Why is Concentration Important?

Q: How should I check my concentration?
A: We recommend using either an alkaline titration kit or a conductivity meter. However, you should test to find out if the soils you are cleaning off are conductive. If they are, then conductivity would not be reliable either and you would be left with titration as your lone choice.
Q: We use refractometers to measure our coolant concentrations – can we not use one of those to monitor our wash baths?
A: We get this question a lot and the answer is no. Unfortunately, refractometers cannot tell the difference between oil and chemistry. So, with more oil accumulating in the bath, you would get an artificially high reading – like the conductivity example above.
Q: What if we find out that we overfilled our fresh bath? How do we bring concentration back down to where it should be?
A: Overfilling is harder to deal with and more expensive than underfilling. It turns into guess and check so the “easiest” thing to do would be to dump the bath and start over – but that can be pricey. I would suggest doing some math and dumping out a portion of the bath (perhaps half) so that you still know how much chemistry is in the bath volumetrically. Then you can adjust accordingly with the amount of chemistry that you put into the new half.
Q: When would it make sense to use titration over conductivity?
A: User preference. Titration is tried and true and will always be correct. Conductivity is a great, quick concentration indicator but you need to make sure that you regularly clean off the probe and calibrate it. If you do not want to deal with a little bit of extra maintenance or the soils you are cleaning off are conductive, go with titration.