room temperature and antifreeze

[Jacala]

Hello!

I'm building up my laser and i'm quite happy with it. But I've got a question.

It is in a unheated garage and in winter temperature can drop to minus 20 (celsius).

Can I protect the tube with antifreeze and if so, is any car antifreeze good enough?

I'm thinking about insulating the garage to keep the temperature more stable but I don't think I can fix it before winter.

Jacala.

[Things]

Yes, you can use antifreeze in the laser, and yes, the regular car stuff is fine. Just follow the directions the same as you could for a car regarding ratios.

[Tech_Marco]

If you have high power laser say 100W or above, you need to be careful with the low room temperature. It may cause "thermal shock" to the tube once you power it up. I suggest you warm up the cooling water to at least 10'C before power it up.

FYI, a customer from Germany who bought a 150W RECI tube crack after 10min. I suspected that it was caused by the low room temperature. Higher power tube need to pay more attention to deal with.

Just my thought.

Regards,
Marco

[Things]

Marco raises a good point, I'd definitely recommend slowly heating the system before use.