Hello, New to this forum....and Water Cooler Question.

[Synchroman]

Hello to all from Northern California!

I'm new to this forum although I'm a long-time hobby welder, machinist and motorcycle fancier.

I am the proud owner of one-year old Miller Synchrowave 200 as of this morning. I thought I would come over here so I can learn more about it. It is in perfect condition with little use. At present it has a #17 aircooled torch which I will change to a Weldcraft water-cooled torch that I already have on the shelf.

I traded in a 250/250 TIG Stick Lincoln that had a home-made stainless steel 15 gallon tank with a nice vane pump on top to circulate the water. There is no radiator, just a tank and pump. I kept this when I traded machines thinking that I might use it. The Lincoln was a 1984 Model and the tank was on it when I got it in 1994. The tank and pump sat on a rack and I usually ran it about half full of water with a couple of gallons of GM Dex-cool in it.

In all of the literally hundreds of hours I used the Lincoln on TIG with this cooler, the torch never overheated and I doubt if the water ever even went up three degrees.

The pump has a vintage 1/4 hp motor with a vane rotor inside (one moving part) and it has a very nice stream and pressure although I don't know the numbers. The return stream that empties into a stainless filter cup on top of the tank looks about like a water fountain and has never clogged. The Lincoln was set up so that the water pump would start when the foot pedal was depressed. This also started the gas flow and opened a water solenoid at the same time as the pump started. When you were finished welding, the water pump would run until the post-flow of gas was done.

The dealer that sold me the machine said that he prefers to see the pump running whenever the machine is turned on. The Synchrowave 200 has no water solenoid and he mentioned that a water solenoid really isn't necessary so long as the pump operation is tied to the machine, for example, power could come from one of the two 120 VAC sockets on the front panel of the 200, except I would need to shut it off when doing stick welding....maybe with a separate switch on the pump?

I'm not adverse to getting something like a Miller or a Bernard unit if necessary but this tank has served me well on the other machine and it's extremely well made. I'm going back to the dealer on Monday for the water-cooled fittings for my Weldcraft torch to use on the 200 and then I'll get the machine running.

So.......my question is this; is there any reason why I should be running with a radiator if it seems that the water never heats up with just water/coolant in the tank. ?

Thanks for listening. I'll be shorter next time. Thanks in advance for any comments.

SM

[Jolly Roger]

It it works and you like it I think that's all that matters, right.

[man of steel]

response

the rads on the units are like heat exchangers they have fans on them to blow the heat away,if you havent had problems in the past give it a whirl,but i would keep a close eye on the temps,some applications dont even need water cooled torches but it has its advantages.depends on how many hours in a day you run your gear

[SundownIII]

Synchroman,

Sounds like you've got a nice system there. Use it. The torch will tell you if you need a radiator. With that machine, I think you'll be fine.

The only reason the older syncs came with a water solonoid was because many people used tap water to cool the torch. The solonoid just helped prevent wasting water. Miller never recommended routing the closed cooling system flow through the solonoid. In fact, it could be harmful to the pump due to the additional "head" (read backpressure) created.

The only thing I would question would be your choice of coolant mix. The Dex-Cool may not take too well to the Hi-Frequency that the sync uses in AC Tig welding. May want to talk to your dealer. Miller offers an ethylene glycol and deionized water coolant for their coolers. Just something you may want to look into.

Good luck with the new machine.

[Synchroman]

Synchroman,

Sounds like you've got a nice system there. Use it. The torch will tell you if you need a radiator. With that machine, I think you'll be fine.

The only reason the older syncs came with a water solonoid was because many people used tap water to cool the torch. The solonoid just helped prevent wasting water. Miller never recommended routing the closed cooling system flow through the solonoid. In fact, it could be harmful to the pump due to the additional "head" (read backpressure) created.

The only thing I would question would be your choice of coolant mix. The Dex-Cool may not take too well to the Hi-Frequency that the sync uses in AC Tig welding. May want to talk to your dealer. Miller offers an ethylene glycol and deionized water coolant for their coolers. Just something you may want to look into.

Good luck with the new machine.

Thanks for coments from all. I guess you all are saying that there's nothing sacred about a radiator per se as long as the system works.

Yes, the dealer told me that I could have trouble with the wrong coolant. I will be getting some of the recommended ethylene glycol mix this coming week before I fire the unit up. No harm done since it's never been run with liquid cooling before. My Weldcraft torch is new so it will start off even with the new coolant.

He also told me exactly what you mention here regarding the reason for the use of a solenoid in a tap water situation. The 200 of course doesn't have one so there's no issue there.

Since the tank used to mount on top of the rack that the Lincoln sat in, I'm going to make a cradle out of angle iron with some wheels and just let it sit on the floor alongside of the Miller. The pump is on top of the tank and will sit higher than the the water fittings on the machine's front panel so it should work just fine. It may only be raising the water a couple of feet to the torch at the work table.

Thanks again. This is a very nice forum.

[jwsrep]

Let me just add something to what Sundown was saying about the coolant. Some automotive coolants, such as Prestone has certain additives to clog up small leaks in the vehicles cooling system. This over time can clog your coolant passages in the torch body causing your power cable to burn up due to lack of coolant flow. So as Sundown suggested I would use only etylene glycol/distilled water mixtures specifically design as a torch coolant. Miller, Thermal Dynamics, Dynaflux and others offer these. Check your LWS.

[Synchroman]

Let me just add something to what Sundown was saying about the coolant. Some automotive coolants, such as Prestone has certain additives to clog up small leaks in the vehicles cooling system. This over time can clog your coolant passages in the torch body causing your power cable to burn up due to lack of coolant flow. So as Sundown suggested I would use only etylene glycol/distilled water mixtures specifically design as a torch coolant. Miller, Thermal Dynamics, Dynaflux and others offer these. Check your LWS.

Good advice. I'm going to get the correct stuff from the dealer before I strike an arc.

I discovered recently that my cooler unit is called a "water circulator" since it has no radiator. It is a copy of an older Lincoln style with vane pump mounted on top. They show a line drawing of one on a Weldcraft hookup diagram that I have.

Thanks.