Fittings - Torque, Tape?

[Yoshi Moshi]

First time water cooling. Haven't seen this question asked frequently, but it's a question I have. Say I have a radiator, a fitting, and a soft tube that I'm trying to mate together.

 

I want to ensure that I don't have any leaks:

1. How much torque do I apply on the fitting when screwing the fitting into the radiator? I plan on using a small torque wrench.

2. How much torque do I apply on the compression clamp when screwing the compression clamp onto the fitting with the soft tubing in place?

3. I have watched a lot of people assembling builds on YouTube, and haven't seen anyone using teflon tape/thread seal tape. How come? To me it would seem logical to use it, why wouldn't you? I don't think it could hurt anything?

 

Sorry if these are noob questions, but these are questions I have that I can't seem to find answers to. Just going "by feel" on determining how much torque I should apply, I'll probably screw up. This is my first time water cooling so I don't know how much torque "by feel" is good. I prefer a quantifiable, measurable, torque to ensure that my system is water tight, non-measurable/opinionated measurements of "by feel" I'll probably end up screwing up as I have no idea what this is. Thanks for any help.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1. Don't do that. Tighten it by hand as much as you can. Use a cloth or something if you can't get enough grip. They don't require enough torque to justify a wrench.

2. Again, by hand. You should be able to tighten it so that the threads bottom out. The sleeve is there to keep the tube in place really, though shouldn't leak even without the sleeve provided you have the right sized tubing.

3. They're sealed via an O-Ring on the G1/4 thread and the tube forms its own seal. No need for PTFE tape. If you use it, you could end up with bits of tape in the loop, which is not good for the pump. 

 

With soft tubing and compression fittings, it's pretty difficult to make it leak. Only leaks I even had were from a faulty 45 degree fitting. Even when removing compression sleeves and running the pump, nothing should leak. 

[kkpatel87]

9 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

Sorry if these are noob questions, but these are questions I have that I can't seem to find answers to.

First, these are not n00b questions. The unfortunate reality is that most people treat building computers like lazily putting together legos rather than an assembly process. Most Youtubers dont do this either for whatever reasons. Additionally many people will suggest not to as they are confident in their ability to tighten a fitting without process.

 

Watercooling fittings are considered G1/4 which is a shortened form of 1/4 British Standard Pipe Parallel (BSPP). This is also known as Whitworth threading and is governed by ISO1179. This means the thread type, 1/4"-19, of the fitting is parallel on the male and female side (this is important for later).

12 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

1. How much torque do I apply on the fitting when screwing the fitting into the radiator? I plan on using a small torque wrench.

Torque ratings for this are majorly dependent on two things, material of fitting and material of internally threaded item (rad, block, etc.). Typically, 30-35 N-m should do it. This is lower than the recommended 50 N-m listed in ISO1179 but i would recommend against that as the materials in computer watercooling are not as strong. However, a good rule of thumb is to tighten 2-3 turns past hand tight.

27 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

2. How much torque do I apply on the compression clamp when screwing the compression clamp onto the fitting with the soft tubing in place?

Unfortunately, no real metric on this one. Tighten the clamp until it bottoms out on the fitting.

28 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

3. I have watched a lot of people assembling builds on YouTube, and haven't seen anyone using teflon tape/thread seal tape. How come? To me it would seem logical to use it, why wouldn't you? I don't think it could hurt anything?

This is an O-ring on the base of the fitting that provides the seal. This is typically of flanged, parallel thread pipe fittings. Teflon tape/thread seal is a bad idea in watercooling loops as pieces of that may get into the loop. 

[jasonc_01]

Wow way to over complicate it

 

Fitting should be hand tight and as snug as possible when it's fitting to fitting, fitting to rad or fitting to acetal. 

 

However when it's fitting to plexi like a clear cpu block, clear FC terminal or distro plate hand tight snug and don't go crazy. If you over tighten into plexi you have a good chance of it developing cracks around the fitting.

 

Like below.

 

[Yoshi Moshi]

Hey thanks for the help guys!

[Blue4130]

On 7/4/2020 at 11:41 PM, jasonc_01 said:

Wow way to over complicate it

 

Fitting should be hand tight and as snug as possible when it's fitting to fitting, fitting to rad or fitting to acetal. 

 

However when it's fitting to plexi like a clear cpu block, clear FC terminal or distro plate hand tight snug and don't go crazy. If you over tighten into plexi you have a good chance of it developing cracks around the fitting.

 

Like below.

 

Using a quantifiable metric like one gets from a torque wrench is not really complicated and will help avoid cracked blocks by using ambiguous terms like "hand tight" or "snug as possible" 

 

As for specs, I'd go to the manufactures websites. They are likely listed. 

