[Amps] water purity/conductivity in water cooled tube amplifiers

[Roger (K8RI)]

Having spent many years of my life (in another life. I left there in 87 
and went to college) working with induction heating from KHz to MHz and 
air cooled 2 KW to 6KW water cooled into the hundreds of KW with 
generators that ran days at a time with cooling water on 24 X 7 X 365.  
Running 30 some 24 X 7 12 KW (water cooled, not vapor phase) and a five 
hundred to a thousand gallon reservoir.  We changed water twice a year. 
Water changes were usually warranted when the generators started 
tripping out due to low resistivity. Often, if not usually caused by a 
disgruntled, or curious, operator dumping one of these little packs of 
salt you get at restaurants, into the system. Bodily fluids expelled 
into one of the open drains were more efficient or at least as quick as 
the salt. Sometimes happened on a bet too! So coolant life "can be" 
quite long, but is typically based on the total liquid compared to the 
metal in the system and the coolant temp.  I seriously doubt you will 
have to worry about someone relieving themselves into the boiler, which 
could be considered hazardous to the reliever's health, or at least 
important body parts.

Copper held up well. Brass fittings? ahhh...not quite so well. 1/2" 
brass hose-barbs would take on a reddish brown color and could be 
crushed with finger pressure. We usually became aware it was getting 
time to change them after one failed.  60 psi in a half inch hose, can 
dump a lot of water into a 6 KV @ 2A circuit and takes little time to 
recognize.  Noisy and expensive too!:-D  As a SWAG I's say the brass 
lasted a couple years.

Oh! At 6+ KVDC we used about 8 to 12' of hose for anode isolation.  We 
to uses a solenoid coil form for the hose

73, Roger (K8RI)


On 4/13/2018 9:40 PM, Steve Bookout wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> About 10 years ago, I built two 'boilers' for GS-35b tubes, totally 
> for the heck of it.  To date, I have not actually used either one, as 
> building a new amp was not high on my list of things to do.
>
> In my 'past life, I did R&D, high precision machine work, so this was 
> a bit of fun, to build something different for myself FOR A CHANGE.
>
> My general plan was to use 3/8 inch silicone tubing, to and from, the 
> tube boiler.  In order to give myself some 'dielectric length', I was 
> going to wrap several turns of the tubing around a round form in a 
> single layer.  This would be kind of like coaxial choke some wrap on a 
> piece of PVC.      I think I would rather have 3 or 4 feet of 'series 
> water', than have the HV only 10 inches of water from conductive 'stuff'.
>
> Plan on putting a micro ammeter from a metal water fitting  to chassis 
> in order to measure the conductivity from the water to chassis, at 
> some point in the water circuit.
>
> I know that really pure water is actually corrosive and will do it's 
> best to gain ions in order to get to some natural level of 
> minerals/contaminants.    I built the coolers out of several pieces of 
> brass and hard silver brazed it all together.  I know the electrical 
> current will cause an etching or eroding effect of the materials in 
> the cooler, but I used what I had.   At this point, I have no idea how 
> often I will changing  out the water. Could be after only 10 hours of 
> use, or it may be 100 hours and the cooler may rot out in no time.
>
> So, I need to know what the 'big boys' do in industry.  At what point, 
> in uS/cm, do I change out the water? The metering of the water 
> conductivity would be measure 3 or 4 feet from the tube boiler (@ 3600 
> volts)  How many inches (feet) of 3/8 inch dia distilled/low ion 
> water, in silicon tubing, do I need to have between 3600 volts and gnd 
> (thru a meter?)
>
> This will all be in a rack cabinet, where space is not going to be an 
> issue.  Already, mocked up the cooling, with the boiler sitting flat 
> in an electric skillet on high, with water flowing to an aluminum 
> transmission cooler, being pumped by a 110 gal/hr submersible aquarium 
> pump.   After 1/2 hour, the in > out temp difference was only 2 
> degrees, so that is looking good.
>
> I was thinking about the small contact area between the tube 'stem' 
> and the water cooler.  For those not familiar with the GS-35b tube, 
> the large copper cooler, is attached to the tube body (plate) with a 
> tapered 'stem' of a few degrees. ( I measured it with precision 
> equipment and fitted it as it should be fitted, but I just don't 
> remember the actual angle -- 2 degrees/5 minutes sounds familiar...)   
> I was wondering if a thin coat of 'Arctic Silver', or some other heat 
> transfer compound used for CPU's, would be a good thing.
>
> 3600 volts on the plate.
>
> Would love to hear comments about any of this.  None of this is fixed 
> in 'stone'.  Just my general plans.
>
> 73 de Steve, NR4M
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-- 
Roger (K8RI)


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