Minimising water cooling maintenance?

[shogun168]

Sooo .. I recently built my first rig, have an AIO water cooler on the CPU and I have a reference GTX 780Ti that runs off air cooling .. but I'm already considering building one a custom water loop (which I've never done before, so excuse the nooby questions).

 

I'm pretty confident I can build the whole thing with enough research and preparation but the only thing stopping me is the constant maintenance and taking the whole thing apart every 6 months to clean it, and i'm just worried that one of those times, i'll make a mistake, there'll be a leak and i'll end up trashing some component in my PC ... 

 

So, what ways are there of extending/preventing the need to clean out the system? Is it naive to think that I can put multiple kill coils, only use distilled water and have lots of biocide etc etc so no algae could possibly survive? I intend to use silver compression fittings (as i think silver compound should help) and use copper everywhere for the waterblocks ... is there a way to stop/minimise the copper eroding? Ideally I'd like to have some kind of dye in the water but not sure if that would impact on the life of the loop.

[Phllips]

Use paper towels when pulling it apart. ive never done it before but that seems to help for other people

[AnotherTechGuy]

.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Sooo .. I recently built my first rig, have an AIO water cooler on the CPU and I have a reference GTX 780Ti that runs off air cooling .. but I'm already considering building one a custom water loop (which I've never done before, so excuse the nooby questions).

 

I'm pretty confident I can build the whole thing with enough research and preparation but the only thing stopping me is the constant maintenance and taking the whole thing apart every 6 months to clean it, and i'm just worried that one of those times, i'll make a mistake, there'll be a leak and i'll end up trashing some component in my PC ... 

 

So, what ways are there of extending/preventing the need to clean out the system? Is it naive to think that I can put multiple kill coils, only use distilled water and have lots of biocide etc etc so no algae could possibly survive? I intend to use silver compression fittings (as i think silver compound should help) and use copper everywhere for the waterblocks ... is there a way to stop/minimise the copper eroding? Ideally I'd like to have some kind of dye in the water but not sure if that would impact on the life of the loop.

Acrylic tubing has a longer lifespan but is also more annoying to setup and remove/change positioning.

For the waterblocks just get nickle ones, they're still copper on the inside, they just have nickle plating to give better protection against corrosion (check EK).

Using compression fittings is a good step towards  less maintenance.

If you want to use dye or colored coolant I recommend using a high quality brand like Feser or Mayhems.

 

Added later: Incorporating a quick drain fitting somewhere at the bottom of your loop (Bitspower) and/or quick release fittings (Koolance) in your loop are good precautions against leaks and also make maintenance easier.

[Trik'Stari]

We were discussing this (somewhat) in my glass tubing topic. If you want long service intervals glass is really the only way to go since out of all possible (Within reason, could be like carbon nanotubes that are better but who knows) materials glass is the least reactive to things. Not to mention glass does not break down over time unless acted upon by heat and pressure (Glass never biodegrades. Ever)

Fragile? Yes.

Looks better than acrylic? Yes

Gives you the right to talk shit about anyone else's water cooling loop? definitely

[Peopie]

I've only done maintenance once on my loop in the two years since ive had it, and I'm pretty sure there is something growing in my loop. I'm going to be changing some of the parts this weekend, so that'll be my second maintenance.

I don't recommend you do what I did, but my loop doesn't have so much growing in there that it performs significantly worse than it was brand new.

I think if you include proper biocides, or a splash of anti-freeze, you will be fine with only yearly maintenance.

 

For the corrosion, you would want some corrosion inhibitors. I think Ethlyene-Glycol is a good one, and that is commonly found in anti-freeze. Also, I don't think organic critters can grow in the Glycol mix.

 

I think the reason why I have growth in my loop is because my kill coil probably has a layer of something on it, which is preventing it from doing what its supposed to do, and after my first maintenance, I added only distilled water.

It would probably also help if your liquid is not in direct sunlight, as that will help algae grow.

 

If you do decide to use dye on the loop, I have heard of it reacting with the tubing to create lots of plasticizer, which could clog up your system.

[shogun168]

Acrylic tubing has a longer lifespan but is also more annoying to setup and remove/change positioning.

For the waterblocks just get nickle ones, they're still copper on the inside, they just have nickle plating to give better protection against corrosion (check EK).

Using compression fittings is a good step towards  less maintenance.

If you want to use dye or colored coolant I recommend using a high quality brand like Feser or Mayhems.

 

Added later: Incorporating a quick drain fitting somewhere at the bottom of your loop (Bitspower) and/or quick release fittings (Koolance) in your loop are good precautions against leaks and also make maintenance easier.

 

Awesome advice, cheers! Why is acrylic more annoying to set up? Because it's thicker and trickier and pull through a case?

