Any recommendations on brand of air brake antifreeze?

[belfert]

Any recommendations on a particular brand of air brake antifreeze to use?  BW and others have recommended I partially fill my air tanks with air line antifreeze to remove any residual moisture from my air system.

Some of them claim to have conditioners to prevent damaging rubber seals.

[gmbusguy1]

Brian, any brand will do the job just fine. it comes in quarts usually and you don't want to fill the tanks you just want to add a small amount into the system say half a quart or less. it will work just fine and pretty quickly.

add it to the system after the compressor and start the engine let it run for an while and drain the moisture from the tank drains

all done and real easy too

do not get that stuff in your eyes or breath any it is nasty stuff

Chris

[belfert]

Both Bus Warrior here and a respected local garage recommended filling the tanks with air line antifreeze and draining it in the spring.

[buswarrior]

You will be adding a "significant puddle" to the bottom of each air tank, I might not use the word "fill", it conjures up the wrong picture. Also, we need to reiterate, this is an extreme recovery technique of a system already polluted in harsh conditions, for which further failure is not an acceptable alternative.
There is no need for this excess if conducting normal defensive actions.

So, back to the theory...

You are adding alcohol as an antifreeze, not as a drying agent, nor, as popularly misunderstood, as a melting agent. It can't mix with moisture unless the moisture is wet.

Think of the air system as somewhat of a closed system, if it is moist in there, how will it get dry?

The moisture is in there until the damp swamp works its way out via introducing lots of fresh, dry air, working it through, and by way of draining the tanks.

Trouble is, the coach is already under winter conditions, so how much melting, antifreeze mixing or drying can happen to frozen moisture? It may warm up inside there due to vehicle operation, and then re-freeze, often back and forth between compressor cycling. It may warm in one part of the system, and then be drawn deeper and re-freeze in a valve. The problems start one place and move to another place. Works inside the heated garage and then is disabled again outside.

The antifreeze has to go in, and stay there until you can be sure all the moisture present is not frozen, has absorbed some antifreeze, continued to do its work without re-freezing and then left the system, by way of normal exhausting or by way of the drains.

As for the rate of this process, think of one of those bathroom hand driers that has no heat... your hands aren't going to be dry anytime soon, and it is going to take a LOT of air passing to do something.

Removing the alcohol before the moisture has been dealt with leads to frozen bits again.

Happily, the coach is destined for a run to Arcadia, so if you pump the alcohol into the tanks as described in the other thread, you should be able to confidently drain it all out while there, assuming that Florida will be warm and lovely, and return to the north emptied out, secure in the knowledge that any remaining drip of moisture is dosed, and that your freshly reconditioned air drier will keep any fresh moisture out.

Keeping the air drier in good working order year round avoids all the problems of freezing up, and avoids having to deal with the effects of the cure.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Busted Knuckle]

BW,
Again nicely said!

Brian sometimes when we say something in general like "fill the tanks with antifreeze" we should be more careful of wording.

But on the other hand! IF you can get to a plug on the top of all the tanks and fill it with anti freeze and then drain it before running the bus. It would go a long way toward ridding your system of crap. But remember to add a small amount back to each tank IF you do this! (not saying you have to, but IF you can do it, it would help!)
  BK 

PS; I know the tank on the driver side next to the fuel tank has a plug easily accessible on top as I used it recently to hook an air hose for airing a tire and running air tools during a roadside repair.