Watercooling disaster, help!

[Chrno]

Long story, but here goes.

 

I was cleaning the top of my radiator because they were accumulating dust. Turned off the computer, since I was running in a push config I had to remove the the fans and the radiator it self. I propped it with my left hand and had a mini vacuum (on my right) to suck all the dust out. While I was putting it back together on the top of the case, I felt something wet.

 

Crap.

 

One of the tubes from the CPU block came loose, and popped off. Water started dripping onto my 680's back plate and on to the GPU's memory controller on the 680.

 

Double crap.

 

I quickly grabbed a bowl beside me (luckily I was eating something at that time) and caught the water just in time. After that, I removed the CPU waterblock while catching rest of the water that was dripping from the tubes. Then I saw water on top of my PSU, PSU cable connectors on the PSU (my PSU is fan side down) and on the case floor.

 

Shit.

 

I quickly took out the 680 and drained all the water, took off the backplate plus waterblock and wiped off any water that was on it with a paper towel. Now I'm letting it dry for now and checking all my parts for any damage.

 

Lucky, the motherboard didn't take any hit from the water plus the hard drive and SSD.

 

The cause? One of my tubing from my CPU waterblock went lose over time (I built my rig a year ago). Lesson learnt, gotta check tubing and fittings every so often. Question being, is both my 680 and PSU dead now? I'm afraid to go and test them tomorrow when I rebuild everything together.

 

Any advice? 

[Giac]

As long as you drip dried your components and DIDN'T TURN THE POWER ON (which is what I did) you should be OK.

[MeltyMoon]

I'm not a water cooling expert by any means, but if the PC was powered down, and it was just coolant dripping on it a few seconds....shouldn't everything be okay as long as you let it dry? Unless some kind of corrosion managed to occur in that small time frame. Only possible issue i see is the PSU, but it still may be okay cuz it was off. The way i see it, is if the pc is powered off < kind of a keyword, you should be okay if you wiped everything dry and let it sat a day as a precaution. Best of luck! Let us know how everything is in the morning :)

 

Cheers,

MeltyMoon

 

P.S. Love the avatar :P

[Andi]

i would but the wet stuff in your oven at low temps something like 50°C for 1-2 hours to make sure its really dry.

 

I'm not sure how much heat a PSU can take, but baking a GPU is no problem

[Giac]

I'm not a water cooling expert by any means, but if the PC was powered down, and it was just coolant dripping on it a few seconds....shouldn't everything be okay as long as you let it dry? Unless some kind of corrosion managed to occur in that small time frame. Only possible issue i see is the PSU, but it still may be okay cuz it was off. 

The water is de-ionised so corrosion shouldn't be a problem. However copper CAN be affected if I remember correctly. As long as OP dried the components immediately it shouldn't be a problem.

[MeltyMoon]

i would but the wet stuff in your oven at low temps something like 50°C for 1-2 hours to make sure its really dry.

 

I'm not sure how much heat a PSU can take, but baking a GPU is no problem

Really at this point, if he dried the components already and is rebuilding tomorrow, wouldn't it just be safer to not bake anything? It could air dry over night if there are still a few coolant molecules around, no?

[Chrno]

Thanks for the replies. Just for clarification, I turned the power off which includes the PSU too. I rather not go bake my parts as I may damage something in the process, gonna leave it overnight and see what happens.

 

 

Thanks again for the help.

[R4STABAN]

Get some 99% IPA and a very tiny fine watercolour paintbrush. Clean the 680 pcb with that.

 

leave everything to dry thouroughly of course.

[Chrno]

Since Monday is a holiday, the supermarkets near me are closed. I guess I have to post phone my rebuilding to Tuesday. Gives me time to figure out if I need new tubing and anything else or not...

 

Get some 99% IPA and a very tiny fine watercolour paintbrush. Clean the 680 pcb with that.

 

leave everything to dry thouroughly of course.

 

Thanks for the idea, will grab some 99% IPA first thing on Tuesday.

 

Thanks again for all of your responses!

[Ghost]

The best thing is just to leave it to dry for a week. If you want to be very certain buy some silica gel sachets and put your card in a plastic bag with the silica gel inside with it and leave it for a while. It should be bone dry after a few days.

[airdeano]

RICE!

 

a couple of pounds of rice in a bucket and let the parts bathe in the rice to absorb

the moisture. knock off the big water, air dry for 24hr and a rice bath for three days

and you should be golden.

 

airdeano

[striker1553]

Rice is the best thing, but honestly if you leave it sit for a few hours or overnight, plug the stuff back in and run with it. I'm sure you;ll be fine lol.

[the_hardware_guy]

if you were using barbs i would recommend getting compression fittings they are very secure.

[CarDesinr]

Give the whole thing a week to dry to be safe and everything should be good.

[Leonard]

All coolant is or can be conductive because the base of the coolant is water, also only de-ionized water is non-conductive but only for a short time, however, if you have sucked up any water while using a pair of rubber gloves, especially for the PSU and then use like a blow dryer on the spots where the water dropped and then leave for a 2 - 4 days and there is no oxidization on the components you should be 85% worry free. The other 15% would be to individually test the PSU (unplugged from any components) just to make sure it works then switch off and connect all your components and switch it on and hope for the best.

 

I hope your stuff works.

 

I personally spilled distilled water on my GPU(a few drops) while the power was off and i did the hair dryer thing after sucking up the water with some bounty and it worked and still does to day.

[airdeano]

if you were using barbs i would recommend getting compression fittings they are very secure.

 

it was more than likely a compression fitting.. you have to check the compression rings so often to guard

against the ring to backing off.. and they do loosen. why you'll see plier marks on the comp ring.

"Lesson learnt, gotta check tubing and fittings every so often."

 

airdeano

[the_hardware_guy]

It is usually recommended to re tighten your compression fittings every few months.

[Chrno]

It's alive!

 

Reinstalled the stock cooler for the 680, made an open bench setup and tested everything, it works! Booted up fine, looks like the card is working as usual. I left the card to dry for overnight and then put it in a bucket of rice to absorb any left over water overnight.

 

Once again, lesson learnt for me, need to check fittings and tubing often!

 

Thanks once again for the great help and advice everyone!

[JesseL]

Thankyou for posting this thread!

I have compression fitting in my rig, never thought of checking them.

Luckily it has only been a month from finishing my build and they were still tight, but good to know to keep an eye on them!

[Theo]

Put your pc in a bathtub full of rice and let the rice absorb all the moisture lol. Good to see that nothing got damaged in the end *cough cough* GIAC *cough*