Deep clean for a custom water cool loop

[Nicholas Rodriguez]

Hey guys! I bought a Thermaltake Pacific C240 Ddc Res/Pump 5V back in August and I was wondering when do you know exactly is a time to do a deep cleaning for radiation the cpu block? 

[Nicholas Rodriguez]

The right*

[RONOTHAN##]

Most people recommend doing a complete cleanng of the loop once every 6 months to a year (leaning more towards the year mark), if you see issues, or if you go to add or replace a component in your loop (while you're in there, if you will). 

 

Take apart all your blocks and clean them, run vinegar and distilled water through your radiators, and take apart your pump/res to make sure there's no buildup of any kind in there.

[Nicholas Rodriguez]

13 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Most people recommend doing a complete cleanng of the loop once every 6 months to a year (leaning more towards the year mark), if you see issues, or if you go to add or replace a component in your loop (while you're in there, if you will). 

 

Take apart all your blocks and clean them, run vinegar and distilled water through your radiators, and take apart your pump/res to make sure there's no buildup of any kind in there.

Okay, thank you so much! So should I  be ok for now  ? 

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Nicholas Rodriguez said:

Okay, thank you so much! So should I  be ok for now  ? 

Yeah, you only really need to do it if you're noticing temps go up, but that 6 months to a year mark is usually when you need to change the fluid anyway, so you might as well clean everything while the system is already empty. 

[Nicholas Rodriguez]

Ah I understand now because to much build up could potentially make the cooling system difficult to cool the cpu properly. Yeah it 

3 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, you only really need to do it if you're noticing temps go up, but that 6 months to a year mark is usually when you need to change the fluid anyway, so you might as well clean everything while the system is already empty. 

Ah I understand now because to much build up could potentially make the cooling system difficult to cool the cpu properly. Yeah it doesn't seem to look to bad and my Temps seems to still be okay between 50-60c with all my oc's

[bowrilla]

Depends on the visual state.

 

I wouldn't bother with a full disassembly every 6 months unless you can see some issues. Once a year is still quite frequent for a full and thorough clean if there isn't any visual indication of any clogging, discolouration or such. To be honest: the more often you'll open up your blocks the higher the risk of stripping some screws, introducing stress on acrylic parts, damaging the gasket or making a small mistake when reassembling leading to a leak.

 

Reasons for a full disassembly:

• visually confirmed or at least indicated clogging by noticeably reduced flowrate and increased temps 
• a change of coolant colour (redo all of your runs and clean all of your fittings and be as thorough as humanly possible with the rads - use chemicals to clean)
• Necessary orientation change for a new loop (basically only the case with CPU blocks)
• a change of coolant brand (not generally but can be necessary if the coolants are chemically different and potentially incompatible)

If those reasons do not apply, a flush with distilled water is enough imho.

[SolarNova]

Alot depends on the coolant ur using.

 

If its a colored coolant ull want to clean it at least once a year especially if its an opaque coolant.

 

If however ur using distilled water + anti corrosion & biocide additive, then all ull need to do is top up with additive every now and then to maintain the ph and it should remain fine for years.

 

In the past i ran a loop with just distilled water + biocide... no corrosion inhibitor.

It lasted something like 5 years before i disassembled it for an upgrade. Although i lost no cooling performance i did find that both my blocks had corroded and lost their nickle plating, however these were solid blocks, no transparent tops so it did, and doesnt, matter from an aesthetic point.

After a cleanup I put the CPU block back in use to this day.

I have since been adding corrosion inhibitor. My current GPU block has a clear top and so far has no sign of corrosion after almost 2 years of use in my loop and some undisclosed time in the previous owners loop which used a colored coolant.

 

if you start of with a clean loop , fully prepped, and use the right clear coolant, u can get away without having to do much maintenance, but if u use clear topped blocks , ull want to keep an eye on thing and react accordingly.

 

#nopoliticsintended

[fonzz1e]

same as above, I would add

 

clear coolant generally last very looooooonnng

 

unless your rad flushing was not done thoroughly, you see debris accumulating on your blocks

 

so check cpu and gpu once in a while  if they're clear top