liquid cooling Best alternative to EK-CryoFuel Clear Concentrate for Aluminium

[Joseph Stacklin]

Hey all! So I'm going forward with the planning mentioned in this thread:

 

I'll be doing the dual quick-release fittings and hopefully eveything will work. Priced it out with the loop, and everything needed (loop, QRF's, purple food colour, and two gallons of distilled water [I like to have a tonne extra]) so now, I just need to know, what would be a good, cheaper, alternative to the CryoFuel anti-corrosive mix so I don't need to spend too much money each year on swapping fluids (it costs $13 plus shipping for each fill/drain for EK's Solution)?

[Mick Naughty]

Well don't run food coloring and distilled water. Isnt gonna work out. What does ek recommend for their kit and whats wrong with spending 20 bucks on actual fluid instead of ruining stuff?

[W-L]

2 hours ago, wolfboytech said:

Hey all! So I'm going forward with the planning mentioned in this thread:

 

I'll be doing the dual quick-release fittings and hopefully eveything will work. Priced it out with the loop, and everything needed (loop, QRF's, purple food colour, and two gallons of distilled water [I like to have a tonne extra]) so now, I just need to know, what would be a good, cheaper, alternative to the CryoFuel anti-corrosive mix so I don't need to spend too much money each year on swapping fluids (it costs $13 plus shipping for each fill/drain for EK's Solution)?

Cryofuel is really your only option there are proper watercooling dyes you can get to color the fluid or get premixes that are the desired color. 

 

Other fluids have had some issues reacting with the aluminum in the fluid gaming kits, I believe Mayhems X1 was alright to be used with it 

[Joseph Stacklin]

1 minute ago, Mick Naughty said:

Well don't run food coloring and distilled water. Isnt gonna work out. What does ek recommend for their kit and whats wrong with spending 20 bucks on actual fluid instead of ruining stuff?

Mostly i don't want to spend $20 per or $40 (if I do it twice a year) per year.

 

1 minute ago, W-L said:

Cryofuel is really your only option there are proper watercooling dyes you can get to color the fluid or get premixes that are the desired color. 

 

Other fluids have had some issues reacting with the aluminum in the fluid gaming kits, I believe Mayhems X1 was alright to be used with it 

Thanks again for the help. So is there any special brand of watercooling dye I should get? They don't, unfortunately, have a purple premix/dilute.

 

I mostly want to stray away from Mayhems after what happened with Jay's system (the fallout and colour shift) as well as their public response which seemed shady to me.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, wolfboytech said:

Mostly i don't want to spend $20 per or $40 (if I do it twice a year) per year.

 

Thanks again for the help. So is there any special brand of watercooling dye I should get? They don't, unfortunately, have a purple premix/dilute.

 

I mostly want to stray away from Mayhems after what happened with Jay's system (the fallout and colour shift) as well as their public response which seemed shady to me.

Mayhems make some of the best dyes. Mayhems is pretty much one of the longest fluid companies around so there will alaway be certain cases of things occurring. 

[Joseph Stacklin]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

Mayhems make some of the best dyes. Mayhems is pretty much one of the longest fluid companies around so there will alaway be certain cases of things occurring. 

Unfortunately I just checked and they don't have any Purple. Any other company you could recommend?

[Mick Naughty]

So what are you doing for anti growth in the loop?

[Joseph Stacklin]

1 minute ago, Mick Naughty said:

So what are you doing for anti growth in the loop?

In all the promo videos for it the creators (including Linus) said that it was all-in-one (that comes with the loop). Also, happy to see another Ohioan, and thank you for your service.

[Mick Naughty]

2 minutes ago, wolfboytech said:

In all the promo videos for it the creators (including Linus) said that it was all-in-one (that comes with the loop). Also, happy to see another Ohioan, and thank you for your service.

Not sure what that has to do with you putting water in it. Unless the kit is coming with something to add.

[Joseph Stacklin]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

Not sure what that has to do with you putting water in it. Unless the kit is coming with something to add.

The kit comes with the EK CryoFuel which is supposed to have everything in it that I need, minus the water (1:9 mix)

[For Science!]

54 minutes ago, wolfboytech said:

The kit comes with the EK CryoFuel which is supposed to have everything in it that I need, minus the water (1:9 mix)

I would highly advise against getting food colouing. There are not many colous available for aluminium kits and that' just the way it is. 

 

Settle for either navy blue, acid green or lime yellow. you can play tricks with RGB lighting if you'e desperately after purple. 

