How good is Redline Water wetter?

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I've used it for years with no harm until I put it in G-48, then it made brown snot. I'm not going to try it again to see if it is repeatable, but I have no reason to blame the snot on anything other than the WW.
 
I think WW was origionally to be used with 100% water but, marketing found another market; your coolant. I too have seen many complain about WW turning coolant to a brown sludge. I doubt you will find any real data that suggest that a small percentage of WW does much if anything for your cooling system.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Exact brown snot happened on my brand new Volvo 850 in 1996. It has happened to thousands of cars, and is caused by Water Wetter. Ask Redline.


I think Volvo also uses G-48 from the factory, so I'm not shocked. I think I will ask Redline - perhaps they could at least suggest the most effective way to clean up the snot. I've seen it embedded in rough casting inside the block. That loss of heat transfer worries me more than spongy chunks floating around here and there.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest
What are you trying to gain from this?


Really. Water Wetter is mainly used in racing applications where antifreeze can not be used, but corrosion protection is needed. I believe antifreeze also acts to break up surface tension in the same way water wetter does - so the antifreeze mixture can actually transfer heat better than water alone. Hence the use of water wetter in racing applications.

If you had a digital water temperature gauge, I bet you'd see little if any temperature drop using it.
 
Water wetter works IMHO. I ran it with a 50/50 mix of water and normal green antifreeze and it lengthened the time between the fan cycles on my Mustang engine by maybe a minute or two and the car took longer for the fan to come on.

Great product, but don't expect it to make up for an inadequate cooling system; it won't.
 
Don't expect WW to make any temp difference on a system that is working properly. If the thermostat is not all they way open, then the increased heat transfer will only cause the thermostat to vary its opening slightly to adjust. You would not notice that temp difference, or at least I doubt it.

However, if you max out the cooling system and the thermostat is all they way open, then it can make an actual difference in the temps.

As to how much difference it makes in a normal street 50/50 application, I'm curious as well. I use it from time to time when I perceive a cooling system to be less than overkill for my application.

I have never had problems with it FWIW.
 
I used 40% coolant and 60% water in my 5.0 Mustang and it made the overflow tank full of brown slime. I really didn't notice any drop in temps.

Save your money.
 
Originally Posted By: Craig in Canada
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Exact brown snot happened on my brand new Volvo 850 in 1996. It has happened to thousands of cars, and is caused by Water Wetter. Ask Redline.


I think Volvo also uses G-48 from the factory, so I'm not shocked. I think I will ask Redline - perhaps they could at least suggest the most effective way to clean up the snot. I've seen it embedded in rough casting inside the block. That loss of heat transfer worries me more than spongy chunks floating around here and there.



FYI, Redline engaged their chemist and haven't acknowledged WaterWetter snot as a "known problem". He was unable to re-create the problem with BMW coolant so far...

Pablo, if you have any more reference material I'd love to have it. I'm not "going after" Redline. I would like to know the best effective clean up method/chemical for whatever this deposit is and I wish they would issue a G-48 compatibility warning or something.
 
I've used it in my ranger with the standard green coolant (mixes of prestone, Peak, and Meijer coolants) and it's still nice and BRIGHT green. I had a bottle of it at home, so I put it in the Roadmaster (prestone) the other day when I was replacing the water pump. I'll find out if it turns anything brown..
 
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You might want to consider Motormax also. It is not a water wetter type of coolant additive. I have tried both and prefer Motormax. You can find it on the Web by typing in "Motormax coolant" into a search engine.
 
I've actually had better luck with the RP 'Purple Ice' when used in Dex Cool.

The Water Wetter did seem to cause that brown/tan 'snot/gunk', so I tried the RP.
NO 'snot' so far!

(See, RP does make some worthwhile products.
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If you look at their chart 50/50 with WW added only nets a 8*F drop at 220*F. That wouldn't noticeable in any normal driving with a healthy cooling system. If your vehicle tends to get hot then it might help as a band-aid.
 
I've added WW to Toyota Red, and I saw a pink precipitate float out of solution. It works fine with regular old Green, but not with OEM Toyota fills.
 
It's mainly best suited for pure water applications in racing where glycol cannot be used. If normal antifreeze gets on a track its slippery and very hard to clean up, but WW can be added to water and if the car wrecks it won't hurt the track.

In a car with normal 50/50 mix... worthless. You're better off changing the coolant to 70 water / 30 coolant in the summer and back to 50/50 in the winter.
 
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