Coolant tank in winter

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Batmanacw

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I bought a bird bath heater for my saw's coolant tank. Fail.....

How much antifreeze do I need to avoid freezing up again? I probably have two gallons of coolant right now.

Any better type of coolant? Less smell or danger to pets?
 
woodchucker said:
did you consider a heater for farm animals, like a horse , pigs, goats? I would think tractor supply would have something.


pond heater at DuckDuckGo

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A 300 watt heater would cost $27 a month. I'm already into $55 a month to heat the main shop.

Most of the heaters are too big to fit into the tank.

The bird bath heater I bought was supposed to run at 65 watts but it stopped working. Pretty quickly.
 
that seems kind of high.. real high. I would expect about 18 a month max... But if you are worried that way, 300w is about 2.5amps, go get an old type timer at walmart and set it up to run for 15 minutes per hour, or 30 minutes every 2 or 3 hours.
 
woodchucker said:
that seems kind of high.. real high. I would expect about 18 a month max... But if you are worried that way, 300w is about 2.5amps, go get an old type timer at walmart and set it up to run for 15 minutes per hour, or 30 minutes every 2 or 3 hours.
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Couldn't I just use some antifreeze?
 
woodchucker said:
that seems kind of high.. real high. I would expect about 18 a month max... But if you are worried that way, 300w is about 2.5amps, go get an old type timer at walmart and set it up to run for 15 minutes per hour, or 30 minutes every 2 or 3 hours.
Click to expand...


$0.125 per kilowatt x 0.3 kilowatts (300 watts) = $0.0375 per hour

720 hours x 0.0375 = $27
 
what about a truck battery heat blanket. I don't know why antifreeze couldn't be used.
also could use a Thermo cube outlet. It only comes on once the temp drops below a certain point
 
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I used antifreeze for years in my unheated barn for the bandsaw. Just the stuff drained from replacing antifreeze in the tractors. worked great. I did put a lot of soluble oil in it. no way would cats or dogs accidentally try to drink it then.
 
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