What Fittings Should I Get? (Hard Tubing)

[Tcarr9442]

Hello, I am still planning out my first water cooling computer.  I have decided to get hardtubing, but I cant figure out what fittings to get.  My tubing is the PrimoChill 1/2 inch Rigid PETG tubing.  It is 1/2 inch OD and 3/8 inch ID.  I want to keep the fittings at the lowest price possible, but i am fine with spending a more.  I will need atleast 10 fittings for x2 radiators, pump res combo, gpu, and cpu.  Also what should I do for draining?  Thank you for your help

[spadz93]

Personally I used ek-hdc fittings. For a drain system, I used an ek-af t splitter and an ek-af ball valve, and then just got a piece of soft tubing and a barb fitting to hook onto that. As long as you account for a means for air to enter back into the loop while you're draining (I repeated the splitter/ball valve setup) then you're fine 

[W-L]

9 minutes ago, Tcarr9442 said:

Hello, I am still planning out my first water cooling computer.  I have decided to get hardtubing, but I cant figure out what fittings to get.  My tubing is the PrimoChill 1/2 inch Rigid PETG tubing.  It is 1/2 inch OD and 3/8 inch ID.  I want to keep the fittings at the lowest price possible, but i am fine with spending a more.  I will need atleast 10 fittings for x2 radiators, pump res combo, gpu, and cpu.  Also what should I do for draining?  Thank you for your help

For primochill's PETG tubing it is inch exact where many others are metric exact, you must use fittings that are inch exact or the tubing will not work. There are only a couple that use inch exact fittings, primochill themselves being one of them and monsoon as another. 

[SonoDanshi]

My general rule of thumb is that the tubing is pretty cheap, so find fittings you like/want/can afford first and then buy the tubing from the same manufacturer. It pretty much guarantees you'll get a tight seal.

[spadz93]

1 hour ago, SonoDanshi said:

My general rule of thumb is that the tubing is pretty cheap, so find fittings you like/want/can afford first and then buy the tubing from the same manufacturer. It pretty much guarantees you'll get a tight seal.

True. I used EK 12/16mm petg with their HDC fittings

[AV Techy]

10 hours ago, spadz93 said:

Personally I used ek-hdc fittings. For a drain system, I used an ek-af t splitter and an ek-af ball valve, and then just got a piece of soft tubing and a barb fitting to hook onto that. As long as you account for a means for air to enter back into the loop while you're draining (I repeated the splitter/ball valve setup) then you're fine 

I second this response, the soft tubing makes a big difference when filling and draining:

 - it allows you to extend the fill port so you can pour the liquid into a funnel well away from the computer

 - you can use the same tubing to attach to your drain port to direct the flow of liquid more predictably

 

The T-splitter to Ball Valve is very important for draining. For filling you can just use a T-splitter with a fitting and a small length of tubing, and then a fitting with a F-F extender and a plug (but a ball valve is a "nice to have").

 

I hate to be "that guy" but I've made a somewhat decent video with some explanation of drain and fill ports - in case your finding it a little tricky to visualize all the text. You can ignore the soft tubing for the rest of the system, it's the connections from the radiator that's most important. I'm not sure of the rules to posting links to videos (especially ones made by the "poster"), but the link is here if you need it:

 

Just to clarify - I'm not posting this for views, this wouldn't be the most effective way of doing it regardless. I'm just trying help out in the most effective manner. Considering the video explains it with visuals and it's already been made, I'm thinking there's not a real reason not to post it. 

 

[spadz93]

Also, do make sure that you account for air to *escape* when filling the loop. I unfortunately did not (this is my first loop as well) and I had to finagle the top of the reservoir off in such a way that would allow me to fill the loop without spilling. It wasn't easy, but I was successful