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Help, i'm having a nightmare with my custom loop!

Hi guys hopefully you can help, im using the EK A240G kit with a pump/res combo and single 240mm rad. it currently goes pump/res - rad - gpu - cpu - pump res. I cant seem to get it to bleed properly, i have to bleed the air every time i turn my system on. ill move it all over and get the air out and itll be fine for hours but then when i turn it off overnight the system will build up air pressure which you can feel in the hoses so i have to pop the cap and then ill have to clear loads of air from the radiator again. 

ive tried flipping the radiator and moving the pump so the in/outlet of the pump is physcially higher than the radiator in/out and also putthe radiator before and after the pump within the loop  but im still having the same problems so it doesnt seem related to configuration?

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I'm a little bit confused, when you bleed the system (i.e. let the air accumulate in the reservoir) are you opening the system and filling it with more coolant? The system should be almost fully filled with liquid and closed when you run it.

 

In other words, a correctly bled system should have no air in it at all. Any new air indicates you haven't bled the system correctly, or a leak.

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the air in the top of the reservoir is moving to the radiator, but the hoses are visibly swelling when the system is powered down, so when i take the cap off the coolant level in the reservoir rises again

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3 minutes ago, LordLeewee said:

-snip-

The bleeding process has to involve displacing the air in the reservoir with fluid. I'm still confused as to why your effective system gas volume should increase overnight (unless you have something growing in your loop releasing gases, hopefully not). But one way to eliminate for sure is to top up your reservoir everytime so that it is completely filled. Water does not expand/compress as much as air as so you should find it to be stable.

 

As stated before, having a completely filled system is beneficial as well since any new air is a tell-tale sign of a leak.

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theres no way theres a leak anywhere, you can see the hoses physically swelling and the amount of pressure that builds up in the reservoir makes a hell of a pop when i unscrew it. ive topped it right to the very top even though there wasnt much air in there at all. 

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Can you please post a photo of your loop, perhaps we can find something. Did you at any point use bicarbonate to clean your loop? You see, if you've topped it up to the top and there is no air, it doesn't make any any sense for you to return the next day to find more air in the system - it is a closed loop.

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@LordLeewee

You need to post a video of this because this is really odd, the tube swelling is really throwing me off. I am assuming all the parts on the loop are stock parts from EK. If the tube is swelling then there should be leakage at the ends. Are you sure that have the inlets as inlets for the coolant and the outlet as outlets for the coolant?

A water-cooled mid-tier gaming PC.

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Okay, here's another question. How much water have you put into the system? It's always good to track this kind of figure as it can be hard to estimate how much water or air is left.

 

If you were really on the ball you could disconnect all of your parts, fill all of them with water individually, and then pour the total amount of water into a measuring jug to know how much to aim to put in. Then when you put the system back together, fill it up with the water from the jug (or fill it up with the amount you measured before) and keep 'bleeding'/topping up the system until all the water from the jug has gone - it will take time, but it's fool proof.

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16 minutes ago, Leonard said:

@LordLeewee

You need to post a video of this because this is really odd, the tube swelling is really throwing me off. I am assuming all the parts on the loop are stock parts from EK. If the tube is swelling then there should be leakage at the ends. Are you sure that have the inlets as inlets for the coolant and the outlet as outlets for the coolant?

That's a good shout. There's potential that the top of the reservoir has tubing connected (which is an inlet) and the 'IN' port on the side (which is of course an inlet) has also been connected. This should just end in a closed system that has no flow in the loop, but I don't know how damaging that could be for the pump in terms of excess pressure...

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They must have went real cheap on the hose to actually see it bulge. I had an issue where on the my fittings weren't sealed correctly and would actually draw air in, or get sucked in rather. If the res is vertical, just leave it open for awhile and keep the pump on max and keep using the pc like normal 

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sorry for late responses, its ek duraclear hosing and seems good quality. the increased pressure seems to build up when the full system system is off. 

 

its so strange, like now my system has been off overnight the highest hose in my system which is between cpu and pump is visibly empty of coolant, and if i pop my reservoir cap off it will overflow due to the pressure ( it was topped right to the top when i last bled and ran the system. 

