Pump for a Mineral Oil PC?

[ProdigySim]

Hey guys, first post on the LTT forums for me. I wasn't sure there would be any other good place to ask--I figure most people who have done a mineral oil PC have come here at some point

 

I built a mineral oil PC about a year ago. It was a very dumb decision but it was also very fun and I still use it as my daily driver. But, I've had to do surgery on it a couple times already, and I'm not looking forward to doing it again.

 

I'm currently cycling the mineral oil through a radiator using a cheap Pond Pump I got at Home Depot. It's a Total Pond Pond Pump, somewhere between 330-500GPH (I can't remember which one I ended up using). It seems to run at a 50% duty cycle by default, and I've just left it on 24/7 since my system runs various services over night. However, after a few months of usage, it started making noise. Instead of a low consistent pump whir, it now has a rougher, grindy sound to it. This has happened once already about 5 months ago, and I replaced the pond pump with an exact duplicate model. But, just this last month, it's started making noise again. It still seems to pump & cool the system fine, but I can't stand the noise since it's in my home office. It sounds like an old fish aquarium now.

 

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good pump to use for a mineral oil pc? or just a good quality pond pump in general? I don't think the flow rate is super important, mainly it's the quality of the unit I'm concerned about. I can avoid upgrading this machine for a long time, but replacing the pump is a huge pain...

 

Thanks

[MartinKweh]

i think you might want to get a few  pumps just in case. mineral oil is quite thick compared to other coolants or water so it will add a bit more strain to the pumps. the pump you had might have one of its gears worn out due to the stress its taking from pumping the oil around

[W-L]

13 minutes ago, ProdigySim said:

-SNIP-

You can use regular watercooling pumps like the D5 or DDC, even with the higher viscosity as it's essentially bathed in oil it will have little issue. There are different viscosities of mineral oil and for the purposes of cooling you don't need anything that is very thick. 

[Hugh54321]

I second getting 2 pumps. Put them in series. Same speed but easier load.

[ProdigySim]

Thanks for the advice! I went with 2x D5 pumps and put them in series--one on either side of my radiator. So far it seems to be working but I haven't put it through the paces.