First Time Cooling, Troubleshooting

[thenonsense]

Hi all,

 

I just finished my first loop @ like 1:30 am, hit the switch and my blood red gets covered in something I’d never seen before. Research seems to say plasticizer, but that should take time. I’m going out tomorrow for a couple gallons of distilled and flushing the system. I don’t believe disassembly and block cleaning is necessary. Especially since this loop only cools the gpus. What do you all think?

 

(Radiator was flushed with 1/10 vinegar and tubes were flushed with distilled prior to assembly)

[For Science!]

36 minutes ago, thenonsense said:

Hi all,

 

I just finished my first loop @ like 1:30 am, hit the switch and my blood red gets covered in something I’d never seen before. Research seems to say plasticizer, but that should take time. I’m going out tomorrow for a couple gallons of distilled and flushing the system. I don’t believe disassembly and block cleaning is necessary. Especially since this loop only cools the gpus. What do you all think?

 

(Radiator was flushed with 1/10 vinegar and tubes were flushed with distilled prior to assembly)

Is this an Aluminium Kit with a opaque  (pastel) coolant?

 

Coolant information and loop information would help identify the problem. But however it looks like it will require a full disassembly.

[thenonsense]

Good point on components. 

Radiator is an xspc 360, copper

no cpu block

gpu blocks are ek nickel+acetal

fittings are brass as far as I know

primoflex tubing

thermaltake pacific pump

premix is the xspc blood red

 

 

Crap the barbs are silver. Could that be causing this issue?

[For Science!]

6 minutes ago, thenonsense said:

Crap the barbs are silver. Could that be causing this issue?

If they are genuinely silver material (as opposed to nickel with a silver color finish), I would indeed suspect that to be the cause. I thought only a few companies still did silver fittings, which exact ones are you using?

[thenonsense]

Monsoon fittings.  Found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Monsoon-Center-Compression-Fitting-Tubing/dp/B00F8A3GD0/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1516869694&sr=8-27&keywords=monsoon+fittings

I'm also scared that there may have been some leftover white vinegar from the radiator flush, though if the nickel plating on the copper is gone, it's not like the copper will be exposed to anything dangerous.  More of a warranty issue at that point.

[For Science!]

3 minutes ago, thenonsense said:

Monsoon fittings.  Found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Monsoon-Center-Compression-Fitting-Tubing/dp/B00F8A3GD0/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1516869694&sr=8-27&keywords=monsoon+fittings

I'm also scared that there may have been some leftover white vinegar from the radiator flush, though if the nickel plating on the copper is gone, it's not like the copper will be exposed to anything dangerous.  More of a warranty issue at that point.

So I couldn't find anything specific pointing that silver + xspc ec6 (or pastel for that matter) are known combinations to cause precipitation. Primochill does say their opaque fluids should not be used with silver (but that doesn't say anything about other companies).

 

Another possibility is a pH off-balance by residual vinegar as you point out. However if you washed the radiator with plenty water after washing with vinegar, I would have thought that is an unlikely problem. If you went straight from vinegar wash into your loop, perhaps a bigger chance of it being an issue.

[thenonsense]

Thanks.  I really don't want to open the GPU blocks but it looks like I may have to.  I'll go back to the flushing strategy tomorrow at the very least.  For now, bed.  

 

One trip to bed later I've cracked open a GPU and it looks like what might be minor chemical damage (discoloration) but absolutely no gunk.  That was the GPU closest to the radiator.  I'm not sure if I want to crack open the second to see more of the same.  I doubt the second one was catching gunk if the first one wasn't.  Flushing it is

 

[tarfeef101]

Don't usually see issues like that with silver fittings, in fact they're a handy natural way to fight microbial growth without any visible change to your loop (since you always need fittings)

[thenonsense]

Whatever it was, pretty certain the silver wasn't behind it.  On another note, I got a kill coil because I didn't realize the barbs were silver.  As for the real issue, my guess is either the vinegar or some other residue.  Blocks were clean.  Unfortunately it looks like some residue will persist in the reservoir despite my best efforts at rinsing, since it's almost impossible to dismantle.  Unless someone here has a technique for cleaning thermaltake pacific reservoirs (I'd be VERY interested).  

 

Everything looks good now.  24h leak test.

 

I am keeping the coil out, and relying on the fittings and some placeholder coolant concentrate to hold over till I get my second bottle of blood red.  Then we'll see if the issue manifests itself again.  Hence premix problem.

 

Lesson to take from this:  better job at rinsing EVERYTHING.  

[Mick Naughty]

Wouldn’t use silver at all. I’d rather run distilled water without anything. Especially with 3 other metals present one of which being nickel. Growth won’t start before some fluid gets shipped to your house. 

 

Never seen either of those problems occur so fast, seems like the coolant reacted worse than the components. 

[airdeano]

On 1/25/2018 at 1:08 AM, thenonsense said:

(Radiator was flushed with 1/10 vinegar and tubes were flushed with distilled prior to assembly)

 

how much flushing (1/10)? vinegar will raise the pH to an acidic range and you'll need at least 5gallons of water to cut the pH close to 9 or 8.

that said, most coolants can react very harsh to acidic levels.

with solids present in that reservoir, you'll need disassembly to retrieve and remove them to prevent contamination for future use.

[thenonsense]

I flushed with half a gallon of distilled the first time. After a new trip to the grocery store and a few gallons later, the machine appears to be fine. 

Silver and nickel has had mixed (if mostly positive) reviews. I can say after the past couple weeks and a couple flushes (had a gpu overheating issue from not replacing enough TP after opening the blocks) the fluid is clean. 

 

Though I haven’t read the recommendation to use pH strips anywhere I believe, I’ll grab some supplies today.