Air Space in Reservoir

[Cavalry Canuck]

Hi folks,

 

This feels like a dumb question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Do you need any air space in your loop to account for thermal expansion of the coolant?

 

I ask this because when I first built my loop, I was concerned about this and left a 3/4” air space in the top of my reservoir to account for it. I did some maintenance recently, and ended up accidentally topping it off to the brim. I’m worried about the coolant expanding and getting through the seals. Should I go through the effort of draining my loop just that little bit to prevent this, or is it not a concern?

[Shimejii]

Could you not just use a suction tube to drain just a little bit of it out from the fill port? Like just get a Long pipet or baster (make sure its  clean) and just remove enough if you are that concerned? I wouldnt be too worried as long as you didnt over fill.

[PDifolco]

If it's filled to the brim yes you should remove some (just une some towel..)

 

Else it's not a concern the fluid don't expand much

[Cavalry Canuck]

23 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Could you not just use a suction tube to drain just a little bit of it out from the fill port? Like just get a Long pipet or baster (make sure its  clean) and just remove enough if you are that concerned? I wouldnt be too worried as long as you didnt over fill.

That was the plan if I needed to pull some out.

 

So how does it work with systems that sub-out reservoirs for distro-plates? They don’t appear to have any air gaps.

[Demonic Donut]

7 hours ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

That was the plan if I needed to pull some out.

 

So how does it work with systems that sub-out reservoirs for distro-plates? They don’t appear to have any air gaps.

Is there literally no air? A little bit of air (a CC or 2 is probably more than enough) plus the flexibility of the loop is (most likely) plenty of room for the thermal expansion that the loop will experience. Also loops are surprisingly good at handling pressure. Check out Jayz video on over pressurizing a custom loop.

 

There is usually air somewhere in the system to allow the water to expand and compress the air, even with distro blocks.

 

I was taught water will expand 5% from fill to boiling, assuming 40 degree F fill water. It's closer to 4% if I remember correctly, but we always did 5% for fudge factor and the math is easier that way. The small amount of expansion a loop goes through due to it's low delta T makes it not too much of an issue

 

If you have no air space, you should pull some water out and let air in, but you don't need much.