Patent ID: 7000467

Claim:
A method of monitoring coolant within a cooling system, the method comprising: employing at least one pressure transducer to facilitate obtaining multiple pressure measurements related to an amount of coolant within an expansion tank of the cooling system; determining a rate of volume change of coolant within the expansion tank employing the multiple pressure measurements; determining whether the amount of coolant within the expansion tank of the cooling system is increasing or decreasing due to a cooling system defect; automatically determining type and immediacy of action to be taken to service the cooling system responsive to a comparison of a magnitude of the rate of volume change of coolant within the expansion tank to multiple predefined leak rate set points, and to the determining whether the amount of coolant within the expansion tank of the cooling system is increasing or decreasing; wherein the employing comprises obtaining successive pressure measurements related to the amount of coolant within the expansion tank of the cooling system, the successive pressure measurements being taken at a known time interval, and wherein the determining comprises employing the successive pressure measurements at the known time interval to determine the rate of volume change of coolant within the expansion tank; and further comprising automatically determining whether the magnitude of the rate of volume change of coolant within the expansion tank is less than a first leak rate set point, and if so, continuing monitoring of coolant within the cooling system, otherwise, determining whether the magnitude of the rate of volume change of coolant within the expansion tank is between the first leak rate set point and a second leak rate set point, and if so, and if the amount of coolant within the expansion tank is increasing, then signaling for corrective action to address the increase in the amount of coolant within the expansion tank.