What happens if you dont swap fluid out?

[MoonFrost]

I see everywhere recommendations on how often to service/ swap out fluid in custom loops without mentioning the reason. For me, I use EK Cyrofuel (a non pastel / clear blue) and from what I read its recommended to drain the loop every 6-12 months. Ive been naughty and I'm on month 13 or 14.   

What are the risks? Is it a temperature issue after a year, where idle and load temps get too high? (if thats the case, my load temps havent changed except maybe 2 or 3 degrees)

I was planning on doing it every 2 years, but I'm curious what the actual reason is for those time frames, and if the risks are more serious.  The only thing I can think of is blockages in the grill of the cpu or gpu water blocks. 

Educate me pl0x

[Crunchy Dragon]

Not changing your fluid can gunk up your loop after a while.

JayzTwoCents actually did a video talking about this:

 

[MoonFrost]

Think I saw that video. I thought it more of a widespread issue for pastel/ opaque fluids than clear ones. 

[W-L]

15 minutes ago, MoonFrost said:

I see everywhere recommendations on how often to service/ swap out fluid in custom loops without mentioning the reason. For me, I use EK Cyrofuel (a non pastel / clear blue) and from what I read its recommended to drain the loop every 6-12 months. Ive been naughty and I'm on month 13 or 14.   

What are the risks? Is it a temperature issue after a year, where idle and load temps get too high? (if thats the case, my load temps havent changed except maybe 2 or 3 degrees)

I was planning on doing it every 2 years, but I'm curious what the actual reason is for those time frames, and if the risks are more serious.  The only thing I can think of is blockages in the grill of the cpu or gpu water blocks. 

Educate me pl0x

Depends on the fluids and materials, most times it will gunk up or start growing stuff inside as the biocide has gone past it usable life or has degraded.

 

I did a test before where I didn't change a pastel based fluid for around +18months and the copper in the loop started to leech ions into the fluid causing it to deposit onto nickel surfaces. Temps were great just had a lot of polishing to get it back, this of course varies since it depends on the PH and lots of other factors. 

https://linustechtips.com/main/profile/4038-w-l/?status=204076&type=status

[tarfeef101]

Yeah, it really depends

I have had plain distilled water + boicide/corrosive additive loops that have gone 2yrs without issue. temps are like, the same, and blocks are clean. (do make sure to top up whatever does leech/evaporate out, though)

I have also had just basic dye loops that gunked up blocks in 6 months. That's what I get for getting cheap, pre-retail dyes to save a couple bucks

 

 

So basically, monitor your temps, flow rates, and check your blocks visually if they're see-thru and look for any change. It might be time to flush if something is noticeably different.

[Benjeh]

2 hours ago, MoonFrost said:

I see everywhere recommendations on how often to service/ swap out fluid in custom loops without mentioning the reason. For me, I use EK Cyrofuel (a non pastel / clear blue) and from what I read its recommended to drain the loop every 6-12 months. Ive been naughty and I'm on month 13 or 14.   

What are the risks? Is it a temperature issue after a year, where idle and load temps get too high? (if thats the case, my load temps havent changed except maybe 2 or 3 degrees)

I was planning on doing it every 2 years, but I'm curious what the actual reason is for those time frames, and if the risks are more serious.  The only thing I can think of is blockages in the grill of the cpu or gpu water blocks. 

Educate me pl0x

depending on the fluid and it's contents, failing to change fluid can lead to algae growth and damage your blocks, this is the only thing i can think off that has damaged my blocks when i didn't change the fluid for over 2 years.

 

[Gmoneyinthebank]

Bacteria will grow inside the reservoir, evolution will take over, a civilization will be created in the loop, and it will eventually take control of your system.... That's how computers get viruses.

[MoonFrost]

Had a followup question about fluid. When I first built my system I got the EK cyrofuel navy blue fluid and mixed it with distilled to make one liter. It was enough to fill loop but not to top off the large resevior, so I made a 2nd liter to top off the bit. That nearly full backup has been in a cool closet for the past 14 months sitting. Can I still use that or is the shelf life compromised? 

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, MoonFrost said:

Had a followup question about fluid. When I first built my system I got the EK cyrofuel navy blue fluid and mixed it with distilled to make one liter. It was enough to fill loop but not to top off the large resevior, so I made a 2nd liter to top off the bit. That nearly full backup has been in a cool closet for the past 14 months sitting. Can I still use that or is the shelf life compromised? 

The bottle has a two year shelf life after the manufacturing date, overtime the biocides and such will degrade as it ages.  

 

[MoonFrost]

13 minutes ago, W-L said:

The bottle has a two year shelf life after the manufacturing date, overtime the biocides and such will degrade as it ages.  

 

Ah I see this now, thought it was 1 year. Guess I'll drain the resevior, flush loop, fill with the unused stuff and then top it off with the stuff I drained from resevior. Use that for a year and then take apart the loop for a full clean and then buy new fluid. 

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, MoonFrost said:

Ah I see this now, thought it was 1 year. Guess I'll drain the resevior, flush loop, fill with the unused stuff and then top it off with the stuff I drained from resevior. Use that for a year and then take apart the loop for a full clean and then buy new fluid. 

With proper yearly maintenance you should have little issue with your loop. Most time it's the opaque (pastel) fluids and more unique ones such as Vue that will require a lot of extra attention to detail. 

[MoonFrost]

7 minutes ago, W-L said:

With proper yearly maintenance you should have little issue with your loop. Most time it's the opaque (pastel) fluids and more unique ones such as Vue that will require a lot of extra attention to detail. 

Yea, I really wanted to try the vue but after 6 months I read reviews and was disappointed again with all the complaints. 

 

As always, thanks for the insight. 

[andrewmp6]

On 3/17/2019 at 8:19 PM, MoonFrost said:

Yea, I really wanted to try the vue but after 6 months I read reviews and was disappointed again with all the complaints. 

 

As always, thanks for the insight. 

The 3d coolants are more show coolants to us,Most don't wanna strip a whole loop and scrub everything every 6 months lol.Don't get me wrong they are pretty to look at but thats about it.If i had to run one it would be ufo technologies,He has been testing and tweaking it so it won't fall out and gum up the blocks.