the rad but nothing major or nothing that will render the vehicle inoperable.

Srp for rodding and flushing is 2000 i think. But we pay fleet prices so its nowhere near that.

Vinj also gets his rads rodded at the same place. Hehe.

Thank you for your kind words doggieD. Glad to be of help.

Well its pretty good to know that the sensibility to noise ratio has gone up. Rodding is normally applicable to large radiators normally for trucks/buses/gensets with the original OEM units in place. This works if and when done properly but only up to a point.

It works very well for most heavy duty radiators, especially those made circa 2002 and below because most of the tubes were double-tinned. Meaning they had a layer of solder both inside and out giving tubes a protective layer against abrasion. Replacement aftermarket radiators not only have thinner tube walls due to cost cutting, and given the prices of tin now, make it very expensive for a layer of solder to be added internally.

Getting what you essentially pay for.

The limits to "rodding" or "sundot" are purely mechanical. Abrade your tube walls enough times and it will bite you back when you need it most." That is why the usual recommendation errs towards replacement given the cost of a breakdown relative to the part is costlier. Cheap insurance, especially when you factor in value-oriented radiators.

This is another topic on its own.

Fleet management is a science, it isn't even a choice between paradigms of rich and poor. The presence of well-managed fleets and those that aren't is proof of that.

However, a responsible vendor sees value in informing and aiding their customers towards best practices. An insidious one will seek to profit prohibitively from breakdowns. The pretense of lament and disdain against this practice isn't hiding that orientation very well. After all why would someone be so adamant about pitching the futility of progress in the third world, if he makes a living off "puwede na iyan".

We shouldn't be making needless analogies on how our vehicles have it better than our personnel. If you maintain your vehicles right you would have more for improving your workers' quality of life. But of course this again depends on your inclinations as a human being.

[doggieD]

nosebleed uli. hehehe. pero tama kayo sir evo-v.
mahalaga yung information at yung pagpupursigi ng mga namahala sa mga negosyo nila.
salamat po muli.

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nosebleed uli. hehehe. pero tama kayo sir evo-v.
mahalaga yung information at yung pagpupursigi ng mga namahala sa mga negosyo nila.
salamat po muli.

[doggieD]

sir evo-v, paano po yung sundot? hanggang ilang beses namin puwedeng gawin iyon sa radiator at kailan namin dapat palitan na?
salamat naman na nag-reply uli kayo rito.

[EVO-V]

sir evo-v, paano po yung sundot? hanggang ilang beses namin puwedeng gawin iyon sa radiator at kailan namin dapat palitan na?
salamat naman na nag-reply uli kayo rito.

doggieD, mahirap tumantsa. For one I do not know how old your units are and how many times you've maintained your radiators in that fashion.

But the rules are actually more rational in numbers. How much does it cost you to pull your vehicle out of service to maintain the radiator? Labor, time, revenue loss? Ideally if you're running a fleet you would want to keep your vehicles running at all times. So any down time, unless your level of utilization is lower per vehicle, that a few of them are idle or are used as spares, mitigates this.

Example, 1 day of down time costs you 10,000 pesos. Yung mekanino mo sabihin na natin na 600 isang araw. Add materials and consumables and you get your total. Normally say around 12,000 gone from you for one vehicle down by unscheduled maintenance.

That's your cost. You say this happens every 4-5 months so that happens twice a year. That's a new radiator already.

Or you can look at it differently. Buying the right part will earn you more than what you paid for it given the nature of you operations.

Now I say all this with some caution, I'm not privy to the nuances of your enterprise but that's pretty much how preventive maintenance and replacement is simplified to.

As for that problem of yours with the leaking tube. There are limitations on how you may repair that. Normally if a tube fails it is "killed" by sealing it on both ends if the leak is substantial as the material is too thin to withstand prolonged exposure to an torch.

A compromised tube normally is a root cause for cascading failures across the core.

BTW, did you check if your thermostat's o-ring is still sealing properly? That's a source of a slow leak via water vapor.

[doggieD]

naku hindi po. pa-check ko po yung mga o-ring.
thank you po uli sir evo-v.

[ghosthunter]