Ethanol cooling?

[MyLaptopSucks]

Sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum, feel free to move it if you feel it belongs somewhere else.

I've been trying to find some info on ethanol CPU cooling and there's a lot of conflicting info. My question is, why is ethanol cooling so rare and why does it not work?

My basic understanding of the physics of it is that water has a higher heat capacity while ethanol evaporates faster. In basic terms, a certain volume of water can take more heat while the same volume of ethanol can take in less heat, but faster. So why does that not work well in computers?

I've seen some posts talking about it being used for sub-ambient cooling, so is it a less extreme method than phase-changing?

Also, could it be used in a custom loop with standard water cooling parts or would it eat away at some of the parts? Or is its rarity simply because of the price, since a litre of ethanol is significantly more expensive than a litre of water?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

[Ghost]

Ethanol has a low boiling point. Without looking it up its ~65C.

Components can easily get that hot. So you would be boiling ethanol in your system. The pressure would build up and boom.

In sub-zero cooling this is obviously not a problem and ethanol is more attractive because it has a much lower viscosity at low temps than water and obviously does not freeze like water would do.

Hehe; feels good to work that out from deduction while typing.

[MyLaptopSucks]

Ethanol has a low boiling point. Without looking it up its ~65C.

Components can easily get that hot. So you would be boiling ethanol in your system. The pressure would build up and boom.

In sub-zero cooling this is obviously not a problem and ethanol is more attractive because it has a much lower viscosity at low temps than water and obviously does not freeze like water would do.

Hehe; feels good to work that out from deduction while typing.

That actually answers my question pretty well, thanks. As I understand it, phase-change cooling uses a gas to begin with, so what kind of sub-zero cooling would use ethanol?

[Guest]

Asides from the explosion under pressure, I highly doubt your plastic and rubber components will be overly happy with ethanol all over them. The other thing too is that if there's any residue anywhere, all it would take is a spark of static electricity to set it off.

[Ghost]

Ethanol has a low boiling point. Without looking it up its ~65C.

Components can easily get that hot. So you would be boiling ethanol in your system. The pressure would build up and boom.

In sub-zero cooling this is obviously not a problem and ethanol is more attractive because it has a much lower viscosity at low temps than water and obviously does not freeze like water would do.

Hehe; feels good to work that out from deduction while typing.

Anything were the liquid would be below 20C the entire time.

[the_devil52]

Asides from the explosion under pressure, I highly doubt your plastic and rubber components will be overly happy with ethanol all over them. The other thing too is that if there's any residue anywhere, all it would take is a spark of static electricity to set it off.

Fire cooling?

[MyLaptopSucks]

Asides from the explosion under pressure, I highly doubt your plastic and rubber components will be overly happy with ethanol all over them. The other thing too is that if there's any residue anywhere, all it would take is a spark of static electricity to set it off.

I'm pretty sure that's what the devil's rig is cooled with

[wpirobotbuilder]

Ethanol is not a good choice for all the reasons listed above. You could use ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) if you wanted to do sub-zero cooling. It works just fine in regular cooling too (it's what's in the H100). It also has a high resistance to electrical conduction, so if it leaks on your system you're not a total goner. The reason H100 leaks cause problems is because they are actually a mixture of water and ethylene glycol.

[MyLaptopSucks]

Ethanol has a low boiling point. Without looking it up its ~65C.

Components can easily get that hot. So you would be boiling ethanol in your system. The pressure would build up and boom.

In sub-zero cooling this is obviously not a problem and ethanol is more attractive because it has a much lower viscosity at low temps than water and obviously does not freeze like water would do.

Hehe; feels good to work that out from deduction while typing.

So what kind of system would that need? Does it go through a cooling chamber?

[Ghost]

Ethanol has a low boiling point. Without looking it up its ~65C.

Components can easily get that hot. So you would be boiling ethanol in your system. The pressure would build up and boom.

In sub-zero cooling this is obviously not a problem and ethanol is more attractive because it has a much lower viscosity at low temps than water and obviously does not freeze like water would do.

Hehe; feels good to work that out from deduction while typing.

To put it straight to you. Unless you want to spend $1000s on cooling you can't use ethanol.