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i should add, the hoses are not swelling like balloons, but you can see a slight difference if you look closely and when i pinch them theyre solid rather than being able to pinch them flat with no resistance once ive released the pressure by taking the cap off using the following pump

WC9EXEK_163179_285x255.jpg

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1 minute ago, LordLeewee said:

-snip-

Again, please post a photo of your system. If you bled your system and your are finding more air in it the next day AND it is pressurized there is really only one explanation:

 

- More gas is being released by something in the system

 

Pressure is not something that magically increases if the system is closed and if the total amount of liquid is not changed. I asked previously if you used bicarbonate (baking soda) if you cleaned your radiator, because if there were remains it can degrade to CO2 (a gas), and pressurize the system

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5 minutes ago, LordLeewee said:

-snip-

This is normal, if your loop is closed and you pinch a tube, then you are pressurizing the system and it is normal for there to be resistance, and when you open the cap, then the liquid can move upwards, and so there is an equalization of the pressure.

 

Edit: Just imagine the difference between squeezing a closed water bottle vs squeezing an open water bottle, the closed water bottle will be harder to squeeze

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8 minutes ago, For Science! said:

This is normal, if your loop is closed and you pinch a tube, then you are pressurizing the system and it is normal for there to be resistance, and when you open the cap, then the liquid can move upwards, and so there is an equalization of the pressure.

 

Edit: Just imagine the difference between squeezing a closed water bottle vs squeezing an open water bottle, the closed water bottle will be harder to squeeze

no i mean once ive popped the cap and let the pressure out then put the cap back on i can squeeze the hoses with no resistance. thne the following day when its been off overnight the hoses will be solid by morning.

 

never cleaned the parts they were all brand new but its on a fresh lot of coolant after being drained and changed 

 

heres the current loop. the pump/res is just flat agains that back wall of the case upright (outlet on the left going to rad, inlet on the right coming from cpu)19619889_10155082786999843_319112809_o.j

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9 minutes ago, LordLeewee said:

-snip-

Ignoring the pressure problem for a moment. Can you just confirm that you are getting new air pockets overnight, as in the air inside the tube between the CPU and pump was not there the day before (i.e. you filled it with coolant the day before).

 

I think getting more air overnight is probably a bigger problem than the pressure problem since it is probably the reason for any pressurization. Water does not pressurize and so once your system is filled then it will not pressurize

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yeah whenever i turn it on all i can see and hear is bubbles flowing out of the radiator to gpu and the top hose filling

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41 minutes ago, LordLeewee said:

yeah whenever i turn it on all i can see and hear is bubbles flowing out of the radiator to gpu and the top hose filling

What coolant are you using? It looks Opaque

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Just now, LordLeewee said:

mayhems pastel pre mix

I think this may be your answer. I think these coolants react with aluminium, and you can find on the product page they are not compatible with the thermaltake aluminium rads (I'm going to assume the webpage has not been updated for the A-series of products). Your coolant is probably reacting with the aluminium block and radiator and releasing gases into the system.

 

I think this just highlights again how manufacturers need better documentation for their coolants. See my thread for more details.

 

 

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this is from their product page "· Blended with Non-Toxic Corrosion & Scale Inhibitors for protection of Copper, Brass, Steel, Nickel and Aluminium Proven to ASTM D3306 and BS6580 standards"

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2 minutes ago, LordLeewee said:

this is from their product page "· Blended with Non-Toxic Corrosion & Scale Inhibitors for protection of Copper, Brass, Steel, Nickel and Aluminium Proven to ASTM D3306 and BS6580 standards"

If you really want, contact Mayhems, but I would almost class these claims under "$hit manufacturers say". Clearly they had issues with one series of aluminium radiators and so it wouldnt surprise me if they had issues with another. Furthermore if you look deeper into the nature of these "standards" they are just some lab tests that don't really specify what the actual standard is.

 

Long story short, I wouldn't use anything apart from the included coolant that at least specifies the 3 active ingredients. Rather than just "10 % glyercol" http://mayhems.net/sds/pastel/1ltr/pastel_white_1_ltr_sds.pdf

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