B

Builder Bill

I'm New Here
Whats a good way to store 5606?
You open the qt. can, you use a fraction of that to bleed brakes. Want to keep the remainder clean & dry.

Mason Jar?
 
A metal can with a screw-on cap. Like an old can that used to contain solvents, paint thinner, mineral spirits, B-12 Chemtool, automotive brake fluid or power steering fluid, hydraulic fluid, etc, etc.... just make sure to clean all the former contents out completely and re-label it appropriately.
 
Plastic pop bottle

I cleaned out a pop bottle, made sure it was dry, and filled it up!
 
Bobby,
Pop bottles are traditionally made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET).
It is not a good moisture or oxygen barrier so it is not a good long term storage place for hygroscopic brake fluid.

If you must use plastic, get a ketsup bottle (hazy translucent) with a 7 or a 5 SPI recycle code. It should be Polypropylene (good moisture barrier) on the outside and possibly Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol (great oxygen barrier) in the core layer.

I don't remember what the original container was for my brake fluid. If it was plastic, it has to be a moisture barrier construction of some sort. There are multiple ways to do it but the consumer has little method to know how the container is made.

If one wants to use a different container in order to reduce the "headspace" vacated by the used fluid, then metal or glass is the trick.
 
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Plastic bottle from ACS

This is what it comes in from Aircraft Spruce..
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Is plastic a problem for 5606?? Good grief man. Plastic is not plastic. There are just as many variations in plastic chemistry as in metals. Do you make your RV out of 100% steel?

As I said, or meant to say, you can package hygroscopic stuff in plastic.

However, that is done by the manufacturer and the combination is controlled so IT WORKS.

Most laymen think all plastic is the same. IT IS NOT. If you want to put a hygroscopic material into a plastic package and expect it to survive, you need to know something about the package. That is not easy. The SPI coding on the bottom does not tell the whole story, only a part of it and only if the manufacturer is not stretching or breaking the rules for marketing reasons.

One of the main ways to package many chemicals in "plastic" is to blowmold a bottle using high density polyethylene (HDPE) but to use flourine (very dangerous) instead of air to inflate the bottle. The flourine reacts with the hot HDPE and creates a poly tetra flouro ethylene (PTFE or teflon) inner skin on the bottle which is an EXCELLENT barrier. Done. Put in whatever chemical du jour you would like.

There are multple ways to skin the cat.
 
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Where as I only use small amounts at a time, I just pock a couple small hole in the can. One for the pouring and one for the vent. Then I use small PK screw (I think that is what they are called) with a plastic flat washer. I just screw two into the holes.
 
zip lock

Ron B. said:
Where as I only use small amounts at a time, I just pock a couple small hole in the can. One for the pouring and one for the vent. Then I use small PK screw (I think that is what they are called) with a plastic flat washer. I just screw two into the holes.
Click to expand...

So if my partially used can has sat open but in a zip lock bag for the last year, is it now trash?

Never thought of the storage rewuirement.

cheers
 
It's just hydraulic oil. It stays exposed to atmospheric oxygen and water vapor all the time when it's in our airplanes with vented reservoir caps, and still lasts for years and years that way. The important thing is to keep it in a container that will keep it clean, keep any dirt out, and help you avoid spillage while in storage. I chose a metal container with a screw top lid because such cans are readily available around our airport, and they don't break if you drop it ;)
 
rocketbob said:
I'll tell you how I store 5606. Right in a trash can where it belongs!!
Click to expand...

I opened this thread to see if someone would make this comment because it was the first answer that came to my mind!

Well done rocketbob!

I use Mobil 1 synthetic transmission fluid. No problems in almost 5 years.

Mark
 
5606 is trash?

OK, I'll bite!
I've heard before that 5606 is not ideal, but never an explanation.
Is it that the flashpoint is too low? or is it because it's hygroscopic? (or was that hydroscopic?...and what's the difference anyway?)
...and are the o-rings in the brake system compatible with the replacement?
Help
 
Mobil 1 synthetic ATF is superior in every measurable way over 5606, and is completely compatible. Much higher flash point, lower viscosity, better temperature characteristics. Available at Walmart, Autozone, etc.
 
Just for informational purposes (in case you want to know about the stuff you pitched in the bin :rolleyes:), hygroscopic degredation of 5606 is not evident visually. The ingress of water causes the boiling point to be reduced by a lot. That, of course, means one can boil the fluid with hot brakes and get the reduced braking and "soft pedal" feel of air in the lines. You can't tell by looking at it.
 
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