All in one watercool loop

[Tydfil]

Ok, I just saw the why is watercooling better techquickie vid, and it made me think do the all in one watercool loops need replacing or maintenance after a while? Does the coolant (whatever is in it) evaporate or deteriorate over time? Its 11 years old as I type this.

 

My rig has one of these loops block rad fans etc and all ive done with it in the 11 years of its life is dust the loop and rad, I changed the fans also. 

 

Do the loops have a lifespan?  

 

Thanks

[rEkmAInc1csBnlM6C85H]

They do have a lifespan but it is determined by many exterior factors. Coolant will evaporate and the pump will wear.

 

Personally I would probably swap every 5 years, but I am an air cooling guy so what do I know.

[Founders]

The AIO's or All in One's are closed loops so they are by design maintenance free. But anything electronic has an expiration date and suffers from slow degradation over time. If your AIO is 11 years old it would be best to replace it.    

[Tydfil]

Cheers, I'll look into an upgrade when im back. Not sure its worth it though on an i7-2900k, at least I think thats what it is. 

[SolarNova]

AIO's do eventually fail, however if urs is still working then there no reason to change it.

 

That said if/when it does fail, i'd highly suggest going back to a normal air cooler. AIO's dont give a performance advantage over air coolers until u hit the 360mm ones, and they are very much more expensive than top for the line air coolers whilst being nosier and having those added points of failure.

[Tristerin]

If your AIO pump works as intended, and you have liquid evaporate - you can split either the hot or cold return line into a reservoir and fill with Antifreeze 50/50 mix with a corrosion inhibitor (I use Prestone 50/50 with their patented Cor-Guard for like $1 a fill up).  Voila brand new AIO.  There are a ton of Youtube videos on this.  In the future I will be cutting up my H100i GTX AIO so I can utilize the pump/block combo and its PCB that monitors the loop with a custom loop and radiators.

 

AIOs are mixed metals, so....that's why you use a corrosion inhibitor.