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How do you keep water loop clean?

Just built my first water loop and filled with distilled water, what upkeep should I worry about?  I see a few people talking of putting silver or some liquid in loops to keep it clean.  Any suggestions?

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Just built my first water loop and filled with distilled water, what upkeep should I worry about?  I see a few people talking of putting silver or some liquid in loops to keep it clean.  Any suggestions?

 

I have it running ith some anticorrosion and some anti biological stuff. I think its recommended to refresh ur coolant twice a year, but im not sure

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Just built my first water loop and filled with distilled water, what upkeep should I worry about?  I see a few people talking of putting silver or some liquid in loops to keep it clean.  Any suggestions?

Buy premix and you dont have to worry about it, other then changing the liquid once a year.

I speak my mind, sorry if thats a problem.

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Buy premix and you dont have to worry about it, other then changing the liquid once a year.

Cant argue with that logic!

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Just built my first water loop and filled with distilled water, what upkeep should I worry about?  I see a few people talking of putting silver or some liquid in loops to keep it clean.  Any suggestions?

 

if your running straight distilled water you need a biocide or silver coil, for silver kill coils however do not use them if you have nickel plated blocks in the system since they are borderline dis-similar metals which can cause the nickel plating to flake.

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if your running straight distilled water you need a biocide or silver coil, for silver kill coils however do not use them if you have nickel plated blocks in the system since they are borderline dis-similar metals which can cause the nickel plating to flake.

I have a similar question:  The EK Coolant says not to use any biocide agents (I was going to use a kill coil, but after you said not to with a nickel plated block, I'm thinking twice), as it can degrade the coolant.  Does this happen to any concentrate coolants, and is a kill coil still needed for it, or only for pure distilled water?

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I have a similar question:  The EK Coolant says not to use any biocide agents (I was going to use a kill coil, but after you said not to with a nickel plated block, I'm thinking twice), as it can degrade the coolant.  Does this happen to any concentrate coolants, and is a kill coil still needed for it, or only for pure distilled water?

 

If your using premix or concentrated fluid from EK it comes with biocide and everything included so you wouldn't need to add anything else.

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Distilled water + Deadwater and you will be set. Just broke down a spare machine's loop after 2 years of running Distilled + killcoil + deadwater and clean as could be, including dis-assembly of the cpu block.

(Keep in mind I don't advocate waiting 2years for a teardown, I generally recommend 1yr as I did with my primary before switching to AIO, but if you are using premixed coolants you will want to tear down every few months (2-4months), so using premixed is not something I'd recommend unless it's a show setup for events)

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There is no up keep, you don't really need to clean the loop for about a year. You do need a biocide in there of some description just to stop algae growing (its distilled but the moment you opened that bottle it was contaminated as are all your components despite how clean it all looks! Algae is in the air). Other than that just flush it yearly, but if I am honest I don't even do mine that often.

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Distilled water + Deadwater and you will be set. Just broke down a spare machine's loop after 2 years of running Distilled + killcoil + deadwater and clean as could be, including dis-assembly of the cpu block.

(Keep in mind I don't advocate waiting 2years for a teardown, I generally recommend 1yr as I did with my primary before switching to AIO, but if you are using premixed coolants you will want to tear down every few months (2-4months), so using premixed is not something I'd recommend unless it's a show setup for events)

Dont know where you have been, but most premix's lasts 1 year if not more. Only times they dont, are when the components havent been cleaned before you put the loop together.

I speak my mind, sorry if thats a problem.

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Dont know where you have been, but most premix's lasts 1 year if not more. Only times they dont, are when the components havent been cleaned before you put the loop together.

 

Buildup in that stuff they call a coolant that starts to slowly but surely clog the pathways in your blocks. Using dyes can be just as vicious if not worse. This has been talked about over and over including on these forums, but water offers the best performance from the get-go as well as longevity, so what benefits would be had with coolant?

 

And to quote our watercooling guru over at Overclockers (in which users of HardOCP and XtremeSystems would agree with mind you),

  

We have seen many liquids. We have seen just about everything cause problems. Except one liquid. 

That's Distilled and a biocide

Your welcome to use what you want, but hundreds if not a thousand users here has given many of us a pretty good idea of what is the most trouble free in the long run and overall results.

 

You done good not having problems, so keep using it? Distilled is like $1.25 a gallon if not less, what does your's cost?

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Buildup in that stuff they call a coolant that starts to slowly but surely clog the pathways in your blocks. Using dyes can be just as vicious if not worse. This has been talked about over and over including on these forums, but water offers the best performance from the get-go as well as longevity, so what benefits would be had with coolant?

 

And to quote our watercooling guru over at Overclockers (in which users of HardOCP and XtremeSystems would agree with mind you),

  

99% of those problems are ether from when coolant was bad or its do to something else, like plasticizer from soft tubing.

I think the only 2 problems left is coloring the parts and coolant changing color (which is causes by an unclean loop).

I speak my mind, sorry if thats a problem.

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