PRODUCT DETAILS
Red Line WaterWetter Coolant Additive - 12 oz Bottle
Your engine's running hot and you've already thrown parts at it. New thermostat. Flushed radiator. Fresh water pump. The temps are still climbing past 210°F when you're sitting in traffic or when you're on the throttle. Here's what's actually happening. Vapor bubbles are forming on the hot metal surfaces inside your engine and they're creating an insulating barrier between the metal and the coolant. Your coolant's flowing but it's not touching the metal. It can't pull the heat out. Red Line's WaterWetter breaks down those vapor bubbles and eliminates the vapor barrier. Now the coolant's in direct contact with the hot cylinder head and block surfaces. Heat transfer goes way up. Temps drop 10-20°F. We've seen it happen over and over. Guy's fighting 220°F temps in traffic, adds a bottle of WaterWetter, now he's sitting at 195-200°F. Same cooling system. Same radiator. Same fan. The only thing that changed is the coolant's actually doing its job now.
Here's What's Killing Your Heat Transfer
When coolant hits a hot surface, it boils at the contact point and forms tiny vapor bubbles. Those bubbles stick to the metal. They're not moving. They're just sitting there insulating the cylinder head from the liquid coolant flowing past them. That's the vapor barrier and it's destroying your heat transfer. Your temperature gauge is reading what's happening in the coolant but the metal's way hotter than the coolant thinks it is because there's a layer of vapor between them. Red Line's WaterWetter is a wetting agent. It doubles the wetting ability of water. That means the coolant spreads across hot surfaces and stays in contact instead of beading up and forming bubbles. The bubbles collapse. The barrier's gone. The coolant's touching bare metal and pulling heat directly out of the combustion chambers and cylinder walls. Your engine's not making less heat. You're just actually removing it now instead of letting it sit there trapped under a layer of vapor.
Run Straight Water for Racing or Mix It with Your Antifreeze
Red Line built WaterWetter so racers could run straight water without destroying their cooling systems. Most racing organizations don't allow antifreeze because it's slippery as hell when it spills on track and it takes forever to clean up. Straight water cools way better than any water/antifreeze mix because water's got better heat transfer properties than glycol. The problem with straight water is it'll rust your system and corrode your aluminum. WaterWetter's got rust and corrosion inhibitors built in so you can run pure water and WaterWetter in a race car without eating your radiator and water pump from the inside out. For street cars, you've got two options. If you're in a warm climate where it doesn't freeze, you can run reduced antifreeze with WaterWetter and get better cooling than a 50/50 mix. If you're in a cold climate or you need freeze protection, just dump a bottle of WaterWetter into your existing coolant. It works with any antifreeze. Ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, DEX-COOL, the long-life stuff, doesn't matter. WaterWetter makes whatever's in there cool better. You're keeping your freeze protection and you're dropping your temps.
Your Water Pump Seals Will Last Longer Too
WaterWetter cleans and lubricates your water pump seals. That's not the main reason you're buying it but it's a nice bonus. Water pump seals dry out and leak when they're running in straight water or old crusty coolant with no lubricity left in it. WaterWetter keeps them lubed so they last longer and don't weep coolant out the weep hole. It also reduces cavitation. Cavitation's when vapor bubbles form on the back side of your water pump impeller and then collapse violently when they hit higher pressure. Those bubble collapses are hammering the impeller and the cylinder head passages. Over time you get pitting and erosion. We've seen water pumps with the impeller fins worn down from cavitation. WaterWetter stops the bubbles from forming in the first place so you're not sandblasting your impeller from the inside. If you've got hard water, WaterWetter also complexes with the minerals so they don't plate out as scale inside your radiator and block. Hard water scale is like insulation. It builds up on the inside of your cooling passages and kills heat transfer. WaterWetter keeps it in suspension so it doesn't stick.
It's Not Going to Overcool Your Engine
Some guys worry that if they add WaterWetter, their engine's going to run too cold. It doesn't work like that. Your thermostat controls the minimum operating temperature. If your thermostat opens at 180°F, your engine's running at 180°F minimum no matter what coolant's in there. What WaterWetter does is stop the temps from spiking above normal when you're under load. So let's say your engine normally sits at 185-190°F cruising and climbs to 215-220°F when you're sitting in stop-and-go traffic on a 95°F day. With WaterWetter, it's still going to sit at 185-190°F cruising because the thermostat's controlling that. But now when you're in traffic, it's staying at 195-200°F instead of climbing to 215-220°F because the heat transfer's more efficient. You're not overcooling it. You're just removing the heat that wasn't getting pulled out before because of the vapor barrier. The engine's running at the temperature it's supposed to run at instead of running hotter than it should.
What You Get
- Red Line WaterWetter coolant additive - 12 oz bottle
- Doubles wetting ability of water (eliminates vapor bubbles and vapor barrier)
- Drops coolant temps 10-20°F (improves heat transfer efficiency)
- Treats 3-5 gallons (one bottle for most cars, two bottles for trucks/SUVs with big cooling systems)
- Rust and corrosion protection (run straight water in race cars or reduce antifreeze in street cars)
- Works with any antifreeze (ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, DEX-COOL, long-life coolants)
- Cleans and lubes water pump seals (extends seal life, prevents leaks)
- Reduces cavitation (stops impeller and cylinder head erosion)
- Prevents hard water scaling (keeps minerals in suspension)
- Safe for aluminum, cast iron, copper, brass, bronze cooling systems
- Meets ASTM D2570 and D1384 corrosion standards
- Made by Red Line
How Much to Use
- Most cars and light trucks: 1 bottle (12 oz) for 3-5 gallon systems
- Big trucks and SUVs: 2 bottles for larger cooling systems
- Motorcycles and small engines: 1 oz (3-4 capfuls) per quart
Note: One 12 oz bottle treats 3-5 gallons - most passenger cars and light trucks need one bottle, larger systems need two, small systems (motorcycles, karts) use 1 oz per quart. Drops temps 10-20°F by eliminating vapor bubbles and vapor barrier on hot metal surfaces (improves heat transfer, doesn't change thermostat setpoint). Can run with straight water for racing (includes rust and corrosion inhibitors) or add to existing antifreeze for street use (works with ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, DEX-COOL, long-life coolants). Cleans and lubricates water pump seals - extends seal life and prevents weep hole leaks. Reduces cavitation - stops vapor bubble collapse that erodes water pump impeller and cylinder head passages. Complexes with hard water minerals to prevent scaling inside cooling system. Safe for all cooling system materials (aluminum, cast iron, copper, brass, bronze). Meets ASTM D2570 and D1384 corrosion protection standards for glycol-based antifreeze. Does NOT contain ethylene glycol. Does NOT lower engine temp below thermostat setpoint - prevents temps from spiking above normal under load or in traffic. Boiling point at 50/50 antifreeze mix: 250°F. Made by Red Line.