[jasonc_01]

22 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

Using a quantifiable metric like one gets from a torque wrench is not really complicated and will help avoid cracked blocks by using ambiguous terms like "hand tight" or "snug as possible" 

 

As for specs, I'd go to the manufactures websites. They are likely listed. 

THERE ARE NO TORQUE SPECS FOR WATER COOLING FITTINGS, NO TORQUE WRENCH IS REQUIRED. HAND TIGHT IS LITERALLY IN THE FUCKING DESCRIPTION AND INSTRUCTIONS.

 

STOP OVER COMPLICATING THIS.

 

 

 

 

[Blue4130]

10 minutes ago, jasonc_01 said:

THERE ARE NO TORQUE SPECS FOR WATER COOLING FITTINGS, NO TORQUE WRENCH IS REQUIRED. HAND TIGHT IS LITERALLY IN THE FUCKING DESCRIPTION AND INSTRUCTIONS.

 

STOP OVER COMPLICATING THIS.

 

 

 

 

Someone ate a big bowl of asshole for breakfast. 

 

If you search past ek website at actual engineering websites for pipe fitters, the specs are laid out. You do what you want, why go apeshit if others want more precision? Does it cause physical discomfort if others like tighter tolerances in the work they do? 

[dbx10]

Torquing by hand is, BY DESIGN, already tighter than a two dollar hooker on a 6'4" oil baron. Bottoming out and giving 'er more means you're crushing the o-ring, if the acrylic doesn't break first. Don't f-ing wrench on it, it's acrylic. Brittle plastic. Bad idea.

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, dbx10 said:

Torquing by hand is, BY DESIGN, already tighter than a two dollar hooker on a 6'4" oil baron. Bottoming out and giving 'er more means you're crushing the o-ring, if the acrylic doesn't break first. Don't f-ing wrench on it, it's acrylic. Brittle plastic. Bad idea.

Yea, that's why you use a torque wrench. It indicates how tight you are tightening it on a visible dial so that you don't overtighten it. 

[bowrilla]

1 hour ago, dbx10 said:

Torquing by hand is, BY DESIGN, already tighter than a two dollar hooker on a 6'4" oil baron. Bottoming out and giving 'er more means you're crushing the o-ring, if the acrylic doesn't break first. Don't f-ing wrench on it, it's acrylic. Brittle plastic. Bad idea.

The thing with hand-tight is ... it's very subjective and just asks for people to overtighten it. Hand-tight depends on personal strength, grippness of the object you're trying to mount, sweat/moisture on your hand, the position of your hand, wether you got a good grip on the other part or not ... and I guarantee you, hand-tight is often tighter than many actual torque wrenches can be set to. Think of screws for example: hand-tight is bound to wreck the head especially with stupid phillips head screws.

 

Unfortunately no manufacturers gives any figures here even though some actually give you tools to tighten them or have the option to use tools.

[Blue4130]

19 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

The thing with hand-tight is ... it's very subjective and just asks for people to overtighten it. Hand-tight depends on personal strength, grippness of the object you're trying to mount, sweat/moisture on your hand, the position of your hand, wether you got a good grip on the other part or not ... and I guarantee you, hand-tight is often tighter than many actual torque wrenches can be set to. Think of screws for example: hand-tight is bound to wreck the head especially with stupid phillips head screws.

 

Unfortunately no manufacturers gives any figures here even though some actually give you tools to tighten them or have the option to use tools.

I found specs on a pipe fitting engineers website. It's about 6/7 nM for o-ring faced fittings made of copper.

[HM-2]

7 hours ago, bowrilla said:

Think of screws for example: hand-tight is bound to wreck the head especially with stupid phillips head screws.

If you're camming out a tool then by definition it's not "hand tight". But I get what you're saying with the subjective nature of "hand tight". 

 

7 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

I found specs on a pipe fitting engineers website. It's about 6/7 nM for o-ring faced fittings made of copper.

Which might be all well and good when using commercial or industrial parts, but could well be completely inappropriate for relatively thin extruded acrylic. Just because fittings use a standard G1/4 threading doesn't mean that components are designed to use the same torque settings as on industrial machinery.

[Blue4130]

12 minutes ago, HM-2 said:

 

Which might be all well and good when using commercial or industrial parts, but could well be completely inappropriate for relatively thin extruded acrylic. Just because fittings use a standard G1/4 threading doesn't mean that components are designed to use the same torque settings as on industrial machinery.

Uh, please know that most watercooling fittings are sourced from industrial sources and are just rebranded. The specs are listed for many materials. I listed for copper. A little searching would have others materials listed. 

[HM-2]

12 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Uh, please know that most watercooling fittings are sourced from industrial sources and are just rebranded.

I know some components are, but not all. I can find absolutely no information on correct torque settings for screwing into G1/4 threaded extruded acrylic, can you point to some?