Peggie Hall wrote:

Gogarty wrote:
In what manner does antifreeze (the potable water kind) damage the
electrodes?

Anti-freeze, bleach, chemical bowl cleaner and just about anything else
except vinegar dissolves the coating on the titanium plates. Once the
coating has been dissolved to any great extent, the electrode plates
will not conduct electricity at the same rate as they did when the
coating was there and thus, they don't work any longer. It doesn't
happen as fast if the unit isn't operated while they're in it, but even
just sitting they gradually eat away the coating, reducing the level of
treatment and life expectancy of the electrode pack.

The potable water kind of antifreeze is just a little less toxic to
mammals than the old ethylene glycol kind. It doesn't have anything
to do with it being 'better' for mechanical devices.

Bob said the directions on our LectraSan indicated that it should be
drained of water when putting the boat up for the winter, and so
that's what he does. He puts antifreeze mostly in the engine and
other areas where you want them to have antifreeze water in them. We
basically drain the water system too, and then just put a little
antifreeze through it so that remaining water doesn't crack the
fittings.

We do the same in the house - shut off the water, drain the system
AFAP and then put antifreeze in the toilets and flush a bit so that
the traps etc have antifreeze in them. We didn't do that one year and
had a toilet bowl base crack when the furnace went off. This year
when the fuel company let the furnace run out of oil, we didn't have
any such damage.



grandma Rosalie