Question for those running water-cooled spindles

[kb58]

I was surprised to be told by the manufacturer that the water is supposed to be removed from the water lines and spindle every day. I had assumed that the spindle water circuits are made of something that's not going to degrade with exposure to distilled water. I even wonder how beneficial the removal is since moisture will still be present. I suspect the manufacturer says this to cover themselves, reducing the chance of leaks by 2/3, based on an 8-hr work day, but I'm just theorizing. What have you guys heard about this, and do you guys clear the lines every day?

[IPGregory]

What spindle do you have?

I have one of the Chinese 2.2Kw Water Cooled spindles with a closed loop cooling set up and never remove the coolant. But I don't use plain water because it will grow things over time.

I use car antifreeze, but you could also use RV antifreeze (its less toxic) or distilled water with a biocide in it.

[kb58]

It's Chinese (Jianken) and yeah, I'm running distilled water and "Water Wetter."

[IPGregory]

Jianken is a reasonably well regarded make from what I have seen in hobby circles. Not sure what the water wetter is but you want a biocide to prevent growth and a corrosion inhibitor of some sort. I use antifreeze because its relatively cheap, premixed, easily available and designed to run in systems made up of dissimilar materials.

[ShawnM]

I don’t use water cooler spindles anymore but my first two machines had them. I also ran antifreeze in mine, I used the 50/50 premixed, DexCool with no issues at all.

[tblough]

Water Wetter is a surfactant to reduce the surface tension of the water/ coolant allowing it to "flow" over surfaces better and therefore increases heat transfer.