I've heard to stay away from Mayhems   .. definitely would like to dye the water but yeah, guess I need to look more into reputable companies that handle dyes.

 

We were discussing this (somewhat) in my glass tubing topic. If you want long service intervals glass is really the only way to go since out of all possible (Within reason, could be like carbon nanotubes that are better but who knows) materials glass is the least reactive to things. Not to mention glass does not break down over time unless acted upon by heat and pressure (Glass never biodegrades. Ever)

Fragile? Yes.

Looks better than acrylic? Yes

Gives you the right to talk shit about anyone else's water cooling loop? definitely

 

Interesting ... glass tubing would be insanely hard to make fit though no? You'd have to custom cut all the pieces so that they'd fit and they'd all have to line up with 90 degree fittings .. unless i've got something mistaken ...

 

I've only done maintenance once on my loop in the two years since ive had it, and I'm pretty sure there is something growing in my loop. I'm going to be changing some of the parts this weekend, so that'll be my second maintenance.

I don't recommend you do what I did, but my loop doesn't have so much growing in there that it performs significantly worse than it was brand new.

I think if you include proper biocides, or a splash of anti-freeze, you will be fine with only yearly maintenance.

 

For the corrosion, you would want some corrosion inhibitors. I think Ethlyene-Glycol is a good one, and that is commonly found in anti-freeze. Also, I don't think organic critters can grow in the Glycol mix.

 

I think the reason why I have growth in my loop is because my kill coil probably has a layer of something on it, which is preventing it from doing what its supposed to do, and after my first maintenance, I added only distilled water.

It would probably also help if your liquid is not in direct sunlight, as that will help algae grow.

 

If you do decide to use dye on the loop, I have heard of it reacting with the tubing to create lots of plasticizer, which could clog up your system.

 

So the mixture i'd need is essentially distilled water with a kill coil, bit of anti freeze, some biocide, and hopefully that should be enough? 

 

Anyone know what proportions I should be mixing chems into the water?

[Trik'Stari]

@shogun you are somewhat right. Although it will require a lot of cutting and fitting, I am going to attempt such a loop in the next month or two (when I can get all the fittings and tubing I need). The bending really isn't that hard, just a propane torch really, and the snapping (which is actually the correct way to do it) can be done with a file.

 

I have a thread on the glass cooling loop in this section of the forum. I will be doing pictures to go with it, if I can figure out how to make my phone not take redonkulous sized pictures.

 

The hardest part I see is actually fitting everything, I don't know exactly how the monsoon hardline fittings work, so we shall see.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Awesome advice, cheers! Why is acrylic more annoying to set up? Because it's thicker and trickier and pull through a case?

I've heard to stay away from Mayhems   .. definitely would like to dye the water but yeah, guess I need to look more into reputable companies that handle dyes.

There are two ways to go about using acrylic tubing. Bending acrylic in the shape you need or cutting it and sanding the edges. These are not hard things to do and can be a fun project. It just takes more research and planning versus the simpler way of just getting high quality thick normal tubing like Primochill 1/2 ID - 3/4 OD which is pretty bendable on it's own. Acrylic tubing gives great aesthetics but so does doing short clean runs with normal tubing IMO. 

As for Mayhems I haven't heard of people having problems with it ever. They have awesome dye's and the best opaque colored coolants that won't clog your loop because they use nano-particles. If you're unsure about using Mayhems, Feser is another reputable brand.

[Leonard]

Sooo .. I recently built my first rig, have an AIO water cooler on the CPU and I have a reference GTX 780Ti that runs off air cooling .. but I'm already considering building one a custom water loop (which I've never done before, so excuse the nooby questions).

 

I'm pretty confident I can build the whole thing with enough research and preparation but the only thing stopping me is the constant maintenance and taking the whole thing apart every 6 months to clean it, and i'm just worried that one of those times, i'll make a mistake, there'll be a leak and i'll end up trashing some component in my PC ... 

 

So, what ways are there of extending/preventing the need to clean out the system? Is it naive to think that I can put multiple kill coils, only use distilled water and have lots of biocide etc etc so no algae could possibly survive? I intend to use silver compression fittings (as i think silver compound should help) and use copper everywhere for the waterblocks ... is there a way to stop/minimise the copper eroding? Ideally I'd like to have some kind of dye in the water but not sure if that would impact on the life of the loop.

I only change my tubes and water every six months. I have installed my parts so that i can unscrew everything and just slide it through the 5.25" bays and from there i dismantle and change what ever. I never do that in the case or over the parts. If you use kill coils or silver bullets in your loop with just distilled water then, you don't have to clean it regularly just change the water and tubing and every year you could clean everything else.

[moos]

Can't say enough about pre-planning a drain in your loop. Costs a little extra up front, but makes it super easy to maintain.

