Ek 360 rad rinse?

[otacon19]

I’m kinda new to custom water cooling, is it necessary to rinse out the radiator before use? If so, do I have to use distilled water? 

[trag1c]

Its never a bad idea to rinse out a rad. There can be gunk left over from manufacturing. You could rinse it with normal tap water and then just flush it out with some distilled water.

[otacon19]

14 minutes ago, trag1c said:

Its never a bad idea to rinse out a rad. There can be gunk left over from manufacturing. You could rinse it with normal tap water and then just flush it out with some distilled water.

Will bottled water work?

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Custom Loop and Exotic Cooling

[TVwazhere]

20 hours ago, otacon19 said:

Will bottled water work?

Yes, for the aforementioned rinse step. The flush step still needs to be distilled water.

[-rascal-]

On 2/21/2021 at 5:36 PM, otacon19 said:

Will bottled water work?

 

Yes, it is recommended to rinse the radiator out.

There is usually copper / metal shavings leftover from assembly, and other gunk in there.

If it is not cleaned out, it can clog up some of the water channels in the CPU / GPU block.

 

What I do is use a 50% / 50% white/pure vinegear + distilled water rinse.

Fill the radiator up, plug it, shake / tilt it a bunch of times.

Let it sit for a few minutes.

Shake it up again.

Dump it.

Repeat a couple more times until the water coming out is clean, NOT blue, and does not have any black bits or copper bits coming out.

Then do 1 or 2 straight distilled water rinse / flush to get rid of any leftover vinegar stuck inside the radiator.

 

This is what came out of my 1st or 2nd rinse from my new EKwb radiator.

If you click on the picture to see the full size, you can see tiny black particles.

 

[bowrilla]

I personally have very good experiences with Cilit Bang Power household cleaner. But use at your own risk.

 

You mainly want to remove copper oxide, grease, fat and flux residue. Pure water is not enough. Especially the copper oxide needs some acid for the job. Vinegar gets the job done but it is slow. Phosporic acid (<20%) does a great job with very little effect on the copper itself, so less time is needed. Sukfuric acid is even stronger in this regard BUT will dissolve the copper itself over time as well.

 

Getting your hands on fairly potent acids may not be easy nor cheap. Handling them safely takes a lot of care. Vinegar is probably the safest bet if you don't intent to use some strong household cleaner. You will need to flush it thoroughly after letting the chemicals do their job for a few hours (I like to unscrew the shower head and push the hose on one port letting cold water run through it for a few minutes). Tap water is fine for this. You will need to flush it afterwards twice or thrice with distilled water in order for not leaving any residue in there. If you want to be entirely sure: flush with distilled water instead of tap water.

 

If you don't prep your radiators you risk clogging and discoloration of you coolant.

 

P.S.: clean your blocks as well. They might have some oily residue left on them from manufacturing. Soap water is fine for this and use a soft toothbrush.

[AnonymousGuy]

I've had soooo much junk end up in my loop that 30 minutes of power flushing with hot tap water didn't clean out.  Similar deal with vinegar.  It's just not strong enough.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VX1XDE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Dilute it 50% and you have a reasonably potent phosphoric acid cleaner.  Leave soak 30 minutes, rinse really well with water.  Don't kill yourself splashing these chemicals in your eye.

[bowrilla]

22 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Dilute it 50% and you have a reasonably potent phosphoric acid cleaner.

I may want to add: distilled waster first, THEN the acid! And protect your eyes!