The Best Documented PC Coolants

[galvaniccorroder]

21 minutes ago, Bitter said:

https://garagedreams.net/products/toyota-red-vs-pink-coolant-which-is-better

Does that help?

I have the european version that looks different, I'm not sure it's 100% the same ingredients.

[Bitter]

2 hours ago, galvaniccorroder said:

I have the european version that looks different, I'm not sure it's 100% the same ingredients.

Not sure they'd make a different mix for Europe.

[For Science!]

18 hours ago, galvaniccorroder said:

Thank you for clearing things up for me.

 

I've just realised that Prestone claims it can be mixed with existing coolants. Would that mean I could keep the original coolant from an AIO and just add a bit of diluted prestone and be done?

 

Anyways I think I'll stick to diluted Prestone that some people seem to successfully use, as I can't find any info on ingredients of Toyota Super Long Life Red, or Honda Type 2 collants.

Although the coolant in AIOs are indeed typically EG/PG based, I cannot guarantee that they are similar enough to engine coolant so that they can be considered to be "existing coolants" - Which presumably is stated in the context of car coolants. But yeah, work safely, and dispose safely.

[Fb.gg ItsCash]

On 10/23/2021 at 9:10 AM, For Science! said:

 

Thanks for your feedback! In order of my confidence of answering:

 

Another question would be the longevity of the coolants. How often would you have to change them to benefit from their properties?

- This would largely depends on the coolant, temperature maintained for its life time, exposure to UV, etc. So its hard to give a definite answer, but I would generally still recommend you to replace preventatively every 1~1.5 years. Having said that, I have a system that's been running 2.5 years now and have been too lazy to do maintenance and its fine, but wouldn't really recommend that as a general strategy (EK CryoFuel Clear).

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that typical coolants like EK Cryofuel are less likely to damage acrylic, but how good would they be in preventing galvanic corrosion in mixed metals AIO loop?

- No solid comment on the acrylic per se, but all the coolants should be tolerated well by acrylic. Some coolants may "yellow or cloud" the acrylic over time, by leaving a thin film of "something" on the surface. This was the case with cryofuel, but I polish my blocks with PlastX as part of my maintenance, and this brings the acrylic blocks to shiny new, and has not had issues with subsequent coolant fills.

 

 

I've managed to find this table. It shows that acrylic can withstand 50°C ethylene glycol for a month or "may even tolerate chemical for years". How accurate would that be?

- I think it is accurate, given EG is a major component in a lot of the coolants and 50 degrees is not an unreasonable fluid temperature for a PC cooling loop. So I htink the "may even tolerate chemical for years" is what applies here.

 

Which coolant would you recommend to use in an mixed metals AIO that is going to be modded to use acrylic GPU water block? I was thinking about further diluting Prestone 50/50 or Toyota Long Life RED, but I'm afraid it will damage acrylic/tubing. How much dilution would still prevent corrosion and biological growth and not be eating at plastics?

- EK-CryoFuel (non-opaque) was used as part of their FluidGaming which handled aluminium parts with steel containing pump. So as a minimum EK-CryoFuel is suitable for use with Copper parts or aluminium parts seperately. Whether it has enough power to keep a full mixed metal loop at bay is not something I have tried. It's anti-corrosive active component is the same as the Prestone 50/50 albeit at a lower concentration. Prestone 50/50 contains a poison and so may be more hazardous to handle. 

 

A 2x diluted Prestone 50/50 should be a similar efficacy to EK-CryoFuel in terms of anti-corrosion. Still toxic though.

 

I’ve been searching high and low for a thread that I could read and learn more about DIY water cooling. I recently purchased a MSI Core-Liquid 360R and after 8 months I started to run into low performance and higher than normal temps. Originally being all new to DIY PC building I first thought I was a AGESA bios update, so I RMA my Motherboard, then I thought maybe it was my 5900x CPU, not once during my 2 weeks of investigating what could be causing this low performance did I think it was my 8 month old AIO. But as I kept researching I started hearing horror stories of people draining and refilling their AIO’s. So with that being said could anyone tell me what this is from in the images I have attached to this post.

[Bitter]

Yup, that's a bad AIO cooler for sure. Coolant went all chunky on you and it's blocking up flow. I'd contact MSI for warranty replacement.

[fonzz1e]

greg salazar had same issue with msi core-liquid when he troubleshoot a viewer's pc as well

could be coolant biocides wasn't added properly

 

[For Science!]

13 hours ago, Fb.gg ItsCash said:

I’ve been searching high and low for a thread that I could read and learn more about DIY water cooling. I recently purchased a MSI Core-Liquid 360R and after 8 months I started to run into low performance and higher than normal temps. Originally being all new to DIY PC building I first thought I was a AGESA bios update, so I RMA my Motherboard, then I thought maybe it was my 5900x CPU, not once during my 2 weeks of investigating what could be causing this low performance did I think it was my 8 month old AIO. But as I kept researching I started hearing horror stories of people draining and refilling their AIO’s. So with that being said could anyone tell me what this is from in the images I have attached to this post.

6 hours ago, fonzz1e said:

greg salazar had same issue with msi core-liquid when he troubleshoot a viewer's pc as well

could be coolant biocides wasn't added properly

 

AIO coolers tend to be a more or less a mix of Ethylene glycol and Propylene glycol, without any anticorrosives or biocides. This intrinsically is not an issue since ethylene glycol itself is fairly toxic, and itself has anti-corrosive properties. This is of course for the sake of simplicity, and also that the AIO has to be shipped/stored in rather insane conditiions and so they need a coolant with robust properties. Although I am not 100 % certain, this jelly-like substance that often appears inside AIOs, I've always thought it is a long-chain PEG (poly-ethylene glycol) that appears as a result of heat or permeation. 

 

I remember there being a thread recently about "why don't AIOs need maintenance?" they bottom line is, they do need maintenance, and this is what happens when you don't (can't) maintain the inside of the AIO. The manufacturer expects you to RMA, or not notice, or throw it away. 

[BotDamian]

Thanks for sharing!
Is it still valid or somewhat outdated?

[For Science!]

12 minutes ago, BotDamian said:

Thanks for sharing!
Is it still valid or somewhat outdated?

I have not checked recently, but if you have specific interests in a particular coolant, I could have a look. 

[Tristerin]

On 6/26/2019 at 11:08 PM, Bitter said:

 

Agreed. I ran a Prestone Universal coolant at about a 20% coolant 80% water mix in my old loop and did zero service to it. Eventually after 5-6 years some white gunk formed and clung to surfaces and then it sat stored for about 8 years. Other than the white gunk nothing went bad, corroded, etc. Washed the loop out, it all works fine. For long term use car coolants seem to be solid choices, they're made to handle much worse conditions than PC's experience.

Ive had a loop running now for almost/around 5 years with only having to top off once in a while (HEAVY overclock 4.2ghz on R7 1700)

 

Eventually I am going to take all the rads out and cut them up to prove there is zero issue (again, did this once on a 1 year old loop and now we have more data)