[shogun168]

@shogun you are somewhat right. Although it will require a lot of cutting and fitting, I am going to attempt such a loop in the next month or two (when I can get all the fittings and tubing I need). The bending really isn't that hard, just a propane torch really, and the snapping (which is actually the correct way to do it) can be done with a file.

 

I have a thread on the glass cooling loop in this section of the forum. I will be doing pictures to go with it, if I can figure out how to make my phone not take redonkulous sized pictures.

 

The hardest part I see is actually fitting everything, I don't know exactly how the monsoon hardline fittings work, so we shall see.

 

Ah right, be interested to see how that goes ... unfortunately I don't have the tools or space to do all of those things, so simple tubing for me i'm afraid ..

 

There are two ways to go about using acrylic tubing. Bending acrylic in the shape you need or cutting it and sanding the edges. These are not hard things to do and can be a fun project. It just takes more research and planning versus the simpler way of just getting high quality thick normal tubing like Primochill 1/2 ID - 3/4 OD which is pretty bendable on it's own. Acrylic tubing gives great aesthetics but so does doing short clean runs with normal tubing IMO. 

As for Mayhems I haven't heard of people having problems with it ever. They have awesome dye's and the best opaque colored coolants that won't clog your loop because they use nano-particles. If you're unsure about using Mayhems, Feser is another reputable brand.

 

Ah, for some reason I thought acrylic tubing would be soft and pliable like pvc tubing .. my bad. But yes, the primochill tubing was what I was looking at previously. Like the previous comment, would love to do something like glass or acrylic, just don't have the tools, space, or experience.

 

Can't say enough about pre-planning a drain in your loop. Costs a little extra up front, but makes it super easy to maintain.

 

Any advice on adding a drain? I assume at the lowest physical point of the loop and use silver/non-corrosive materials?

[Leonard]

Any advice on adding a drain? I assume at the lowest physical point of the loop and use silver/non-corrosive materials?

Exactly which is mostly on the reservoir. Most people just create one with some fittings and tubes while others try to make it an engineering project. You don't need any silver material or anything as they make drain ports for water cooling loops. You can have a spare port on the reservoir with a compression connected and a length of tube coming from it and then another fitting on one end of this and this is where you drain the loop from.

 

Your result will be something like

 just less ghetto.

[Trik'Stari]

I have no experience with glass, but luckily I have a shed and a torch to work in.

[shogun168]

Exactly which is mostly on the reservoir. Most people just create one with some fittings and tubes while others try to make it an engineering project. You don't need any silver material or anything as they make drain ports for water cooling loops. You can have a spare port on the reservoir with a compression connected and a length of tube coming from it and then another fitting on one end of this and this is where you drain the loop from.

 

Your result will be something like this just less ghetto.

 

Ah ha .. think I'll look for a diagram of where that's done or check the video when I get to a computer ..

 

Would something like this do? (http://koolance.com/drain-valve-for-id-13mm-1-2in)

[Peopie]

Alternatively, If you set it up so that your reservoir and pump are at a pretty low point in your loop, you can use a hand pump/siphon to siphon out the majority of the liquid.

[Leonard]

Ah ha .. think I'll look for a diagram of where that's done or check the video when I get to a computer ..

 

Would something like this do? (http://koolance.com/drain-valve-for-id-13mm-1-2in)

Yes that could work too but understand that is for inline of the loop. I don't recommend these for beginners as it is easy to spill the water if you leave the loop in your case. I prefer hooking my drain port at the reservoir and just securely tuck the tube in the back some where.

[moos]

Any advice on adding a drain? I assume at the lowest physical point of the loop and use silver/non-corrosive materials?

I have my front 360 res installed ports down, using a mini valve like linked before. Out of the "out" port, male to male extender, to a t-block, with the inline end being the loop and the "T" end containing the valve. I just use an old 1/4" barb fitting with spare tubing and attach it to the valve when I drain the loop. It's just one way of doing it though, and yes, it's at the lowest point I could have gotten it in my loop.

Good luck with it all!

[shogun168]

I have my front 360 res installed ports down, using a mini valve like linked before. Out of the "out" port, male to male extender, to a t-block, with the inline end being the loop and the "T" end containing the valve. I just use an old 1/4" barb fitting with spare tubing and attach it to the valve when I drain the loop. It's just one way of doing it though, and yes, it's at the lowest point I could have gotten it in my loop.

Good luck with it all!

 

Ah hah .. I think that makes sense in my head .. happen to have a picture of your set up/drain system somewhere?

[moos]

Ah hah .. I think that makes sense in my head .. happen to have a picture of your set up/drain system somewhere?

Shucks, just left town too, but there's a few pics of similar setups I found just searching google on the bitspower mini valves.