CRT's / Projection tv cooling liquid

Well just shoot me, lol. I picked up today what I thought was a set of party lights, like maybe something a DJ would have. I guess what it really was is the inside of a projection tv? When I started taking the glass lights off a liquid came out all over the table/floor. I thought it was water but it felt slightly oily. What kind of cooling fluid is this exactly? Is it the same stuff used in cars?

Has anyone ever taken one of these apart all the way? Should I just stop now and not even continue?

There is no reason to have anti-freeze in a tv unless your living in an igloo. It is like a mineral oil for cooling purposes, it draws the heat away from the componants (lights) that make a lot of heat. Without it, it would burn up.

I copied this off of a search of crt liquid......and my tv guy that owns a 40 year old business told me the liquid was a glycol (anti-freeze is a type)


A coolant-sealed cathode ray tube for projection color television was disclosed by Sony Corporation at the IEEE Chicago Spring Conference on Consumer Electronics, June 4, 1981. The CRT front panel is composed of two flat glass plates, one for the face panel and one for the screen panel. A mixture of ethylene glycol and water is sealed between the two panels, making cooling contact primarily with that part of the face panel through which the image passes, and with the immediately adjacent area. The face panel and screen panel are held in relative adjacency by a cast aluminum bracket which also acts as a separator for the two panels. A temperature-vulcanized silicone is used as a sealant and for bonding the panels to the bracket. The benefit attained is said to be a lowering of face panel temperature by as much as 20 degrees Centigrade during operation.

another part of an article from sony.........

A cooling medium is located in the space between window sections 38 and 48. The medium is preferably a mixture of the anti-freeze ethylene glycol and water, which has a refractive index similar to that of the adjacent window sections 38 and 48. The cooling medium can be injected through an orifice (not shown) in the housing 42 which can then be welded closed, or otherwise stoppered.

I think the rear-project tvs are great sources of copper, aluminum, some steel, and those lenses are "precision lenses", as well as giant extruded aluminum
heat sinks!! So, you dont want your hands soaking in it all day, and it sure will make stuff sticky!

Originally Posted by rca987

Did it look kind of like a stop light? if so, that is the projector inside the huge box big screen tv's..

As for the oil, i had the same thing happen to me, so once the first lens drained out, i didnt mess with the others...I threw away metal and didn't want to at all, but the wife was giving me that "look".

Yep, exactly like a stop light and this sucker is heavy! I'm afraid to drain any more coolant so I'm also going to throw away the weight and that sucks because its heavy but no way do I want to be exposed to more coolant.

I removed the copper yokes and wiring and thats as far as I'm going. it didnt' burn my hands but it took some red paint off my toolbox it leaked onto.

rca, I'm going to go pull those back out of the trash and check those out.

zakmattingly, thanks for the help, I googled but was still quite confused as there seemed to be more than one ..... answer to the question.

I stand corrected,

There is no reason to have anti-freeze in a tv

I'm guessing it's so they don't freeze and break in winter transport from manufactures to retailers.

Originally Posted by Scrap Master J

I'm guessing it's so they don't freeze and break in winter transport from manufactures to retailers.

If you think about that for a moment...anti-freeze in your car is not just for cold weather, it keeps the engine cooled down, where as water can eventually boil if the thermostat is not working properly. Every auto has anti-freeze, it is a coolant.....even the cars in the arizona desert have anti-freeze, its not because of cold weather, they termed it that back in the day because glycol wont freeze, cools better than water, and has a slow evaporation rate. One of the other reasons sony used glycol is because of it's "anti-static" properties.

Well, after sitting on this all day I've decided I can't just toss that kind of weight so I'm going to take it to my dads where I have a big tub I can let the coolant flow into and pour it into something smaller to dispose of later. I don't know if I'd ever pick one of those up again though but at least I'd know what was what with em if I did.

I got one the same from a big Samsung.Three copper coils. Love it.

I noticed a drip coming out of it and luckily I read about the coolant on this thread about an hour before so I took it into the garden right away. Thank god for this place!! I let it run onto the concrete so I could see how much there was. I need to figure out what to do with it. Is there anything sellable or do you just through that part away?

My neighborhood has a recycle and collection system that will even pick-up used oil in a container(milk jug, old oil bottle, etc). I would check with an oil change shop, maybe them or an auto shop might let you pour it into their "liquid waste" containers. People do have their cooling systems re-done or maybe a rad went bad,etc. So they have to dispose of it somehow. Or call your local landfill office and check with them.