Loop Maintenence Questions

[Koitsu]

How often should I be cleaning my loop? It's been a while after building and I'm thinking I should probably give it a clean, or at least drain it and see what it's like. I'm using mayhem's UV pastel white coolant. I'll decide if I want to do a full cleaning or maybe flush distilled water through the loop once I drain it. But my loop is mad complex (3 rads, gpu and mobo/cpu, some pretty wild hardline bends as well) so I want to be taking it apart as infrequently as possible lol. Also when I go to put it back together, I have a jug of extra fluid lying around from back when I built it, should I toss this out with the used fluid, and buy more? Or can I reuse the stuff that's been mixed already and sitting out (sealed, plastic container, room temp/shaded area) or should I just get all new coolant? --if i'm going to the trouble I might as well drop the extra 15 bucks and just get a second new litre of coolant lol....

 

TL;DR:

 

How often do you clean your loops?

Flush with distilled water? Anything more? Less? What's your process?

Can I reuse fluid that was never in the PC but has been sitting around?

[DailyProcrastinator]

9 minutes ago, Koitsu said:

How often do you clean your loops?

I haven't had a custom loop in a long time, but when I did I was draining it every 12-18 months.

 

15 minutes ago, Koitsu said:

Flush with distilled water? Anything more? Less? What's your process?

I would flush twice with distilled water, then fill it up again.

 

15 minutes ago, Koitsu said:

Can I reuse fluid that was never in the PC but has been sitting around?

Reuse? As in it was used? Or use, as in it is a few years old but has just been sitting around unused?

 

[Koitsu]

Quote

Reuse? As in it was used? Or use, as in it is a few years old but has just been sitting around unused?

Yeah, I have some from when I built the loop at first, been sitting out, premixed, in a sealed plastic container, room temp, shaded area.

 

Though I figure if i'm going to the trouble of taking everything apart and draining and flushing everything... might as well just spend the extra $15 and get an extra litre of coolant lol, so this may be a moot point, but I'd like to know anyway just to know if I should even bother keeping the stuff around in the first place.

[DailyProcrastinator]

2 minutes ago, Koitsu said:

Yeah, I have some from when I built the loop at first, been sitting out, premixed, in a sealed plastic container, room temp, shaded area.

 

Though I figure if i'm going to the trouble of taking everything apart and draining and flushing everything... might as well just spend the extra $15 and get an extra litre of coolant lol, so this may be a moot point, but I'd like to know anyway just to know if I should even bother keeping the stuff around in the first place.

Agreed haha, might as well go the last few inches of effort since your all the way there already. 

 

As for how long this stuff can sit around premixed, I personally do not have a answer for that. 

[-rascal-]

I do the maintenance ever 6 ~ 12 months (so once or twice a year?).

Drain the loop, flush with distilled water or with a mix of white vinegar.

If there is some build-up in the water blocks, disassemble and clean with soft toothbrush.

 

Depends how long the fluid has been sitting, and if it was opened or unopened, and if it was store in direct sunlight, etc.

If the fluid is old (e.g. 1+ year), or the container has been opened (e.g seal is broken), best to not use it IMO.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Custom Loop and Exotic Cooling

[jaslion]

Pastel fluids have particles in them and they get stuck so flushing the loop a fair bit is a good idea but there will always be particles of it left over and floating around until you do a proper scrub of everything.

 

You can totally reuse the fluid but it's not gonna look so nice. The old fluid will have bound together a bit and will need mixing most likely.

 

For maintenance a normal distilled water loop can run for years on end and be fine but a fancy coolant loop is basically on a yearly schedule.

[Koitsu]

8 hours ago, jaslion said:

Pastel fluids have particles in them and they get stuck so flushing the loop a fair bit is a good idea but there will always be particles of it left over and floating around until you do a proper scrub of everything.

 

You can totally reuse the fluid but it's not gonna look so nice. The old fluid will have bound together a bit and will need mixing most likely.

 

For maintenance a normal distilled water loop can run for years on end and be fine but a fancy coolant loop is basically on a yearly schedule.

right on, thanks