[Joseph Stacklin]

6 minutes ago, For Science! said:

I would highly advise against getting food colouing. There are not many colous available for aluminium kits and that' just the way it is. 

 

Settle for either navy blue, acid green or lime yellow. you can play tricks with RGB lighting if you'e desperately after purple. 

Why does everyone advise against food colouring? Everyone says it, but no one is saying why!

[W-L]

2 hours ago, wolfboytech said:

Unfortunately I just checked and they don't have any Purple. Any other company you could recommend?

As said you can just use the dyes to color it purple or the exact shade as you like. 

 

As for why you shouldn’t use food coloring it’s because it causes growth as the dye is made from sugars, and tends to fend/stain the components.

[maxxsann]

20 minutes ago, wolfboytech said:

Why does everyone advise against food colouring? Everyone says it, but no one is saying why!

Most of food coloring contains tons and tons of sugar. Sugar=food for all living things. It will drastically reduce, if not outright negate biocidal agents in the Cryofuel. In addition to that, it will screw up your ph levels leading to increased rate of corrosion.

[Joseph Stacklin]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

As said you can just use the dyes to color it purple or the exact shade as you like. 

Okay. So if I use Meyhems dye, do I have to use their fluids.

[Joseph Stacklin]

2 minutes ago, maxxsann said:

Most of food coloring contains tons and tons of sugar. Sugar=food for all living things. It will drastically reduce, if not outright negate biocidal agents in the Cryofuel. In addition to that, it will screw up your ph levels leading to increased rate of corrosion.

Thank you for finally giving me an awesome answer! Everyone has helped but I am a huge "why" person.

[SpeedDemonAdam88]

55 minutes ago, wolfboytech said:

Okay. So if I use Meyhems dye, do I have to use their fluids.

I have seen JayZTwoCents use  Meyhems dye in various fluids and loops. 

 

[Joseph Stacklin]

3 minutes ago, spdmnadam said:

snip

I actually watched that exact video not too long before I started asking. I just don't like Mayhems because of the way they handled the bad PR around the fallout and colour shift when Jay was given the pastel fluid.

[For Science!]

3 minutes ago, wolfboytech said:

-snip-

I am unfortunately not an dye chemistry expert, but will at least voice my opinion about not using the Mayhems dye in your aluminium system. What's telling here is that not all colors of the EK-CryoFuel are part of the fluid gaming series (notably, red). This would indicate to me that they have uncovered some form of intrinsic incompatibility between the dye and the aluminium series.

 

Most dyes have some form of reactive groups on them, which is why they change color under some circumstances. I wouldn't risk it if I were you any potential reaction with the biocides, anticorrosion inhibitors, and the aluminium itself.

 

Honestly, the coolant is very much like toothpaste imo, just get something thats tested and call it a day. Don't go out of your way to dye your toothpaste. If you really want to, change the color of your lights in your bathroom.

 

 

[Joseph Stacklin]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

snip

Thanks for that. The girlfriend says she likes the blue the best (although IMO it's way too light), so I guess I'll go with that from EK and hope for the best. I will definitely report any issues I can find in later threads. I'm happy to be a junior member (or soon to be junior member) of the water cooling community.

[W-L]

2 hours ago, wolfboytech said:

Okay. So if I use Meyhems dye, do I have to use their fluids.

Ideally yes, I see no issues with cryofuel being dyed through if you need, best to ask EKWB about that to confirm. 

[Joseph Stacklin]

1 hour ago, W-L said:

Ideally yes, I see no issues with cryofuel being dyed through if you need, best to ask EKWB about that to confirm. 

Will do. I will also ask regarding the food colouring since most of the ones I have don't have natural sugars, carbs, or anything "dangerous" in them. While I do trust what you all are saying, I would want confirmation from EK before throwing $13/year at them for a colour I may or may not like.

[Mick Naughty]

Just run the food coloring and distilled water. Seems like the best route for you.

[W-L]

2 hours ago, wolfboytech said:

Will do. I will also ask regarding the food colouring since most of the ones I have don't have natural sugars, carbs, or anything "dangerous" in them. While I do trust what you all are saying, I would want confirmation from EK before throwing $13/year at them for a colour I may or may not like.

Like we've said it's not recommended to use food color for obvious reasons, it was a thing that was done in the past and for good reason not done anymore. The premixed fluids contain other things such as anticorrosives and agents to help maintain the fluid for the span of the loop until fluid changes, at the end of the day it's a consumable cost in running a loop.